The Director of Special Projects and Communications for the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Ahuma Bosco Ocansey, widely known as Daddy Bosco, has claimed that the late Nigerian music legend Fela Kuti began Afrobeat in Adabraka, Accra.
Fela Kuti is globally recognized as the pioneer of the Afrobeat genre, which has enjoyed significant international success for many years. However, controversy arose when Jamaican Dancehall legend Buju Banton, in a recent interview, criticized the genre, labeling it as “uninspiring” and questioning its capacity to empower Africans despite its widespread popularity.
“A lot of culture vultures out there. They’ve focused on our music so hard and stolen our culture. I’m not knocking nobody but they don’t give us no respect. And you still expect us to act like we take something from you? This [reggae] is the King’s music. Your music [afrobeats] shall come and go because it has nothing to do with soul or building energy. Our music is a time marker. You can remember when you went on your first date, when you got married, when you are happy and when you are sad. Because it’s the King’s music. I went to Africa in 1991, I spent three weeks educating people from Ghana and all over the continent about reggae music and dancehall,” Buju stated.
Speaking as a panellist on Channel One TV’s entertainment talk show ‘The Chat,’ Daddy Bosco asserted that Fela Kuti began his Afrobeat journey in Adabraka, Accra.
“I will start with Professor John Collings. Okay, so as John Collings in his writings shows us that when the slaves were taken from Africa to the West, although they may not have taken African drums with them, they took the technology of making drums. So, the moment they got there, since they had taken their culture, they made drums. So their music went with them. Dig this, so African music went to the Caribbeans and went to America and through slavery, emancipation, and all that…this intrinsic culture showcased itself in the various musical forms of the Caribbeans and the Americans,” Daddy Bosco explained.
He continued, “Ebo Taylor was a coursemate of Fela Kuti in London, and Fela did this when the Highlife revolution started…ET Mensah and co. went to Nigeria and spread the gospel of Highlife music… So Fela Kuti knew Highlife even before he went to London and then met with people like Ebo Taylor…Ebo Taylor in those days was like the godfather of Highlife.”
Daddy Bosco emphasized that “Fela and Ebo Taylor struck an acquaintance, and that’s how Fela ended up living in Ghana in the late 60s. Many people don’t know Fela stayed at a hotel down here in Adabraka, and that is where he honed his craft… so with Highlife and the jazz influences, he evolved and created what he called his Afrobeats.”
