Avellon Williams
GHANA- Dada Hafco, a Ghanaian highlife musician, believes that culture and creative industries hold greater fortunes for Ghana than sports.
In an interview with Kwame Dadzie on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z, Dada Hafco expressed concern about Ghana’s lackadaisical attitude towards the arts.
He believes that football investment has not yielded the desired results.
“Look at how much money we’ve been pumping into the Black Stars. I am an avid football lover. I would love to watch football every time. But since 1982 if we haven’t won any football trophy why do we keep doing it when in recent times Ghana has become a hub for entertainment every Christmas?” he asked.
“Why are we not channeling enough energy [into the arts] because entertainment is actually putting Ghana on the map more than even football so why are not putting more energy into that?” Hafco added.
Another nemesis of the Ghanaian music industry, according to the highlife musician, is the lack of a collective agenda to promote Ghanaian music.
He argues that if the Broadcasting Law passes, more local songs will be played on Ghanaian radio than foreign ones, and a lot of songs previously overlooked by DJs will be played.
Despite the fact that he believes every artiste in Ghana should be allowed to explore music genres of their choice, he believes highlife should be the face of Ghana’s music.
Dada Hafco is one half of the defunct highlife duo Mframaknown for songs such as ‘Fiili Gadoochi’, ‘Ghana Lady’, ‘Meboso’ among others.
In the months since he went solo, he released songs such as ‘Yebewu Nti’, ‘Obarima’, ‘Our Story’, ‘Bedianko’, and ‘Friends’.
