Traditional and contemporary musician and the leader of Hewale Sounds Dela Botri, has called on government to put some effort in packaging traditional highlife for global consumption. Dela Boatri made this disclosure when he spoke to Mynewsafric.com.
His observations followed comments made by dancehall musician Shatta Wale calling on stakeholders in the music industry to package and ‘sell’ Highlife globally. Dela Botri believes that Ghana as a nation should embrace highlife and adopt it as a national Music.
The traditional highlife musician noted that: “Although Highlife is not the only genre, we can package it together with other traditional music to sell Ghana on the global stage”
When we go down the music history of this country, you would realize that even Scholars from the West always come to learn our music and take it away. We as a country should package our traditional music and sell it to the mainstream industry, he stressed.
When Deputy Minister-Designate, Mark Okraku Mantey appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on June 15, 2021, he was reported to have suggested that highlife genre has different derivations, hence there is no “particular” highlife that can be packaged and presented globally.
However commenting on this, Mr. Boatri disagreed. He was of the opinion that “Highlife can be performed in different ways and it is a Ghanaian, as well as what Ghana is known for. Why are we not packaging it to sell it to the world and why are we leaving our music and going for something different?” he asked.
Commenting on the other genre of music produced in Ghana, he asked if there has ever been any Afro musician giant from Ghana, stressing that “It is Nigeria, so we should stop copying and be real. We have to embrace our music.”
Dela Botri expressed his love for the contemporary highlife genre, but was quick to add that “we can do more in different angles in relation to our music”.
