One of Africa’s biggest event organizers, Afrochella has set up a temporary music museum in Ghana to help promote and preserve the rich cultural values and history of Ghanaian music.
The Afrochella Music Museum located at the BBNZ Live in Accra would be opened to the public till January 4, 2022 giving the general public an insight into the journey of Ghanaian music from the pre-colonial era to date.
Madam Khadijat El-Alawa, the Project Manager speaking in an interview noted that this initiative was to throw more spotlight on the music pillar of Afrochella.
“As part of throwing more spotlight on the music pillar of Afrochella, we have decided to put together the Afrochella music museum, and we hope that by doing this, we would continue to have conversations about our music as Ghanaians especially on a larger scale as Africans.
“We seek to educate and entertain more people and also to appreciate all the work that the music industry does with regards to the effort by stakeholders in the music industry”.
Madam Khadijat El-Alawa
The museum, which has been divided into three sections, ‘The Beginning’, ‘The Modern Era’ and the ‘Present Day’ would offer the Ghanaian Youth an opportunity to learn more about Ghanaian music and entertain themselves.
The ‘Beginning Section’ of the museum would feature the history of some Ghanaian legends like King Bruce, Jaguar Jokers, Kwame Asare, Ghanaba, Nana Kwame Ampadu, Koo Nimo, Daughters of Glorious Jesus, Professor Kofi Abraham, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Tagoe Sisters, Ebo Taylor, George Darko, ET Mensah, Tempos band, among many others.
The ‘Modern Era’ is also made up of top legendary musicians like Ben Braku, Daddy Lumba, Reggie Rockstone, Hammer of the last two, Obrafour, Terry Bonechaka, Abrewa Nana, Mzbel, Sarkodie, Edem, Kwaw Kese, Akosua Agyapong, Castro, Ofori Amponsah, R2bees, Wutah and many other musicians.
The ‘Present Day’ section has many musicians who are also currently contributing to the music industry, talk of Rocky Dawuni, Shatta Wale, Stonebwoy, King Promise, Kuami Eugene, Kidi, Adini, Yaw Tog, Black Sheriff, Cina Soul and many other musicians who are also putting Ghana on the world music map.
Afrochella Festival Expands With YouTube Support
This year, YouTube is teaming up with the event’s organizers to highlight local talent and creativity while nurturing local youth aspiring towards careers in the music industry. The annual music festival, which has been around since 2017 and has activated four times, is expected to bring in 150,000 visitors to Ghana. The event will also have a significant economic impact on Ghana.
However, this year, the huge festival is adding a scaled back event to support Ghana’s artistic community. This year marks the return of an in-person format after the event was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns.
Addy Awofisayo, the head of music for YouTube in Sub-Saharan Africa, said: “We have a program called Future Insiders, which is part of our YouTube Black Voices. YouTube Black Voices is a commitment that we made last year to amplify and support Black voices on our platform. We’ve committed $100 million over three years”.
Guest speakers at the event will lead a three-part panel series covering topics including the innovation and creativity of women in the music industry, the impact of the diaspora on the growth of African music and how its future torchbearers will continue to push the culture forward. According to Awofisayo, YouTube and Afrochella reached out to community organizations and identified people who could benefit from the event.
Abdullah noted that this year, the Afrochella team decided they wanted to “educate people about Ghanaian music, and the history of Ghanaian music,” and that is how the museum’s concept came to be.
According to him the museum “takes you through a journey of the history of Ghanaian music prior to independence, through independence and to the present”.
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