It is irresponsible to call Ebony a prostitute – Journalist Aku Baneseh

Award winning journalist and reporter with state-owned Daily Graphic, Mabel Aku Baneseh has described criticism and name calling of the hottest female artiste, Ebony, as irresponsible.

According to her,she had taken a particular interest in how some members of the public who have issues with her choice of 'wardrobe' have been calling her "ashawo".

“I have taken particular notice that some members of the public have a problem with her choice of wardrobe, with some describing her as ‘ASHAWO’ meaning prostitute on Social Media and radio.”

The 2014 Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Journalist of the Year took to her Facebook to express her dissatisfaction about how the ’90’s bad girl’ is being attacked.

She wrote:

Is Ebony Naked?

The truth is I currently don’t have a single music track on my laptop and two phones. I don’t recall how that happened but I simply don’t care. I get to watch and listen to interesting videos my friends and family occasionally send. I don’t even have a YouTube account. Like I stated earlier, I never knew the song I liked so much was sung by a female artiste called Ebony. A young man in his early twenties showed me her video and told me who she was and how her dad funds her projects.

I took particular notice of her after some members of the public took her on for her choice of wardrobe.

The fact is she is into show business and in her prime. A 20-year-old young woman is an adult. She’s not a nun in a convent. She has decided to go that way although she is capable of giving extra cover to sensitive parts of her body.

However, she has chosen to do otherwise. It’s okay for Ghanaians to show concern but it’s downright rude and appalling to label her as a prostitute.

What do prostitutes do? Are Beyoncé, Riyanna and other Hollywood female artistes who show flesh and are so much admired the world over prostitutes? Lucky Dube, Bob Marley and Culture songs are some of my favorites. Does that mean I am a Ganja Planter? How many teenagers are spotting the “crazy” hairdos and tattoos of their favorite footballers and musicians?

Role Model

A friend said Ebony is a Role Model to many young women. Fine. But are there not footballers with tattoos from head to toe, lawyers, doctors, journalists, nurses, accountants, pastors and other professionals who are also role models? See, I trained my daughter not to wear short clothes. She only wears shorts above her knee level while home or going to the pool side. She knows what to wear to where and when.

The world is growing smaller and smaller. We can’t control what others do. The best we can do is to train our children to copy wisely.

Let’s focus more on building the capacities of young ones in our care to think critically.

Let’s criticize but we must do it with respect, love and compassion. Some music lovers and pundits are generally predicting Ebony is going to win the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards 2018 artiste of the year award due to her hardworking and how relevant and active she’s been with her songs and performances in 2017.