Abrabo’s reflections on A Plus “Letter To The West”

“A Plus paaaaa……is he a musician or a social activist??? The guy just dey ‘ruuuusssh’!!!” I looked at my friend amusingly and simply muttered, he is a conscience hip life musician and if you don’t get that…well…you never will. I am into conscience music, it doesn’t matter the genre…there must be a message worth the attention of my ears. Watch Video: A Letter To The West by A Plus

Frankly, I believe that music should always have a progressive message that reflects the social issues of our times and not just self-absorbing gibberish!!! I know a lot my readers may disagree with me but hey that isn’t going to change my swagger.

So, it was a refreshing and lovely experience when I first heard and watched A Plus’ new single “Letter to the West”. By the way the video is amazing thanks to the absolutely magnificent “Phamous People”. Before I delve into the apparent politics of the song…let me give you a brief musical background of the man popularly known as “A Plus”

Kwame Asare Obeng aka A Plus entered the Ghanaian music scene like a volcano when he unleashed his first politically incorrect song called “Mesuro mpo na merekeka yi o”, which means “I am afraid as I am saying this”. He then followed with his famous “Letter to the Parliament”. I particularly loved the letter to the parliament because he raised some very important issues.

These issues bordered on how our honorable members of parliament make fabulous promises that they can’t keep only to come back during campaign season to do a patch job and dole out coins. Basically, A Plus has raised awareness among the populace about politicians and their shenanigans. I am sure a lot of people are now much wiser!!! Well…I hope so!!!

However, today, it’s his new single a “Letter to the West” that has got people talking. He has taken his passionate campaign continental and it seems he has started ruffling a lot of feathers. The song starts by encouraging westerners to take note of how their tax money is being misused, misapplied and misappropriated by Africa’s political class.

Then he goes on to highlight the varying amounts of abuses in most countries in Africa and of course he mentions the situation in Sudan, past conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia and famine in the horn of Africa and last but not least dearest Zimbabwe lead by comrade, Robert Mugabe, the political titanic!!! He also questioned the nature of the so-called peace deal in Kenya. The thrust of his letter was to highlight the devastating effects of misrule and corruption on the livelihood of African people.

The “Letter to the West” is a significant contribution by an entertainer who is just sick and tired of incompetent political leadership that has made poverty a way of life in Africa. News from the grapevine that happened to seep into my ears indicates that he is about to launch a unique anti-corruption campaign.

According to reliable sources, he has planned to undertake various humanitarian projects as part of this campaign and embark on a world tour to spread the word.

I am excited about this because it is about time we realize that as young Africans our destiny depends on the sum of the choices we make today. We must become the change we seek and like Obama Barak says not just change for change sake but “change we believe in”. A Plus believes it’s his destiny to make our political establishments in Africa transparent and accountable!!!