I am also not airborne but rather I arrived here by road for onward transmission to the Black African Awards grounds by Babylon-By-Bus with a speed of sounds as usual. My mission, you asked?
Oh! to witness and report appropriately on the 3rd Annual Black Music Awards which took place last weekend with spectacular performances and beautiful awards night. Castro Da Destroyer was the first ever Ghanaian artist to be nominated for the Best New African Act Award category.
The event was not much publicized back home; maybe it has to do with communication and coming from, where Benin? May be the press didn’t fancy it due to the fact that it is happening in a relatively small country like Benin hosting such a big event people might not have taken it seriously and pay attention to it but don’t forget a journey with thousand mile starts with a step, true that?
Notwithstanding the awkward journey to Benin due to the fact that we had a rough time with the security personnel who were detailed to manned the boarders of Ghana and Togo. It was terrible but man have to eat by all means, enye easy! Obi Manso….But back to the Awards I think it is time for the Blackman to take his own destiny into his own hands as said by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah sometime ago. So let cherish what is our own and make it better and attractive than to discourage it and finally kill it.
This reminds me of this Black woman of USA called Marian Anderson. She was a musician with international repute and sang with a lot of passion. In 1939 she stunned Americans when she stood in front of over 75000 massive crowd at Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC after the Daughters of the American Revolution barred her performance at the Constitution Hall, because she was a Black woman.
The resulting furore prompted the then first lady ELEANOR ROOSEVELT to resign from the organization in protest and made Marian a cause celeb. She was born in Philadelpia and grew up singing in her church. Even though talented, the diva still had to overcome entrenched racial abuses and barriers before she could be heard. For example in her attempt to enrol in one of the best music school in Philadelphia she was met with racial discriminations and rejection, with comments like, ¨we don’t take coloured¨.
She was undaunted, but rather the contralto persevered and became a voice for racial dignity. She then became the first Black lady to perform at the White house and in 1945 she became the first Black Artist to sing a major role of the New York Metropolitan Opera where she sang the role of Ulrica in Verdi¨s Un Bello in Machera.
She also became so famous that, it encouraged other Blacks to take their own destiny into their own hands. She died in 1993 at the age of 96 in Portland. So give the Blackman a chance and you will see wonders, so let encourage the bold step these young talented Africans have taken to improve upon it to become Grammy like all other Grammy we know of, kudos Daniel Vodji for a good work done.
Folks, one thing which endeared my heart so much here is the fact that our media here especially the TV STATIONS have taken the HIV/AIDS message seriously, especially the LC2 TV Station.
The AIDS logo is always displayed on their screen with intermittent running advert on the subject. It is a great innovation and how I wish other press houses in our various countries emulate it… but folks do you remember Agboti Yao? Wherez is he? The ace accomplished self styled musician has been missing on the radar for quite sometime now without any body telling us his whereabouts, please if you know contact me and let me talk to him.
