Philipa Baafi gets triplets

For years, she has been preaching about the grace and wonders of God through her songs and dance. Now she is the real manifestation of what God can do.

Just 15 months into her marriage to Mr Kwame Karikari, Marketing and Sponsorship Co-ordinator at the Local Organising Committee of the Ghana 2008 Secretariat, Philipa Baafi, one of Ghana’s finest gospel musicians, gave birth to a set of triplets on September 24, 2007.

The triplets, two boys and a girl, are doing well, while their mother has bounced back with vigour onto the music scene with her sixth album, Go High.

A source close to the family, in a chat with The Mirror, said Philipa was most grateful to God for His love and kindness for making her a mother.

According to the source, she was the freshest female gospel musician to become a mother and relished that but was quick to add that “she is not having it easy, especially combining music and mothering. Her responsibilities have been multiplied”.

Throwing more light on Philipa’s latest release, the source said Philipa started working on the album while she was pregnant and had planned to come out just after delivery and that was exactly what she had done.

Waxing scriptural and philosophical, the source said the scripture which says that He who finds a wife finds favour before God does not represent the interest of the man alone and that Philipa is also receiving the favour of God since she got married.

“Therefore, if we compare the previous albums she had come out with to the current one, Go High, one will realise the vast difference in her voice and the anointing backing it,” the source added.

On the album the lyrics are in pidgin English, Twi and Ewe, while she has 12 songs on the CD and 10 on the cassette. Go High, Nkwa and Wadum No are the hit songs on the album. The arrangement and composition were done by Philipa herself, with support from her husband.

The album was produced by Kariphil Productions, owned by the couple, and it is being distributed by Big Ben Productions.

In 1999, Philipa came out with her maiden album, Nyame Honhon sane, just when she had completed senior secondary school. In 2002, she came out with her another album, Mogya Nakasa. She followed up Mogya Nakasa with Okyeso Nyame, which was released in February 2004.

Because of Philipa’s fondness for the mirror, which she claimed gave her the true reflection of her image, her close pals have nicknamed her “The Mirror Lady”.

She confided in The Mirror weekly that all her life depended on the mirror and because of that she had no hobby. What she did in her leisure time was to grab a mirror and stare into it as if her survival depended on that crave.

According to Philipa, who started singing at the Bantama Methodist Church in Kumasi, she discovered her potential at the tender age of nine.

At that age, she did not confine singing to her church alone. There were times when she went to other churches in Kumasi and its environs to do some renditions.

She continued singing, this time in a more polished and captivating style, when she entered the St. Monica’s Secondary School at Asante Mampong in 1996. After her SSS programme, she enrolled at the FC Institute of Beauty Therapy to study Physiology and Anatomy.

On completion, she proceeded to Cologne, Germany, to pursue a diploma course in beauty therapy for three months.

According to Philipa, her childhood dream was to become a medical doctor but that ambition was jettisoned very early in her life when she lost both parents in quick succession.

She said that that ambition had been rekindled and that she was working towards achieving the goal of becoming a medical officer. She was hopeful of going back to school, especially after she had received assurances from her husband who had promised to support her to fulfil her childhood dream.

At the moment, Philipa doubles as a musician and a beauty therapist. She has two shops in Kumasi and several assistants who help her in her work.

Philipa was born in Kumasi on May 15, 1980, the first of three children born to Ms Grace Acheampong, a trader, and Mr Akwasi Baafi, who was domiciled in Germany, both of blessed memory. She started school at the Kings International School, before continuing at St Monica’s, where she was the Girls’ Prefect, the President of the Scripture Union and the Science Club.

Philipa is full of gratitude to her aunt, Ms Felicia Acheampong, who took care of her and her two siblings when their parents died. She has gospel divas, Amy Newman of Ghana and Rebecca Malope of South Africa, as her local and international role models, respectively.

She worships at the Calvary Baptist Church at Adabraka in Accra and she is grateful to her numerous fans for their loyalty.