Why Daddy Lumba is Second to None

It was approaching midday, but the sky was still yet to show a bright and pleasant face. The cold and dry wind was persistently blowing down the withered leaves of the trees in the vicinity. The green leaves that wouldn’t part company with their branches were forced to dance to the tune of the chilly wind’s almost inaudible music. Birds were jumping from one tree to the other proclaiming the beauty of nature and singing the greatness of the Supreme Being; a reliable indication that Christmas was just around the corner.

Kwaku ’Wusu-Ansah, also known as Black Power who lived with his mother and other siblings in her mum’s 10 bedroom house had not been out of doors all day; he had in fact just woken up and had no intention of going out until the notice of a pretty strange scenario compelled him to change his mind. He had realized to his utter stupefaction that for the first time in his life, the 10 bedroom “mansion”, accommodating about 20 people was virtually empty on a Tuesday. He couldn’t really understand what was happening and needed answers. To satisfy his curiosity, he quickly made his way to the family house located along the Offinso-Mpehin main road, about 150 metres away from his mum’s house.

The streets of Offinso-Maase and Offinso-Mpehin were almost over-crowded as both the young and old went gallivanting around the locality. The general atmosphere was however pretty serene – devoid of any form of pandemonium. The city was almost always like this on a Tuesday, the day on which the goddess of the Offin River, it is believed, was born (hence, the name, Offin Abenaa), and has accordingly been declared a Sacred Day in the entire Offinso State (both north and south). Residents of Offinso were and still are thus not supposed to go to farm on a Tuesday. This explained why there were so many people in town that day.

He sprinted into the family house by the side door, but interestingly, there were only three elderly people in there – grandma and two aunties. No sooner had he entered the house than he heard a piercing and “equalizer-less” sound resonating from the roadside – a buzz he later established as the kind of sound made when a phone call was/is coming through. He had seen a telephone (receiver) only once; that was when he visited his uncle with his mum in Kumasi; but unfortunately no one phoned when they were there, so he had no idea of the kind of signs exhibited when a phone call was coming through. He rushed out, and there, in front of the family house, was the solution to the puzzle.

A group of young men and women had gathered under the open sky in front of the family house glued to a quite huge double-speaker semi-wooden radio cassette recorder (also known in Ghana as tape). The tape was owned by Black Power’s cousin who was one of the “Agege guys” deported by the Nigerian government in 1983. He lost most of his properties, but certainly not the almighty buzzer. Black Power had seen his cousin a couple of times carry his sound-emanating apparatus on his left shoulder from his residence to the family house just to entertain the public.

A new song released by a group that called itself The Lumba Brothers was being played in Offinso-Mpehin for the very first time; hence, the big crowd. When Black Power arrived at the spot where it was all happening, a brief conversation preceding the song had reached the concluding line: ?NE? SAA NA ?TE? DE?A Y?B?HW? NA Y’ASAN AK? Y?NKYI’ (if that is the situation, then we will consider a return home).

The ten-minute track was played over and over again. At one point, the shy seven-year-old boy, Black Power, couldn’t hide, in fact couldn’t control the feeling that was being generated in him by the beauty of the song. He stood with arms akimbo, gently tapping his right foot in time to the music and repeatedly nodding his head to the tune of the hit song simultaneously; then the next minute he was already swinging his waist in a skilful manner; and before one could say Jack Robinson, our man had already taken the floor and in the clear view of the crowd, effortlessly doing some difficult Michael Jackson moves. The entire crowd roared its approval and support, and many joined in the dance to urge him on. This was the day Black Power fell in love with the talent of DL and his incomparable music.

The beauty and hypnotizing nature of Lumba’s subsequent releases made Black Power his unknown apologist. From 1984 till he completed sixth form in 1996, Black Power zealously defended DL. Nobody dared to speak against DL in Black Power’s presence. Some of the fiercest arguments he has been involved in, many of the insulting words he has exchanged with others, and a number of the physical battles he has fought, have resulted from his resolve and titanic desire to defend his man, Lumba.

Interestingly, he has spotted the music maestro only twice. The first time he caught a glimpse of him was in 1988 when he was a pupil at Martyrs of Uganda Preparatory in Kumasi. He and his three cousins were walking to school and discussing Lumba; on reaching TUC, just after Sugar Hill Hotel, one of the cousins pointed at a building he claimed was the residence of DL’s friend. As they got closer, they beheld a saloon car parked in front of the said house. ‘That’s Lumba’s car!’, the cousin exclaimed; and he was right. The man at the wheel of the parked car was DL, but all the shy but excited chaps could do was to wave to him; and he humbly and pleasantly waved back. The second occasion was in 2007 when he (Black Power) and his close cousin again spotted him in his 4X4 at the Achimota Overhead, Accra. They waved to him and he responded with a salute and a bow; what a humble man he is!

The beauty and popularity of Daddy Lumba’s releases, his consistency, his ability to come up with an album almost every year since he inaugurated his music career in 1983/84 and the fact that he writes his own songs, has elevated him to the number one position on Black Power’s list of the Greatest and most Talented Musicians that he has ever known. His investigations and interactions with top international music analysts and media corporations demonstrate that no musician (dead or alive) apart from Lumba, was or has been able to release an album almost each year for 27 years. If he is not the greatest, then who else is? Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin? No way. It is rather unfortunate that musicians who are not based in either the US or UK and whose songs are not in English do not usually get international recognition.

Black Power loves every single song that has come out of Lumba’s lips, but he views the following as his best 10 (in no particular order): Theresa, Ankwanoma, M’akra Mo, Poison, Aben Wo Ha, Wo Ho Kyere, Sika Asem, Biribi Gyegye Wo, Dangerous and ODO NTI or ?Y? ?D? NTI (a track he refers to as the best of the best, and he plays it almost always; to listen to this great track, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVIMNjRbRgI&feature=related).

Releasing over 25 albums (not singles) in twenty-seven years is an achievement and record that can be beaten but very possibly not in our life-time.

AYIKOO DL!

Emmanuel Sarpong Owusu-Ansah (Black Power) is an Investigative Journalist and the author of Fourth Phase of Enslavement (2011). He may be contacted via email (andypower2002@yahoo.it)