Renowned investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni of The Fourth Estate has admonished the top artist in Ghana Shatta Wale, Sarkodie and Stonebwoy to challenge themselves more at the global stage.
The vocal broadcaster took to social media to espress his disappointment when some top sportsj journalist on BBC Sports couldn’t even name one artist from Ghana. Here is what he wrote:
Last Saturday, I listened to BBC Sports. The broadcast was in the studios of YFM in Kumasi, Ghana. It featured BBC journalists and their counterpart sports journalists in Ghana, who acquitted themselves honourably. I felt proud listening to George Addo Jnr Nathaniel Attoh Citizen Attoh and others.
Getting to the end of the show, the host asked the BBC journalists about their favourite afrobeat musicians. While they were yet to name names, the host offered to help them.
He asked them whether they knew Wizkid.
They said yes.
Then he asked if they knew Davido.
They said yes.
Then the host switched to Ghana. He asked if they knew Shatta Wale.
They said no.
Sarkodie?
They said no.
Stonebwoy?
No.
I felt uncomfortable that our three top brands weren’t known outside our shores by people who were saying so on our airwaves while professing their knowledge of Nigerian artists.
Does that mean Sarkodie, Stonbwoy and Shatta Wale aren’t good enough?
Far from that.
It means the audience for any performer is the over 7 billion people across the world.
So if you fill a stadium in Ghana with a few thousand fans, you don’t have to “f.ck Nigerians.”
You need the Nigerians, the most populous English-speaking country in the sub-region, where you’re most likely to get your biggest gigs outside Ghana.
The world is your stage, not a small stadium in Ghana.
To them that have ears…
Originally posted 2022-03-31 10:56:41.
