Our main sickness is supporting our own

Afro-alternative singer/songwriter, producer and guitarist, Kofi Bruce, has asserted that one main sickness or deficiency that Ghanaians have is supporting our own.

Talking to Foster Romanus on eTV Ghana’s Late Nite Celebrity Show, this was his response to why lots of Ghanaian talents are hidden and are having a hard time getting into the industry when they are even supposed to be crossing borders and gaining international recognition.

“From what I’ve observed, our main sickness is supporting our own. In the sense that when a foreign act comes into the country to promote a song, almost everyone would go for their concerts and support them but we don’t do same for our own artistes,” he said.

Kofi mentioned that, “Recently, there was a highlife band that came into the country. What they do and the instruments they play was no different from that of our own people but those people were seen as very big artistes. We have even better bands but Ghanaians would leave the local bands and support these foreigners.”

Foster argued that the reason for Ghanaians not supporting local artistes could be that their songs are not good enough. However, Kofi Bruce countered his argument, saying that Ghanaians would support any foreigner composing music in our local languages whether the song is nice or not just because he is not a native.

According to him, Ghanaians are not obliged to support local artistes even when their songs are not nice, however, there are a lot of equally good talents that need this support, hence it would do a great deal of good if we channeled the support we give to foreigners to these artistes as well.