Organizers silence on "Nite With The Stars" brawl worrying

The long silence posture appeared to have been adopted by the organizers of the Joy FM "Night With The Stars" show which was nearly marred as result of alleged clashes between VIP and Tema based Kwaw Kese days after the event is fueling more speculations and anxiety among music lovers across the country.

Management members of both the Tema based artists and Nima’s VIP, involved in the fracas have taken to some media platforms to issue statements on the incidents. But much to the distaste of some patrons of the event who thronged to the Dome of the Accra International Conference Centre on the ‘night’ to witness the show, and fans of other artists who suffered some forms of attacks, organizers of the show have been tight lipped and have so far not issued any public statement to that effect.

The incident was purported to have been triggered when Kwaw ‘Abodam’ Kese in his usual ‘controversial manner to demonstrate his musical prowess’ in the wake of his performance during the show stepped on a banner with VIP inscription. This act according to a source at the event did not go down well with VIP who registered their displeasure even when they mounted the stage to perform.

Things however took a different turn when some ‘muscular figures’ were alleged to have stormed the dressing room of the Tema based artists to demand for Kwaw Kese to go back to the stage and apologize for what they described insulting to VIP. Sarkodie and R2Bess having suffered some molestation as a result of the fisticuff redrew from the show for other reason known to them.

Prior to this show, there was some uproar within the entertainment circles on account of a reported incident of manhandling of some journalist and showbiz personalities by ‘gatemen’ at the recently held 4syte Music Video Awards.

These act of violence within the showbiz circles lately is one too many, even though both situations cannot be said to be the same violence in any form especially in the wake rising tension leading to this year’s elections should be condemned outright and the organizers of the show in this respect needs not keep mute over this unpleasant incident but come out to state the facts of the matter, apologize and condemn the unruly act accordingly.

Equally so, the Musician Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) should walk the talk for peace for the upcoming elections by taking note of these trivial occurrences within the reach of their corridors which could strangely degenerate into political violence looking at the manner of politics in the country lately.

　

Nightlife in Kumasi

Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital of Ghana also known as the Garden City of West Africa and affectionately referred to as Oseikrom, particularly by the city dwellers is known to be the second busiest city in the country coming after the capital city.

Research has proved that it is also the hub of small businesses and quiet a number of business activities take place both at day and night.

Life at night in Kumasi is characterized by several activities ranging from business, enjoyment, security enhancement, church activities to night clubbing among others.

Life at night in Kumasi is very brisk and can better be described at suburbs like, Bantama and its High Street, Ashanti New Town popularly called ‘Ash Town’, Krofrom, Dichemso and Kwadaso. The rest are Asafo, Patase High Street, Ahodwo, Atonsu as well as The Ridge-Ahodwo Round About stretch and around the Golden Tulip area where commercial sex workers do brisk ‘business’ till dawn.

This write-up cannot pass a complete test without mentioning the   night clubs and drinking spots that see a high patronage particularly during weekends and public holidays.

Just about 200 meters drive from the Ahodwo Round About heading towards Ahodwo Township, ECHOES Valley, a highly patronized pub where merry makers have found to be the most contented arena for a combination of almost all that one may require to spend an enjoyable night night.

One thing always becomes reminiscent any time Kumasi comes to mind. For the city’s reveler passing time anywhere else, against the backdrop of memories of the daily hustle in the metropolis, the obvious is dawn on you at some point to come to terms that those moments are truly memorable.

Give the place whatever name you could find in your glossary. Describe your daily encounter with the sharp talking tongues; of often street hawkers who would literally build you Heaven on earth, just to persuade you to purchase their ware on the ever busy alleys of Kejetia and Adum, with whatever adjectives there is. One thing that will always remain unchanged and occupy your lasting memories in your stay or trip to Ashanti’s capital is life in Kumasi after 5pm.

Home to one of Africa’s richest and longest preserved cultural heritage, Oseikrom as many of the indigenous folks prefer to call Kumasi, is also known to several others in and outside the shores of Ghana simply as the Garden City of West Africa.

Often touted as the food basket to the economy of Ghana, one does not need a whole bank in his pocket to survive, especially nightlife in Oseikrom. All that maybe required is some few notes of Ghana cedis to carry you around, and be able to buy a bottle of drink or two, a good sense of bargaining and a geographical knowledge of all the pleasurable joints or pubs.

Trust my word, armed with this powerful piece of information, your quest to make the best out of the night shall always be greeted with a 21 gun salute. But need I remind you, it’s always a worth telling tale in the making, experiencing life after 5pm in the City.

What makes nightlife here exceptionally interesting is the unique ambiance which prevails over almost every community, distinguishing one from the other.

Talk about Krofrom, Ashtown, Amakom and Asafo, and someone will quickly whisper into your ears that these towns never sleep amidst the every night fun galore.  

Bantama High Street, also Florida, where weekend relaxation is a ritual, is well noted for its array of open pubs and spots with each few meters away from the other, but still attracts substantial number of patrons who party from dawn to dusk.

Adum, which is time and again cited as the business hub of Kumasi incredibly harbors quite a number of drinking spots and pubs which often exist to operate only in the night. Dayame, Ahodwo, Ridge Residential Areas, just to mention but few can best be described as a haven for the host of luxurious hotels which exists there to accommodate any living soul provided your pocket fits the bill.

For such a world that exists in the night in Kumasi, the maxim that your pocket determines how entertaining cities can be has very little bearing here. The streets are littered with food vendors selling delicacies of all kinds from ‘ampesi’, ‘waakye’, ‘banku’, ‘tee-z’, ‘emo tuo’ , ‘hausa coco’ and what have you to cater for merry-makers, travelers and other night traders who operate all kinds of businesses in the evenings.

Soccer houses and game centers’ have now lost grounds to pubs and drinking spots who have introduced giant screens to lure soccer loving fans to watch live matches of their foreign teams.

By just buying a bottle of drink, one’s ticket is automatically booked to enjoy all the football matches to be played for the night.

On such sporting nights, business activities boom for ‘khebab’ sellers who usually have on their menu every animal from four legs to two, i.e. guinea fowl, cow, gizzard, sausage, sheep, goat and chicken. They provide their service in front of pubs and spots all throughout the period of the football matches at whatever prices you can afford.  

To get a proper perspective of nightlife in Oseikrom, just a little away from the typical business nature of the Ashanti people, hold your breath and let me give you a quick rundown of where to find rendition of all sort.

Just to cruise with live band every weekend and enjoy quality foreign wine, drive to Dayame, and you will never look back to your heartrending moments.

If you have second thoughts, and want to know where the new breeze of relaxation of Oseikrom is felt, with live band music from Monday through to the weekend, and to be treated to a variety of food and drinks, bring your gear to reverse and carefully after, adjust it to second gear, and just about 200 meters from Ahodwo Roundabout lies a host of spots ready to treat you to a perfect art of easing your boredom.

For a perfect remedy to condition the mind to relax, distress and ease off the pressure, manipulate the gear once more, this time around to third gear and let the speed gauge read between 30 to 50km/h and drive through around town to Amass Gate Staduim, Amakom Roundabout, Patase Estate, Asafo, Oforikrom, name the rest and you will never regret you did.

Loathe them or like them, but the self styled business tycoons would always treat you to a mêlée of affluence. They cruise around either with a friend’s car or rented cars and would not leave your scenes without being a party to the every night jamboree that goes around in the neighborhood.

 As for the ‘Hamburg borgers’ who occasionally fly down home from their base abroad to cool off their busy European life, every night is best described as a rollercoaster one.

The multi-million funeral industry in Kumasi

Celebrating the life of the dead has been an integral part of our rich Ghanaian culture; it’s a period where the dead is laid in state in many instances for family and friends, and the community members to pay their last respect to bid the departed soul farewell to the world of the unknown. This is followed by a gathering of family and friends as well as some sympathizers. The practice is as old as the earliest history books and contemporary as the morning newspapers, and varies among the various ethnic groupings of the country; but notable among them all is the manner in which the Akans mourn their dead.

The Ashantis, one of the elite tribes among the Akan ethnic group, have gained popularity over time for investing so much money to perform expensive and ostentatious funeral rites. Funeral celebrations to remember the legacy or the life of deceased persons have now migrated from being a simple family gathering with some few sympathizers to mourn the dead into almost a profit-making venture of it own.

Weekends in the Ashanti capital, Kumasi, has virtually been turned into a festive occasion as any formal activity comes to a standstill to make way for funeral celebrations in almost every community. This is even minus the pomp and pageantry which surrounds the one week observations after the passing away of the deceased person, usually held prior to the grand finale.


After having committed so much money to keep the corpse in the morgue for so long a period to enable all relations and friends to be adequately informed, the tone is now set for permanent and ad hoc funeral committees to begin rapturous preparations for the final funeral rites. Among the several demands on family and relations to meet, funeral fees are levied on every household within the ‘’ebusiafuo’’, about two or more different types of funeral clothes are prescribed to be purchased for use by the powers that be come the day of funeral. It is believed that the levies go into the organization of the funeral rites, but varies among the various clans. 


Relative to collections of levies, huge loans are also sourced in some instances to make the funeral committee financially capable to discharge its oversight duties of the funeral. Booz, both soft and hard liquor, would have to be acquired, canopies and chairs, sound system, hearse services to convey the body from the morgue to the family house or where the body would be laid in state and church grounds and finally to the cemetery would have to be arranged for and a host other services which may be required to make the occasion memorable are all provisioned for. The use of local or imported casket is a major matter for debate between family head and perhaps children of the deceased person. But trust my honest judgment that no cheap casket would be purchased for the burial of the deceased person especially when he/she has children or relations living abroad.


What happens on the day of funeral should be a subject for another discussion as we can all guess what would transpire after havin gone through all these preparations. On the day of the funeral event, several roads are blocked with or without permission of the city authorities. Indigenous city dwellers and their rural counterparts who are on list of sympathizers to grace the occasion go through lots of hustle to either attend to all funeral invitations or make sure they are seen by their invitees some through their wailings or widows might contributions to the bereaved family.


The reality of all these is that so much financial investments are significantly being made into burial ceremonies much to the expense of the living. What should have been a solemn moment to reflect on the life of the departed soul have turned into the main public social event and an avenue where families compete for prestige and respect by showing off wealth, which significantly alters the way death has been celebrated in the past. 

The glamour and euphoria which now characterizes the hitherto moments of grief in times of mourning raises lots of questions about the rationale behind funeral celebrations lately in Kumasi as the situation creates contrasting atmosphere of sadness mixed with joy. Because of the financial gains that some people receive after having organized funerals, self-styled funeral contractors are now and then seen almost at every funeral grounds wanting to cash in some areas where their expertise might be required. Ironically enough, society is gradually accepting the operations of these people who some people label as ‘professional mourners’. 


Regardless however, great cautious needs to be exercised not to undermine funeral celebration, which is seen as part of the traditional transitional rites among the Akan ethnic group. But it is worth also to note, that this fast growing trend and raving phenomenon in the Ghanaian funeral celebrations has been a major cause of concern to a great number of well meaning Ghanaians both home and abroad.


In recent times, lots of discussions have been generated on the dimension which contemporary Ghanaian funerals have assumed over the last decade; chief among them took place on the floor of Parliament with many of our law-makers leading the calls for the Ghanaian Legislative body and the National House of Chiefs to adopt some standards to curb what many call spendthrift spending on the dead to the neglect of the living.


As a developing nation with so many developmental deficits to address, it is clearly a misplaced priority to commit so much of our time, energy and resources on the dead. 

What makes the discussions on the dimension on funeral lately so interesting at a point is that, the huge financial commitment into funeral organization is not only peculiar to the doors of Ghanaians but has some international correlation as well. A survey in 2007 from the National Association of Funeral Directors (which represents firms that organize about 85% of UK funerals, that is about 470,000 every year) found that charges by local authorities for cremation and burial have escalated by up to 48% since 2007, far outstripping the rate of inflation. The fees funeral directors were said to charge for typical funeral now average 1,515 up 3.25% since 2007. 

However, in our case the government does not in any way even support ‘cash trapped families’ to organize burial ceremonies unlike what pertains in the developed nations yet the so called cash trapped families even fall foul to the ‘show fever’ seeking to cash in on their breakthrough on donations by sympathizers.


Mr. Emmanuel Osei, Manager of Owner Service, one of the leading service providers for outdoor ceremonies, reveals in an interview that the class of dead people now determines what goes into the funeral celebrations in Kumasi. He asserts that given a situation where the dead person has about two or more relatives or children living abroad, most obviously foreign coffin and other high value materials and services would be acquired to organize the funeral of such a person. 


So, the question I ask is, should we cry over spilt milk and turn a blind eye against developing issues as well as family individuals’ progress and invest in the dead whose destiny can only be determined in the spirit realm? Your guess is as good as mine.


NOTE FROM THE WRITER:

Opinions on this subject  may vary, however, I wish to clearly state here that the intent of this write-up is not to defame any group of people nor hype their activities. As a journalist I owe it to as a responsibility to highlight the current trends within our society as a way to try to help correct some of these societal norms which have outlived their usefulness, and also condemn modern dimensions of our society which does not contribute positively to our growth and development as a people.