Akablay Urges Ghanaian Musicians to Embrace Highlife Identity
Highlife artiste and guitarist Akablay has called on Ghanaian musicians to reconnect with their roots and proudly identify their sound as highlife rather than adopting foreign genre labels.
Speaking in an interview on Highlife Conversations on ZED FM, the veteran musician lamented what he described as a growing trend among younger artistes to distance themselves from Ghana’s indigenous genre.
Reflecting on the music industry of earlier decades, Akablay noted that collaboration and recognition of instrumentalists were once central to highlife productions. “If you take a cassette or even an LP and look at the back, you would see about 12 musicians credited. This one is playing guitar, this one is playing drums, everybody was acknowledged,” he said.
He stressed that while Ghanaian musicians often claim to learn from Western music systems, they fail to adopt the discipline and structure that preserve cultural identity abroad. “In Europe and the Western world, it’s still happening. We say we are learning from them, but we are learning blindly. If we are learning from them, then we have to learn properly,” he stated.
According to Akablay, Ghana’s true musical identity remains highlife, despite the popularity of Afrobeats, dancehall and reggae influences. “In Ghana, we don’t have any genre apart from highlife. Everywhere you go, when you say you are from Ghana, they say highlife. Apart from kente and fufu, highlife defines us,” he argued.
He maintained that artists are free to experiment with different rhythms but should still classify their music under the highlife umbrella. Citing examples from other countries, he said, “In Nigeria, they call it Afrobeats. In Jamaica, they have ska, roots rock and lovers rock. We can also have funky highlife, kudum highlife, it is still highlife.”
“Our music is not Afrobeats, not dancehall, not reggae. Highlife is the mother of all these genres. We must stop running from our own shadows,” he insisted.
