Popular Broadcaster and Actor Mikki Osei-Berko has bemoaned the seeming extinction of the highlife music genre which according to him the various renaming of the genre is into other music types is gradually pushing it into oblivion.
Speaking to Joy FM, Mr. Osei-Berko said as a cultural asset of Ghana, the genre must be jealously protected.
“There is not culture without music and Ghana we have been so blessed with our kind of genre of music. Are we letting it die? Or are we letting people to re-christen it and call it Afrobeats and lose it just like that? I don’t think Jamaica will do that to reggae music.
Ghana should stand firm with highlife music, improve it and grow it,” he said.
Highlife, a music genre discovered in Ghana in the 19th century has evolved into other genres and sub-genres over time.
The emergence of new music types has reduced the prominence of the hitherto darling genre of Ghana and other parts of Africa.
For most custodians of culture, the advent of modern forms of music, notwithstanding, should not kill highlife.
In tandem with this and other objectives, the Cultural Forum of Ghana is collaborating with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to make it an intangible heritage.
