Music they say has no limit so as Kologo music, a piece of indigenous traditional music from the Upper East Region.
The music is breeding love and unity amongst the people in Amsterdam thanks to a female Kologo legend.
Ms Rebecca Atanga who hails from the Upper East Region but is based in the Netherlands is raising the pride of Kologo music high in the international community.
Being the first female to break even in the international industry with the local guitar, Ms Atanga narrated to A1radioonline.com how she started with the guitar.
According to her when she was a little girl her mother passed on leaving her with her father who was a local guitarist.
“My mom passed on at the age that I didn’t know what death was all about because I was too little. So, I would often cry and ask my father where my mom was. This was too hard for him and the only way he could handle me was to play kologo for me. Which anytime he plays I will stop crying. By then he was only a ‘spiritual kologo player’ and never did it for commercial purposes as it was chosen thing. So any time he plays the kologo, it makes me feel so happy that I will forget about my mother and start to dance. Music and dance was my food as a child and I grew up with it from a local church and group and my band.
So, When I grew up and started playing music professionally, the kologo sound came to mind but then I was in the Netherlands so I travelled back to Ghana and learned it. Then, I asked my people to help me get the kologo instrument which they did. Then, I went back to the Netherlands with the instrument but by then I took it as a touristic thing. So, I later bought the calabash, the strings and the goatskin and made the kologo myself in my own way. From there I started playing though at the beginning it was not easy gradually I was able to play something reasonably. At that moment I got so excited that I kept on doing my thing.”
The singer and songwriter noted that she recorded her first Kologo album in 1998 called “Bayete” meaning Gossip in Ghana.
“I went to Ghana in 1996 and recorded my first kologo music in 1998 and the album is called Bayete meaning Gossip. Kologo has played an important role in my life. I think women who have the talent like my own shouldn’t waste it because you never know what can turn out to make a better life for you” she added.
Kologo is an instrument like any other instrument so there is no need for superstitious beliefs, she said, adding that the guitar has helped her to perform a lot of shows in Europe.
“I was invited to perform for the late Kofi Anna and I wrote a song for him and performed it live in 2004 for him. He was getting the four freedom award from Franklin D. Roosevelt the 32nd U.S president’s foundation.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz |Moses Apiah| Ghana
