Legendary Ghanaian highlife singer Amandzeba has voiced concerns about the insufficient efforts to promote and preserve Ghana’s highlife music genre. He highlighted that while highlife is an integral part of Ghanaian culture with the potential to elevate the country’s music profile on the global stage, it suffers from low patronage and lack of proper exposure from Ghanaians.

“Collectively, we seem to have failed. We often overlook our heritage, everything. The Chinese can replicate our kente, they can adopt any aspect of our heritage, and we remain silent, admiring them, even though we possess the original, which should be developed here.

“It’s similar to music. When we had highlife, from the beginning, it influenced people along the coast and even as far as Zaire, Congo, and other places. Look at artists like Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, and Hugh Masekela. They were here [because of highlife],” he told Kwame Dadzie on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z.

Amandzeba expressed his gratitude to the National Folklore Board and UNESCO for their collaboration in listing highlife as an intangible cultural heritage. However, he urged the media to take on the responsibility of ensuring that the genre continues to thrive.

Recently, Ama Serwah Nerquaye-Tetteh, the Secretary-General of the Ghana Commission for UNESCO, mentioned that highlife would soon be listed by UNESCO as Ghana’s intangible heritage.

This announcement follows a series of engagements and conferences organized by the Ghana Folklore Board and the Ghana Cultural Forum to discuss the plans for listing Ghana’s highlife as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH).