Future of highlife looks bleak – Rex Omar

Illustrious musician and one time member of the erstwhile highlife group Nakorex, Rex Omar, has described the future of the Highlife genre in Ghana as bleak.

According to him there is a deliberate attempt by the West to shove what is foreign down Ghanaians to promote their own culture.

Speaking on Showbiz this Week with host MzGee, the Abiba hit maker said that cultural agenda by the Western countries would succeed because Ghanaians have a psychological problem of accepting themselves and identifying with what is truly Ghanaian.

"It's a psychological warfare, a cultural warfare. I don't know what position we are as a country. Now a person by the name 'Kwame' would prefer to spell it with 'Qu' instead of 'Kw'. Listen we have a problem and psychological problem as a country in accepting who we are and the earlier we deal with it the better. Dealing with it would grant us the opportunity to project our country in a very positive manner,” he said.

He said highlife, just like indigenous Ghanaian food and clothes, must be cherished and promoted at all cost.

"Anything good or Ghanaian is not good enough for the Ghanaian. I would not be surprised if very soon Koreans come and tells us Kente (a native Ghanaian fabric) belongs to them and they come and sell it back to us," he said.

Rex Omar has called for support for the creative art sector, describing it as the only sector that does not lose it vibrancy despite the lack of constant support from government.

He disagreed with perceptions that creative art personalities have not portrayed themselves in a light worthy of Government support.

"We spend more than 20 to 30 million dollars on sports — just football — in a year. If as a country we decide to spend half of that on the music industry or the creative industry, it will create a lot employment,” he said.

Born on the same birthday as the legendary Bob Marley (6th February), Rex Owusu Marfo aka Rex Omar has gained wide recognition in the West African region and beyond.

"If Ghana as a state believes in arts and creativity, it takes the Government and I don't mean one government, but Ghana needs to invest in the creative arts," he said.