A 47-year-old musician at Wenchi in the Bono Region is calling for more attention towards developing and promoting traditional African music.

Adams B Djabateh believes traditional African music is worth more attention than other foreign ones.

He observed that traditional African music portrays the values and traditions of the African people, hence the need to devote special attention to it.

Adams B, in an interaction with JoyNews at Wenchi, recounted how he is using the traditional music of the Banda people in the Bono Region to whip up the interest of the youth in their music. 

According to him, it is time stakeholders in the music industry began to do things that will encourage the younger generation to yearn for traditional Ghanaian music.

Adams B said he started singing during his early school days at the Wenchi Ebenezer Presbyterian Junior High School (JHS) in 1996.

After JHS, he took to highlife music but later settled for traditional African music in 2009 and has since performed in some countries across the West African sub-region.

He said traditional African music expresses the culture, tradition, and history and gives narratives of a people.

Adams B, who wants to take the traditional music of Banda to other parts of Africa, intimated there are many things one needs to study before doing traditional music.

“When I decided to do and promote the traditional music, I initially had stiff opposition from my producer, so I had to struggle my way through to produce my first album called Bilalama, then I got the breakthrough,” he narrated.

He said, “My album Bilalama did so well that it has motivated the youth from Banda to venture into traditional African music”.  

The 47-year-old traditional African musician believes Ghanaians have not given their native music the necessary attention.

"Our elders used traditional African music to shape the society, but we have neglected it and have gone for other types of music," he noted.

He, therefore, encouraged musicians in Ghana to explore and promote the traditional music of their localities rather than going the easy way.