Story by Seidu Sulumana Akurugu
Ghanaian musician NambaWan, has used the just-ended Saa La Dansika Festival to make a passionate call for unity among entertainers and entertainment lovers in the Upper East Region.
Speaking on Entertainment Zone on A1 Radio in a phone interview with host Phatbone The 5 Star General, following the festival held at Jocom Golden Hotel, NambaWan said the region has enough talent to make a much bigger impact on Ghana’s entertainment scene if stakeholders stop working in isolation.
For him, the support he has received from people in the region is proof that Upper East audiences are willing to stand behind their own.
He expressed his appreciation to the people of Upper East, saying the kind of support he gets is something other artists sometimes have to spend money to secure.
“What they don’t give other artists, even when they pay money to get it, that’s what Number One gets at his comfort zone or at the comfort of his house.”
But while grateful for the support, NambaWan was quick to point out that the conversation should not be about him alone.
He wants the people of Upper East to support the entire entertainment industry and not just one artiste.
“I don’t want to be very selfish, but I want the people of Upper East to understand that you can’t promote only Number One, because I can’t fight the fight alone.”
The Industry Is Bigger Than One Artiste
NambaWan believes the future of entertainment in the region depends heavily on how well artistes, fans, media houses, event organizers and other industry players can work together.
He said the goal should be bigger than promoting individual musicians. According to him, entertainment provides one of the platforms through which the region can tell its story and introduce its culture and talent to the rest of the country and the world.
“I just need you people to come on board, whatever that is — music, whatever that is entertainment — and then it’s about selling Upper East to the world,” he said.
He also called on people from different parts of the region to put aside their differences and support one another.
“Whether you are from Bawku, whether you are from Navrongo, whether you are from Bolgatanga, they should all come together,” he added.
Division in the entertainment space is not good for the Region
One of the biggest concerns raised by NambaWan was the division he believes exists among people based on ethnic and local identities.
He argued that Upper East has a relatively high population compared to some other regions, yet internal divisions often make it even harder for the region to present a united front.
According to him, some people see entertainment through the lens of their ethnic identity rather than as something that belongs to the entire region.
“The Kusasi man thinks he’s a Kusasi, so because of that, it’s for the Kusasi people. The Bolga man thinks he’s Frafra, so because of that, it’s for only the Frafra people,” he explained.
For NambaWan, that mentality does more harm than good.
He believes the region already has an impressive pool of creative talent and should be using that strength to push its entertainment industry further.
“Look at the kind of talent we have in Upper East. Other regions don’t even have a quarter of that,” he said.
The challenge, in his view, is not a lack of talent but the failure to consistently come together behind that talent.
Saa La Dansika Is Not Over
For those who may think the September 25 festival was the end of the road, NambaWan had another message.
According to him, Saa La Dansika is not just a one-off event.
He hinted that the initiative would continue reaching different parts of the Upper East Region before eventually making its way to the Bukom arena in the nation’s capital.
“This is not just the final,” he said, adding that the movement would reach different corners of the region.
That ambition fits into his broader argument that entertainment should be used to connect communities rather than create more divisions between them.
As he wrapped up his message, NambaWan widened the conversation beyond entertainment.
For him, unity is not only important to musicians or entertainers. It is something every sector needs if people want to make meaningful progress.
“Whether politics, whether society, whether religion, whether it’s entertainment, whether it’s business or the world market, without unity you can’t work,” he said.
And that, perhaps, was the biggest takeaway from his conversation with Phatbone.
The Upper East entertainment industry already has the talent. What NambaWan is asking for now is the collective support and sense of togetherness to turn that talent into something bigger.
With the latest edition of Saa La Dansika now behind them, his challenge to artistes, fans and stakeholders across the region is to stop seeing entertainment as a competition between towns, ethnic groups or individual artistes — and start seeing it as a common platform for putting Upper East on the map.
Bolgafmonline.com| 102.7 MHz|Seidu Sulumana Akurugu/Bolgatanga
