A new national platform designed to honour and preserve the contributions of distinguished Ghanaians has been launched in Accra with a call for the public to celebrate national icons while they are alive.
Known as the Ghana Legends Awards, it seeks to recognise Ghanaians whose contributions to music, sports, education, health, business, public service and other fields have had a lasting impact on the country.
The first edition of the awards ceremony will be held on October 22.
Celebrating living legends
The Founder, Gladys Biney, said the initiative was intended to change the culture of celebrating prominent Ghanaians only after their death.
“Everyone is quick to post RIP when they pass, but when they were alive, they were not acknowledged,” she said.
Ms Biney, a social activist, said the organisers had also set up a fund to enable individuals and organisations to support legends who might need assistance.
“This is to change the narrative. We will not wait for our legends to die before we honour them,” she said, describing them as extraordinary people who deserved appreciation, support and recognition while they are still alive.
National movement
A board member of non-governmental organisation Aim Ghana, Kesewaa Asamoah, said the awards were not merely a scheme but the beginning of a national movement of gratitude, storytelling and inspiration for the next generation.
She said Ghana had been blessed with pioneers and icons whose stories needed to be preserved for future generations.
“A nation that does not honour its heroes will struggle to raise new ones,” she said.
Ms Asamoah said the initiative would celebrate individuals whose sacrifices and achievements helped build the country.
She urged Ghanaians to make the project a national one, saying “our heroes belong to us.”
The President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bessa Simons, called for increased investment in Ghanaian musicians, particularly those promoting indigenous music.
He said musicians had provided entertainment and cultural value to generations of Ghanaians and, ,therefore, deserved greater recognition and support.
Mr Simons also urged young musicians to learn from the pioneers of highlife music and preserve the genre’s distinctive Ghanaian identity.
He said highlife had gained international recognition and that efforts to preserve and promote it had contributed to UNESCO’s recognition of it as an intangible cultural heritage of Ghana.
He encouraged young musicians to appreciate the history of highlife and build on the work of earlier musicians who laid the genre’s foundation.
Mr Simons further called on the government to invest more in musicians who promote Ghanaian music rather than giving greater attention to foreign genres.
He said such investment would encourage young musicians to believe that promoting Ghanaian music could provide them with sustainable careers.
The Executive Director of the Ghana Legends Awards, Nana Ofisibidi Adeaemoduro Kaakyere Kwame Appiah, was among officials who outlined the vision of the initiative.
He urged Ghanaians to honour these elders before they pass.
“All of us will eventually go, so let us honour them and celebrate them before they pass on.”
He said the scheme would provide a platform to recognise and immortalise the contributions of Ghanaian legends and create opportunities for individuals and organisations to support them.
