Artist  >> Bawa Abudu

My name by birth is Bawa Abudu. The name "John" was given to me at the mission school. I was born in Tamale in the northern part of Ghana
and I belong to the "Busanga" tribal group. My late father, Haltilaw Abudu the Third, was once the chief of our tribal group and a direct
descendant of our royal family... I got my musical talents from my late mother who was the traditional singer of our tribe. She had an important role. She sang to praise our men while they worked on the land, when children were born, at harvest time and on important events and
ceremonies of our people. I grew up with this experience by following her to these events and gradually learned to play our native instruments
as well. My first contact with the "guitar? was once when a white lady teacher came to our school. I loved her guitar very much and
immediately offered to take her on a motorbike in order to show her some of the unknown "exotic" sides of Africa. In return she taught me
how to play the guitar. Now on, I was able to play the guitar and express the feelings of my people, soon it brought me onto the "spot
light" within my people... On my arrival in Germany in 1980, I got my first ever electric guitar. I then started writing traditional songs and playing with several bands till I found my own band. In 1993, I recorded my first album "bisa na baki" which was released on Ghana Television. Two tracks of the album became hit tunes on radio and TV. In Ghana and
surrounding countries, this brought me officially on the Ghanaian music scene for the first time... During my numerous concerts with my band in
Muensterland, I had the opportunity of meeting Mr. Achim Goetz my current producer, who discovered the "potentiality" in my songs and
gave me a chance to work with him. As holly result, two albums were produced including "modern Africa". The album received very good
media coverage both in Africa and in Muenster Westf. area. Again in Ghana, It got "massive air plays" especially in the north where songs
landed as household songs and on radio charts too ...
Further on in Muensterland, it caught the attention of the people and media... Few months back, the German TV televised a brief
documentary on ZDF, ARD, and WDR about our music and is root.........
My songs are centralised in the "HAUSA" language of west Africa. It is except as the second largest spoken language in Africa, for "Kiswahili" It is my aim to seek to create a basis of understanding between the white
man's music and ours, by integrating both music. I sing about hunger, poverty, history and love. Often, I sing to praise African women for their
role in our society and to bring happiness to people in general....