It is quite funny how most
Ghanaian media houses and radio stations have refused to play this particular music,
describing the song as being unacceptable and an insult to the presidency! I
find such actions by those media houses to be hypocritical and biased since the
song does not even contain a single syllable which can be identified as an insult!.
We all adhere to norms of society regardless our political affiliation and interest,
and I strongly believe we have come far enough to acknowledge freedom of
expression especially on matters of public and national interest.
According to Sydney, many
media houses felt his song degraded the presidency or specifically John Mahama.
And yet there was not one insulting syllable in the song. I constantly hear the
hit track by Joey B ft. Sarkodie - "Tonga" being played every day on
almost all radio stations regardless their political affiliation. Tonga is a
street term used to describe the female sex organ ...and yet no one has called
for this particular song to be banned across all media platform, why?.. Because
we practice freedom of expression!. One may argue that this particular profane
song is not the first of its kind to praise sex or project women as mere sex
tools, neither is it the first to project Ghanaian men as sex addicts.
There is no need to get
critical about ‘”Tonga”, artists such as Daddy Lumba have sang what could be
considered as worse *profane* songs –“Tokrom, Poison, Aseε Ho” etc – and yet,
nothing was done to prevent him from getting air play. One may also argue that
nobody can stop Joey B from composing and playing “Tonga” because he controls
the songs he sings, -and I control the dial on my radio too. So why not give
Sydney's political satire the same opportunity on the air waves and allow for
public discretion?
A well raised point by a
colleague is: there must be no laws to decide what language or lyrics should be
used. And there shouldn’t. The Ghanaian culture for so many years has been the
thin line between acceptable and non-acceptable norms within our society.
Shunning our culture by
frowning on freedom of expression on matters of public relevance through intimidation and censorship while
promoting profanity on the air waves and mass media via the same respect for
freedom of expression is hypocritical.
