Ghanaian rapper Kwame Ametepe Tsikata, known in showbiz as M.anifest will be speaking at the 2019 Ephraim Amu Memorial Lecture.
The lecture, organised by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences will take place at their premises on May 30, 2019 at 5:30pm.
M.anifest will be speaking on the topic “Re-imagining us: the role of popular music in self-actualisation.”
Speaking to Bernard Avle on the Citi Breakfast on Citi 97.3 FM on Tuesday, the rapper and songwriter said he was shooting the video for his song ‘Me Ne Woa’ when Professor Takyiwaa Manu gave him a call and said they academy wanted him to do the keynote this year.
When M.anifest when was approached to deliver the keynote address, he discussed with his late grandfather of the late Emeritus Prof. J.H. Nketia who passed away on March 13, 2019.
“I made some consultations. I actually spoke to my grandfather about it and he was very excited because about 20 years ago, he was the first person to deliver the keynote at the Ephraim Amu Memorial lecture,” he said.
He said his grandfather wished he delivered the address before he died but unfortunately he did not live to see it.
The ‘godMC’ rapper, also met with Professor Anyidoho who helped him to get an angle for discussion from the entertainment perspective.
“I thought it would be an important conversation to have about popular music but not on the entertainment front. But about our potential, our becoming, our people, self-actualisation,” he said.
M.anifest, son of Ghanaian lawyer and academic Tsatsu Tsikata holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Macalester College in the United States of America.
He recently released ‘Rapper 101’, which is taken off his upcoming mixtape, ‘The Gamble.’
