The Managing Director of Citi FM/Channel One TV, Samuel Attah-Mensah (Sammens), has urged Ghana to move beyond expressions of grief and take deliberate steps to preserve the legacy of late Highlife legend Charles Kojo Fosu, popularly known as Daddy Lumba and other creatives.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s programme ‘What The Papers Are Saying’ with Head of News and Current Affairs, Vivian Kai Lokko on Thursday, July 31, 2025,Samuel Attah-Mensah warned that Ghana risks forgetting Daddy Lumba’s impact in a few years, just as happened with the late Highlife icon C.K. Mann.
“We lost C.K. Mann about five years ago, and today, as we speak, nobody remembers him,” he said. “We’ve lost Daddy Lumba. Five years from now, we may find ourselves repeating the same thing. How do we immortalise their works?”
He questioned the absence of a national structure to preserve and celebrate the works of iconic musicians like Daddy Lumba and C.K. Mann.
“I see a lot of people trooping to the house to mourn with the family. No problem with that. But what happens after that? In the Western world, they would have found a way. What are we doing as a nation?” he asked.
Samuel Attah-Mensah described the international media coverage of Lumba’s death, including a report by the BBC World Service, as a sign of his global relevance, a relevance Ghana must honour and preserve.
“The saddest part is that five or ten years from now, a Western country may curate and package his legacy while we sit here drinking and dancing, forgetting the impact he made.
“We must think about how to turn the Lumba name and his work into a tourism and cultural feature for this country,” he said, calling on state authorities to take up the responsibility.
Also speaking on the programme, Host of Big Issue, Selorm Adonoo emphasised the need to protect Daddy Lumba’s creative works and establish tangible reference points for future generations.
“There should be a way of preserving his masterpieces,and even his hometown,as part of Ghana’s cultural memory,” he added.
The discussion comes amid an outpouring of tributes from across Ghana following the passing of Daddy Lumba, one of the country’s most celebrated musical legends.
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