Musician and activist Okyeame Kwame turned heads and sparked conversations at the 27th Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMA) on Saturday night, not just for his dazzling gold ensemble, but for the striking message it carried against illegal mining.
Dressed in a shimmering gold outfit, the rapper was accompanied by a shirtless man holding a drip bag filled with dirty water — a symbolic representation of the polluted rivers and destroyed ecosystems caused by illegal mining popularly known as galamsey.
When asked about the inspiration behind the look, Okyeame Kwame delivered a passionate explanation stating that “I wanted to look like gold so that I may use it to remind Ghanaians that gold glitters, but the galamsey destroys the rivers and the rocks and the air and the fish and nature. And if we glitter like this once every year and we forget that it is not a responsibility of the NPP and NDC, but it is the collective responsibility of Ghana to stop this galamsey cancer. We have failed.”
The artiste used the glamorous platform of the music awards to highlight one of Ghana’s most pressing environmental crises.
Illegal has devastated water bodies, farmlands, and forest reserves, particularly in regions like Ashanti, Western, and Eastern.
Many rivers that once served as sources of drinking water and livelihoods for communities are now heavily polluted with toxic chemicals.
Okyeame Kwame’s message emphasised that the fight against galamsey transcends partisan politics.
“It is not a responsibility of NPP and NDC,” he stressed, urging all Ghanaians to take ownership of protecting the environment.
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