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Musical Purpose and Humanitarian Efforts Drive Inspirational Dawuni
By Linda A. Annan
Very few people have the ability to effortlessly stir up others – positively – with words. Such qualities as inspiration and motivation need be innate, if so be said, otherwise they fizzle with time. Though many train to attain them, very few are able to prove their sincerity. If good hearts did not produce worthy fruits then the world would have been a worthless place to live. In his 11-year musical career that merited him the title international superstar, U.S.-based Ghanaian native David Rocky Nendo Dawuni known worldwide by his second and last name, has proven to be that effortless inspirator/motivator most people wish they were.
In an expedition for spiritual and political enlightenment Dawuni has used his talent as a performer and musician to advocate his cause.
“Throughout my career I've always believed that you have to walk the talk and apart from walking the talk you have to be very sensitive to the needs of those who through their support made you who you are,” he explains.
Ghana 's 44 th Independence Day celebration experienced a first unleash of the Rocky Dawuni Independence Splash , a production of Africa Live! a movement he established to address the declining appeal of Ghanaian music and “resuscitate the live music environment in Ghana,” as he put it.
“So a few years ago I decided that Accra , which used to be the hub of music in West Africa basically was virtually dead at night. But then you would walk away and find all these great musicians who I emulated and respected throughout my life, walking around trying to figure out other means of just making a living. I just thought there was something not right with that picture,” he expresses in bewilderment as he explains the reason for such a movement as Africa Live! and the annual Independence Splash.
After years of military coups, curfews and other conflicts on the continent that seem to have corroded the sensational effects of a classical genre like highlife, Dawuni believed the basic step would be to introduce music in the academic environment like VH1's Save the Music program – this was to encourage students to appreciate live music. Africa Live! has created opportunities by making equipments available at affordable rates to musicians with no instruments to play with.
“We're currently also taking over the Arts Center in Accra to really transform it into a modern live performance venue. Apart from that we're also involved in advocacy work whereby I inspire artists and famous personalities in Ghana to start using their voices and influences towards social causes and working with communities to bring attention and solutions to them,” he says.
As one raised in a highly stimulated musical military environment at the barracks in Tema , Ghana , Dawuni felt every bit of the political energy, from tension to the luxury of being one of the few to gain access to new musical releases brought into the country by traveling soldiers. The politically charged songs of Bob Marley and Fela Kuti drew him into the reggae/Afrobeat experience that emerged into his personal musical style.
“I realized that one of the things I wanted to be in terms of being a musician is that I wanted it to be meaningful, to use it for purposes of really being able to articulate things that I saw around and experienced. And things that I felt were real and also could be life-changing for people,” he explains his gravitation towards reggae music.
Dawuni's first album, The Movement , released in 1996 was only a tip of his success as it elevated him onto the international stage with conscious messages of social and spiritual enlightenments. The title “ Ghana 's Bob Marley” became his second name; his second and third musical efforts, Crusade and Awakening , boosted him even further in the world of reggae with raving reviews in Billboard, the BBC and Voice of America among others.
“When I first got into the international stage it was exhilarating, it was exciting at the same time too,” he reminisces. “I saw it more as a beginning of my musical purpose other than a destination and since then, I've just been really moving and growing within that stature and expanding it in different dimensions and paradigms.”
Book of Changes, his fourth record highlights all of his experiences and influences. “It's almost like a text book and a resolution of where I wanna go beyond this point,” he clarifies.
After realizing the hindrances of social, economic and political advancement in Ghana's neighboring countries Dawuni saw an opportunity to document emerging changes between Africans in a social manner – the influx of refugees in Ghana and the nation's responsibility to embrace them.
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