The only artist everyone at some point in time thought was next of keen to Asa was GASHA but what happened? How many people gave her the support she needed to pursue? The support was audio! GASHA was not only good at her peak, she was phenomenally exciting. She was among the generation of artists who would bring change in the Cameroonian industry and beyond but what went wrong? The normal happened.
It’s obvious that we will all say she made bad decisions which everyone does sometimes, but what was our role in protecting such a gift to the industry? She fell off the pecking order and everyone is sympathetic about the whole situation now, trying to revive her career.
It would be good if her career is revived as she’s struggling with it, but the rate at which a treasure like AZAH is being snubbed simply shows that change is still very far from us. After listening to AZAH, the only question you will ask is Africa why? Well, she’s seemingly on the right track.
We are always the first to complain that artists are not original, but we ignore the originality, now when an artist switches genres and try to be relevant in another area, because they feel rejected and unappreciated, we complain. It is clear why most of our artists sound foreign – they are forced to seek external validation. It is never a good feeling when you know you are doing your best and yet not getting even that little tap on the back.
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The extend to which we ignore talent is alarming and something has got to change real quick, or else we will keep hitting the gong and complaining that it isn’t sounding like a xylophone. The situation makes our artists think survival is success. We have to be held responsible for being disrespected internationally. We shouldn’t complain about our art being disrespected when we don’t even value it.
The truth about the whole thing is that, being an African alone is a talent and spearheading with this talent is an explainable grace.
