Johannesburg – Oops, he did it again.
In South Africa’s case, I guess, it is ouch!
Yes, the 25-time Grammy winner Stevie Wonder snubbed us again, reaffirming his love for Ghana, the trailblazer in democracy and home to Sarkordie, who has won 100 awards including a couple of BET and MTV accolades.
The first time Wonder, real name Stevland Hardaway Morris, mooted plans of relocating to the motherland was 27 years ago.
Even then, he was waxing lyrical about Ghana and its incredible sense of community.
It was 1994; we were dealing with a lot as South Africa. We had just held our first democratic elections after a few years of uncertainty and violence following the unbanning of political parties.
In a sense, we understood why Wonder would choose Ghana over us.
Ghana had been independent since Wonder was seven years old. On May 10 1994 when Mandela was inaugurated, the artist was three days away from celebrating his 44th birthday.
He had even named one of his sons Kwame, after Ghana’s independence leader and president Kwame Nkrumah.
The 70-year-old Wonder also has a son named Keita; but Mali was not a strong contender against South Africa. He cannot run away from the Land of the Free to Mali to learn French.
So, when the father of nine named his youngest son Mandla; we thought we stood a chance of having him and his family as citizens in our new dawn.
“Man-d-la” has a nice global ring to it and sounds a lot like Mandela if you say it really slowly, rainbow- nation style. This week, however, Wonder nailed his colours to the mast when he told Oprah, yes Oprah Winfrey – she who has a school on our shores and loves Madiba and Trevor Noah very much – that he’s de nitely planning to move to Ghana. He reiterated his love for Ghana for its sense of community. The singer and songwriter said, during an episode of The Oprah Conversation, that he didn’t want his “children’s children’s children” to have to say “Oh, please like me. Please respect me. Please know that I am important. Please value me”, referring to race divisions in the US.
South Africa did not even get a mention in the conversation. Can you imagine what this punt would do for tourism in Ghana, for music and the arts in general? We could really use a citizen like Wonder on our shores at a time like this; when we are trying to rebuild the tourism and music industry which are still under immense pressure with the pandemic still lurking in the air.
But alas, we will lose him to Accra, Wa, Ho or Foso.
Sorry, South Africa he is not coming to Gqeberha or Nqanqarhu.
By Phumla Mkize
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