History of Burger Highlife Music

George Darko, Bustop Band and Bob Fiscian

Hamburgs Ghanaian Community

The other new musical development in Ghana during the eighties was Burger Highlife that was not created in Ghana at all, but by Ghanaians who had settled in Germany. From Kraftwert, Boni M and Donna Summers) was all the rage with the German youth this influenced Ghanaian musician living there, who created their own form of ‘techno-pop’ sung in Akan and which combines highlife guitar with disco drum-machine beats and synthesisers.

Many of these musicians settled in the port town of Hamburg as it already had a small established Ghanaian community, and so this new style of music became known as ‘Burger Highlife’. And when the economy began to pick up in Ghana from the late-1980’s these Ghanaian musicians who had gone abroad began returning home bringing with them this ‘made in Germany’ style of disco-highlife style and associated recording equipment, techniques and know-how

The reason why so many Ghanaians ended up in Germany in the late 1970’s and 80’s was that, at that time, its immigration laws were quite relaxed as compared to Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. Some of the Ghanaian musicians who settled in (or frequently visited) Germany include Pat Thomas, Bob Pinado, Allan Cosmos Adu, Charles Amoah, Andy Vans, Seth Dako, Nii Edmund Ayitey Larmie, McGod, Rex Gyamfi, the Lumba Brothers (Nana Acheampong, Charles Kojo Fusu and Sarkodie), Ekow Savage Alabi and Amakye Dede.

Birth of 'Burger Highlife'

As mentioned Hamburg was the favourite place for many of these musicians - and it was there that the guitarist George Darko, singer Lee Duodu, key-board player Bob Fiscian and bassist B.B. Dowuona of the Bus Stop Band released the first Burger Highlife hit in  1983  called ‘Akoo Te Brofo’ on their ‘Friends’ album. In 1984 Lee Duodo left the group and Darko then formed ‘Cantata’ (Bild 12) which in 1986 released another successful burgher highlife album called ‘Moni Palava’.

Ghanaians in other European countries followed the burgher highlife trend: like Sloopy Mike Gyamfi, Charles Tetteh, Chikinchi and Captain Moro in Holland, and Ben Brako, Khodjo Aquai and the late John Kay in Britain.

This ‘burger’ music subsequently became popular in Ghana, first through records and then towards the end of the 1980’s, when the Ghanaian economy started to recover, through ‘burger’ Ghanaians musicians returning home. Burger highlife became much favoured by the Ghanaian youth of the 1980’s who began to treat the older brands of highlife that used live percussion and horns ‘colo’ or old-fashioned. Also the Burgher Highlife use of drum-machines and synthesisers cuts down the number of musicians needed in a band (particularly percussionists and horns-men bands) Therefore they were smaller than the highlife big bands and so were more economical to operate, an important consideration taking into account the then 160% import duties on musical instruments.

Burger Highlife Pionier: George Darko

As George Darko is such an important burger highlife artist. It is worth looking at his musical career in some detail. He was born 1951 at Akropong and learnt guitar at the Presbyterian School at Akropong in 1957 from his Canadian biology teacher Mr. Dobson. Darko’s father (who was a Paramount Chief) wanted him to become a lawyer, so he had to leave home and stay with his uncle Nana Boafo.

George then joined Gaby Nick Valdo’s Avengers rock ‘n’ roll band in 1969 and then moved on to the Soul Believers, the Blue Monks and the Fourth Dimension army band, with whom he stayed for six years entertaining troops in the Middle-East. On returning to Ghana he formed his first band called the Golden Stool Band which left for Germany in the late 1970’s. In Hamburg he went solo and in 1982 formed the Bus Stop band. George Darko finally returned to his home-town of Akropong in 1988 and was made a chief there in 1991 with the stool (throne) name of Nana Yaw Ampem Darko.

Todays popular burgher highlife artists

The most popular of the burgher highlife artists today is Daddy Lumba (Charles Kojo Fusu) who broke away from the Lumba Brothers and had an enormous hit in 1998 with his contentious song ‘Aben Wo Ha’ (it is cooked ) which was banned by some radio stations due to its lyrics thinly disguising the idea of a sexually aroused women. Other popular burgher artists today are ‘Lover Boy’ Nana Acheampong and Nana Aboagye Da Costa who had a big hit on the Megastar label in 2000 with ‘Odo Menkoaa’.

Indeed most of the lyrics of burgher highlife is about ‘odo’ or love, quite different from the lyrics of old-time highlife in which romance was a minor theme, with the majority of lyrics covering topics like social issues, family problems, moral advice, poverty, philosophical and proverbial comments on life and death. Burger highlife bands mainly generate their incomes from recordings rather than live shows, this form of highlife is mainly played at indoor discos, open-air ‘spinning’ events and also on FM radio and music video clips.