FUSE ODG Building a new Ghana with its leader of afrobeats

Fuse ODG

If Fuse ODG’s 2014 debut This Is New Africa (T.I.N.A) was part-LP, part-mission statement, then his follow-up New Africa Nation is a full-blown manifesto. Call it a constitution for re-envisioning Africa by celebrating the creativity and diversity of the continent, while remembering how to have a seriously good time.

Fuse, aka Nana Richard Abiona, grew up in south London, raised on a diet of rap, grime, bashment and house music. Following a formative trip back to his homeland of Ghana in 2011, he developed a new sound based on the country’s soundtrack of afrobeats and highlife. Since then he has been a pioneer in bringing these sounds to a global audience (he’s even got Ed Sheeran speaking Twi on the album cut ‘Boa Me’) with a dedication to Ghana that goes far beyond music.

“We’re building a nation, so I guess it does feel like a constitution,” Fuse reflects. The album outlines what a ‘New African’ represents — loving yourself, loving who you are, loving your culture, and loving the people around you. “T.I.N.A was more focused on intangible achievements, such as changing people’s mentality. Now we’re using this new mentality to create a better reality.”

And when Fuse says it, he means it. The years between his debut singles, ‘Antenna’ and ‘Azonto’ — both of which topped the UK charts in 2013 and 2014 respectively — and the new album have seen him not only tease a few tracks, but also develop philanthropic music and education models across Ghana. He recently opened a primary school in Akosombo, which now has around 200 pupils, and is currently raising funds to expand to a secondary school through pledges from his connections and fellow musicians. The idea is that if you sponsor a class then he will name it after you. So far he’s in talks with Lethal Bizzle, Chip and Wiley, and he’s brought Reggie Yates, Stefflon Don and Manny Norte to the school for visits.

Fuse is dedicated to bringing people to Ghana, spurred on in part by his decision to decline Sir Bob Geldof’s offer to take part in Band Aid 30 in 2014. Wanting to promote the Africa he knew — one of positivity, power and innovation — against an engrained image of suffering and poverty, he’s become an official tourism ambassador for the country. “Why don’t we invest in Africa in the long run so people can actually come on holiday and spend as much as they can?,” he argues. One step towards making Ghana an essential destination for the global traveller was to launch the annual T.I.N.A festival in Accra in January this year. “Just like if you’re interested in dance music you probably go to Ibiza, or visit Atlanta because you love hip hop, then you come to Ghana because you love afrobeats,” he explains. “The festival is open for everybody to come and enjoy while experiencing our culture — the fashion, the food, the people.” Ghana’s official Year of Return in 2019 has also inspired the singer to look into opening up borders between Ghana and the Caribbean. “We’re going to charter a plane, bring some influential people down and — you know — bring them back home,” he says. “One day there’s going to be an airline offering direct flights, it’s going to feel so normal, and we’re going to laugh about it. But we want to take an active role in making the first flight happen — Damian Marley, Sean Paul, Chronixx — they’re all excited about it.”

This isn’t being done on a whim, it comes from the musician’s deep fascination with the historical links between Ghana and Jamaica. He immortalised the iconic Nanny of the Maroons in his own range of African dolls (something he created to counteract the predominance of white dolls across the continent, while highlighting historically important African women), and she is a clear inspiration for the New African mindset. Born into the Asante people, nanny led the Jamaican Maroons — a rebel faction from the enslaved people brought from Ghana to Jamaica. “The Maroons actually got their independence way before anybody in the Caribbean,” he attests.

Nanny is one of many ancestral guides and pan-African thinkers that are namechecked on this confident and empowering album, which kicks off with the song ‘Bra Fie’, a duet with Damian Marley overlaid with a rousing independence speech by President Kwame Nkrumah. “You know, this is a New Africa, but Nkrumah already started it, we’re just carrying on the legacy,” he says.

“I couldn’t have done this years ago. We had to have all the ears that we have now for us to be able to remind people of the leaders from the past who started off the movement that we need to now carry on. Out of respect for the people that paved the way — for Thomas Sankara, Marcus Garvey, Luther King, Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, even Bob Marley — we need to now continue this mission.” Pausing, clearly aware of the weight this legacy carries, he adds, “It’s already been written. I’m just echoing it.”