Ashesi University to Honour Highlife Legend Daddy Lumba with Major Cultural Conference

Ashesi University’s Centre for African Popular Culture has announced the revival of its prestigious annual conference series, with the 2026 edition dedicated to the legacy of the legendary Ghanaian highlife musician Charles Kwadwo Fosu, popularly known as Daddy Lumba. Scheduled for August 6, 2026, the event titled "Daddy Lumba Lives On: Music, Mourning, and the Cultural Life of Death in Ghana" will serve as a scholarly and cultural tribute to the artist who passed away in 2025. This gathering marks a significant moment for the university as it seeks to examine the profound impact of popular music on national identity and the collective experience of grief within Ghanaian society. The conference aims to delve into the intricate relationship between music and the cultural navigation of death in the Ghanaian context. Professor Emeritus Kwesi Yankah, a renowned scholar in linguistics and folklore, has been named the keynote speaker for the event. The discussions will go beyond a mere biography of Daddy Lumba, instead focusing on how his extensive discography and public persona influenced the national experience of mourning. By exploring themes of kinship, media representation, and the intersections of music and public culture, the Centre for African Popular Culture hopes to provide a platform for deeper intellectual discourse on how icons continue to shape social life even after their demise. Organized as an interdisciplinary event, the university is inviting contributions from a diverse range of participants, including researchers, musicians, and cultural critics. This inclusive approach seeks to bridge the gap between academic theory and the lived experience of Ghanaian popular culture. As the nation continues to reflect on the loss of one of its most prolific musical figures, the conference stands as a testament to the enduring power of highlife music and the importance of documenting the lives of cultural icons whose work serves as a soundtrack to the nation’s history.