Atamina

Atamina, or actually we should say Dr. Professor Atamina, is one of the protagonists of the new wave of Kologo Power, a music scene that hails from Ghana’s North East Region, that spread all over Ghana after King Ayisoba’s number one kologo hit song “I Want To See You My Father”, and is now conquering the whole world. Atamina is the smart guy, with tongue-in-cheek social-critical lyrics, pulling away the carpet under the feet of West Africa’s new developing bourgeoisies.

Agong Atamina lives in Bongo, a small village near the border of Burkino Faso. He is 35 years old and studied as a doctor but became a musician because that was in his blood. He did not learn to play kologo; “Kologo is a spirit from every family or clan. Nobody can teach somebody how to play kologo. If you are not born with it, you are not born with it. When the spirit chooses you, then you can play kologo. My grandfather played kologo and his kologo is the God of our family now.”

Atamina started when he was ten years old, he played other people’s songs, traditional songs, songs from Sambo, Sule, Guy One, King Ayisoba. “The time I started making my own songs was when King Ayisoba burned Ghana. But those days people did not listen to kologo and only listened to imitated music. But King Ayisoba changed it all. So now we walk with lifted head. The way we play now fits the modern society. Some songs are fast, some are slow, they also have to please the different groups of people and the different dances.”