At Kwaaba Village in the bustling city of Accra, a Ghanaian entrepreneur and women’s rights advocate has begun an ambitious journey that could see not only her name, but also that of her country written boldly with an non-erasable pen on the Guinness World Records.
Afua Asantewaa Owusu Aduonum is attempting to break the prestigious Guinness World Record for the longest singing marathon by an individual. She began the attempt at midnight (Sunday, December 24, 2023) and is expected to conclude on Wednesday, December 27, 2023 by which time she would have broken the existing record and set a new one.
The current sing-a-thon record set by Indian Sunil Waghmare in 2012, stands at 105 hours.
Afua aims to surpass the record.
Specifically, she is striving to sing a record 117 hours, singing over 3,000 Ghanaian songs of different genres.
A music enthusiast, Afua is an accomplished entrepreneur. Most of her business ventures are geared towards advocating women’s right and empowerment.
After graduating from the Ghana Institute of Journalism with B.A. in Communications, Afua got a rare opportunity to undertake her one-year mandatory service to the nation at one of the country’s leading media conglomerates, Multimedia Group Limited and subsequently worked there full time.
It was there that her passion for women’s empowerment deepened, spurring her on an entrepreneurial drive to make the Ghanaian woman self-sufficient and to curb all forms of systemic discrimination against her.
Soon, Askof, an event company known for organising the Ghana Outstanding Women Awards and host of other ventures, sprung up in her name.
The award scheme, which recognises and celebrates women impacting lives positively, has been running for six years and this year was expanded to celebrate women across Africa with the holding of the maiden edition of Africa Outstanding Women Awards in La Cote D’Ivoire.
Yet again, Afua is set out to achieve another milestone that will not just further empower the Ghanaian woman but also put the country and its music on the spotlight globally.
For years, industry players in Ghana contemplated on how to get the country’s music on the global scene like their Nigerian counterparts. They have explored various media aimed at achieving this.
Afua believes the Guinness World Records attempt is the right platform to sell Ghanaian music to the world.
“I believe that this will push Ghanaian music to the world. Guinness World Record is not just any platform and the attempt is not just any attempt. We are looking at a number of days without sleep, singing continuously. This is indeed a sacrifice worth doing for the Ghanaian industry,” she told SheHUB.tv.
Her announcement early December about her intention to undertake a record-breaking attempt threw the entire country into frenzy, attracting support from individuals and organisations including the state tourism agency, the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA). Social media platforms have been awash with words of encouragement as she began the bid, with hundreds of people thronging the venue to cheer her up.
The event is being telecasted live by leading Ghanaian media outlets.
The 33-year-old mother of three says the support has been overwhelming: “It’s been very shocking. I love it, and based on this love they have shown me, I don’t think I can let them down.”
She is confident she will be able to surmount the sleepless nights to make history as the first African to break and set that particular record.
“I have trained on staying for days without sleep but even before this attempt, due to the event schedules we have in the year, I barely sleep early, I sleep late and since the approval came, I have been doing some trials and it has been working,” she spoke of her preparation.
But what inspired her audacious bid to break a Guinness World Record?
In June this year, the GWR announced Nigerian chef Hilda Effiong Bassey better known as Hilda Baci as the new record holder for the longest cooking marathon by an individual with a record set at 93 hours and 11 minutes.
This was after she cooked for about 100 hours non-stop to break an Indian Lata Tondon’s 87 hours and 45 minutes record.
Afua says she keenly followed Hilda Baci’s 4-day stint and was inspired by the Nigerian determination to embark on her own record-breaking attempt.
“Seeing what the platform did for her, I just put one or two together and I said wow, this is what Ghana needs. Let me do this. The inspiration came from Hilda and as a women’s empowerment advocate, if you Hilda could do it, it is an inspiration enough for a number of women in the world to also move out of their comfort zone to achieve greatness”.
She hopes the Ghanaian music industry and musicians will leverage the attention her bid is drawing to them to break into the international scene.
Abdul Gafaru Ayamdoo Salifu is a Ghanaian based freelancer. Have a story you’d like to share with him, email info@shehub.tv.
