Bekwai, ghana Life: Koo Nimo Grasp Musician
From its founding in January 1972, the Technology Consultancy Centre (TCC) from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, mounted events that were open to the public. Some of these features accompanied the opening of the new project or teaching program and some marked an essential anniversary, such as the Silver Jubilee of the university or a nationwide celebration. All these events needed music, and from the outset, it had been decided that this should be friendly and reflect the local tradition; so the TCC was happy to come into regular connection with Koo Nimo and his Ashanti palm wine ensemble some years before he became a national icon and 2 decades before his fame propagate internationally.
In the 1970s, Koo Nimo was employed as a specialist in the Pharmacy Department in the Faculty of Science, KNUST, where he was known as Kwabena Amponsah. He was a man of numerous names and took take pleasure in providing a full explanation to anyone who enquired. At birth in October 1934, he was called Kwabena Boa-Amponsem but having been baptized Daniel Amponsah. This individual took the name Koo Nimo for his professional musical career but probably the most memorable song from all those early days was Kwabena But, which he said was his name in boyhood. Kwabena means born on Wednesday, and But may obtain from the Boa in his delivery name, as the transliteration of Twi words and names is far from standardized.
Koo Nimo always did in his mother-tongue, Twi, and the soft melodious shades that have now become around the globe admired. He accompanied himself on an acoustic guitar but the majority of his band played native instruments in the palm wine (nsafufuo) or highlife tradition. A lot of his most popular figures were in the highlife tempo and all his companions joined them the signing. Koo Nimo never failed to ask which usually numbers he should carry out on each occasion. Two songs were always wanted at TCC-sponsored events. The first was the already mentioned memory space of his boyhood, Kwabena But, and the second experienced the Twi title ‘wo ma me den? ‘ roughly, ‘what are you performing to me? ‘
Koo Nimo is remembered as a soft-spoken modest man who usually expressed his delight in being invited to perform for a special function. Fame might have come to him rather later on than is common for well-known musicians in the West. In 1979, when Justin was 44, he gained national recognition when he was selected President of MUSIGA (the Musicians’ Union of Ghana) and In 1985 Koo Nimo was appointed interim chief of COSGA, the Copyright laws Society of Ghana. When that the work of the TCC was recorded in the video film, The Secret of Wealth, in 1987, and Koo Nimo provided the background music though, he was already on his method to international recognition. Check it Ghana Music mp3
