Tumi Ebow Ansa, a veteran Ghanaian musician, has disclosed that he is the original composer of Osibisa’s ‘Welcome Home’ and four other songs released by the Afro-rock band, but he has never been credited for his works.
Speaking in an interview with Mutombo the Poet on the ‘If More, Let’s Divide’ podcast, Tumi, also an actor, said working with Osibisa was an experience he usually shudders to talk about.
“You know, Osibisa is an area that I really don’t feel comfortable. Because I was in an experience that I had never seen before. I was young, I was very eager, I was free because I was on TV, films and the music too so when Osibisa came and out of the blue picked me up and took me to Tunisia, it was an adventure. I thought, fine. But we didn’t have a song between us. When we arrived there, we had to go for audition. It was my song that we rehearsed quickly to go and get a job,” he said.
He disclosed that he wrote songs like ‘Welcome Home’, ‘Woyaya’, ‘Oranges’, and ‘The Dawn.’
Tumi also said that he was playing with his band called Afro Deity before Osibisa came for him, but he didn’t know they had an ulterior motive for recruiting him into the band.
“I didn’t know they had this ulterior mind to credit themselves with my music. But I was not able to tell. The first time I was asked I felt a bit uneasy but it’s alright. They’ve done their thing and they are gone. But to be asked about them, that hurts…hurts so much. How can you take somebody’s music and credit it to yourself and make so money with it and you don’t give a damn?” he said.
Speaking to Joy News’ Jacqueline Ansomah Yeboah, Rex Omar, the Chairman of the interim management committee for the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO), mentioned that Tumi Ebow Ansah would have to prove that he really wrote those songs to be able to claim ownership of them.
“This is the first time I am hearing this. I know Tumi. I know the songs you are talking about but the question is that if he is the original composer where is the evidence? Does he have anything to prove? Because these songs have been in existence for quite a long time. And if Osibisa recorded this song for more than 50 years and they played all over the world, they have been touring with them, they have perhaps registered registered them in their name and have been ‘chopping’ the royalties, so for him to wait all this while to come and say this right now, unless he has a proven evidence, it will be difficult,” he told Jacqueline.
Asked if Tumi Ebow Ansah can reclaim his rights if he provides evidence, Rex said “then he has to go through some legal issues to claim the rights. I find it difficult how someone can write five songs for a group, without the credit being given to him and he keeps quiet all these years. I mean it is very difficult.”
In the history of music, few musical bands have etched their names as boldly as Osibisa, a Ghanaian-British Afro-rock band that conquered the late 1960s London scene and beyond. Their rhythms and soulful tunes became the heartbeat of a generation.
Tumi Ebow Ansa, the father of FOKN Boi’s member M3nsa, is a multi-disciplinary creative birthed into an arts-inclined family. His father was a famous international photographer, who raised his whole family to love the arts. Tumi learned early the intricacies of the artist mind, perspective, and importance of his cultural heritage.
He became the first African, and first black man, to be in the British Actors’ Equity Association. He acted on stage, in British television and in many award-winning films as the lead.
Tumi went on to compose award-winning film scores and scores for entire seasons of British theatre.
He has to his credit songs such as ‘Make Me the Sea,’Oye Ade Yie’, ‘Kebisa’, ‘Mother Africa’, among others.
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