Bice Osei Kuffour

Bice Osei Kuffour (born 1981), known by his stage name Obour, is a Ghanaian hiplife musician and a former president of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA). His stage name means "stone" in Akan. In December 2021 he was appointed acting Managing Director of Ghana Post.

Early life

He was born at Dekyemenso in the Ashanti Region to Christiana Addo and Reverend B. O. Kuffour. By six he was playing drums, especially the atumpan, at the palace of the Juaso-Asante Akyem chief, where his father presided. He attended the State Experimental School in Kumasi, the Soul Clinic School in Accra, Garrison Junior Secondary School at Burma Camp and Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast, and later studied sociology and music at the University of Ghana.

Music

A London-based cousin, J. Amano, connected him with Soul Records. His debut, Atentenben, won three awards for the label at the 2002 Ghana Music Awards, including Video of the Year. His second album, Dondo, was led by Nana Obour, which won Best Video at both the Ghana Music Awards and the Ghana Music Awards UK in 2003, and Konkontiba, from the 2004 album Obour.com, was another hit. He won five awards at the 2005 Ghana Music Awards.

His albums also include Akademua, Atumpan, President Obour and Fontomfrom, and he recorded a duet album with A. B. Crentsil. In 2005 he set up the production company Family Tree Entertainment, and ahead of the 2008 elections he released the One Ghana Peace Project and toured the country on a peace campaign.

Public life

Besides leading MUSIGA, he has sat on boards including the Ghana Music Rights Organisation and the National Folklore Board, and has served as a national tuberculosis ambassador, a road safety ambassador and a British Council climate change ambassador (2008 to 2010). In 2008 he became the youngest recipient of the State Grand Medal, awarded by President John Kufuor. In 2017 he and his siblings set up the Christiana Addo Memorial Foundation in Asante Akyem South.

He contested the New Patriotic Party's parliamentary primaries in Asante Akim South in 2020, losing to the sitting MP Kwaku Asante Boateng, who beat him again in 2024. On 22 December 2021 President Nana Akufo-Addo appointed him acting Managing Director of Ghana Post.