Moses Kweku Oppong

Moses Kweku Oppong was a Ghanaian highlife guitarist and the founder of Kakaiku, one of the most successful guitar bands of the 1960s and 1970s. The band made more than 500 records and served as a training ground for musicians such as C. K. Mann.

Early life

He was born on 2 October 1915 in Aboso, a gold-mining town in the Western Region, and learned the guitar as a child. Before music became his living he worked as a blacksmith, a winch greaser and a driver at the Aboso Goldfields.

Kakaiku

He founded the band on 1 August 1954 in Kumasi and named it after his childhood nickname, Kakaiku. The same year it signed a recording contract with the United Africa Company. Kakaiku belonged to the guitar-band tradition of highlife, built on guitar and percussion rather than the brass of the dance bands, and it also staged concert parties that mixed music with travelling theatre and comedy. To reach the whole country it recorded in Fante, Hausa, Ewe, Nzema and English.

His lyrics drew on Akan proverbs and stories to deal with social and moral questions. Songs include "Ade Ahia Me", "Modemmo", "Ohia Ma Adwendwen", "Odo Ye Wu Ampa", "Ofie Ne Fie" and "Driver Nni Na Meware No". In 1967 a second line-up, Kakaiku No. 2, was formed, with Attakora Manu as lead guitarist from 1967 to 1970.

Death

He died in 1986. The government and arts bodies recognised his contribution to highlife before his death.