Determined Afua Asantewaa

When Afua Asantewaa Owusu Aduonum, a highly ambitious Ghanaian lady announced on social media about two weeks ago, her intentions to break the Guin­ness World Record (GWR) for the Longest Singing Marathon (Singa­thon), many thought it was just a publicity stunt.

But the narrative changed few days after, when she officially launched her bid to take up the audacious challenge from Decem­ber 24 – 27 at Akwaaba Village,Air­port in Accra.

She is expected to sing for 117 hours within the period in order to break the record set by India’s Sunil Waghmare for 105 hours in 2012.

Afua Asantewaa must be able to sing over 3,000 songs with each song not more than two minutes. She would also sing strictly Ghanaian songs as part of efforts to promote Ghanaian music from gospel, highlife, hiplife to Afrobeats and more.

Afua Asantewaa, when she suc­ceeds would be the second African lady this year, to break the GWR amidst huge support from social media, after Nigerian Chef, Hilda Baci stole the headlines earlier, with her success­ful attempt for the Longest Cooking Marathon.

Asantewaa’s courage has attracted the attention of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) who are on board as logistics and venue sponsors with Jamila Home coming in as the official furniture sponsor with their unique designs to set the right ambiance for the event.

She is also supported by Electroland Ghana limited as Electroland sponsors.

Mrs Afua Asantewaa Aduonum is a Broad­cast Journalist, a Television Host, an Entrepreneur and a Women Empowerment Advocate.

She is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of ASKOF Productions, initiators of the Global Outstanding Women’s Awards, Africa Outstand­ing Women’s Awards, the Founder of Pose4Africa and Teen Queen Ghana beauty pageants.

She is also the founder of Miss Kidi Africa and the prestigious Ghana Outstanding Women Awards (GOWA) which has been running for the past six years.

The awards over the years, hon­oured distinguished Ghanaian women from various sectors including poli­tics, business, sports, entertainment, entrepreneurship and innovation and media.

Afua Asantewaa is a very deter­mined woman, beautiful, intelligent, and friendly with a great sense of humour and God fearing.

She is married to Mr Kofi Owusu Aduonum, a Journalist. The lovers tied the knot in 2016.

She also studied at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) in 2014 where she attained a degree in Jour­nalism after which she did her intern­ship with the Multimedia Group.

Afua Asantewaa has also engaged in several charity works aimed at supporting women and children while promoting entrepreneurship among the youth.

Though passionate about singing and attempted a career in music in the past, Afua Asantewaa is not a recognised musician in Ghana but has a decent voice to embark on her GWR challenge.

“I was hoping an established Ghanaian musician would take up the challenge but since no one was coming out, I decided to take the big step to make Ghana proud,” she told The Spectator in an interview.

“I love to sing and want to use my talent to make a mark for Ghana. This is about Ghana and we must all support the attempt,” she added.

She called on the Ghana Health Service, DJs and corporate Ghana to come on board to support her bid.

Already, some Ghanaian celeb­rities including Sefa, Shata Wale and Nana Ama McBrown and a few corporate entities have thrown their weights behind Asantewaa.

With the level of support from Ghanaians on traditional and social media, Afua Asantewaa is set to make the nation proud and inscribe her name into the GWR.

By Michael D. Abayateye