Bukom Square in Ga Mashie resonated with the spirit of the people from the community and guests Monday evening when six of the 8 jama groups billed to compete in the Bukom Jama Gala took center stage to thrill the crowd. When the winners for the first session were announced, it was Man ‘U’ and Lucky ‘7’ from Chorkor and Planet and Sonkpakpaa from Jamestown that came tops.

Arriving at the square, after parading through the streets in the community with a brass band, all the six participating groups came hoisting their flags ready for contest. Two, one each from Chorkor and Jamestown, did not show up for Monday night’s showdown.

For a little over an hour, they held the audience captive, and occasionally attracting spontaneous applause and joyous cheer.

Looking out for appearance, lyrical content, stagecraft and audience response, the judges, made up of Nii Tackie Tagoe of the Ga Mashie Development Agency (GAMADA), Sam Abbey Quaye of Chorkor and Nii Korley Laryea, an arts journalist, didn’t have much difficulty in picking Man ‘U’ ahead of the other groups for the evening.

“Man ‘U’ displayed a sense of maturity in their presentation that saw them score high marks from both the judges as they dialogued about how today’s ladies engage in Supi as their female counterpart also go chasing!

Now at the ‘Round of 16’ – elimination rounds – to select eight groups to go for the quarter and semi finals, the Jama gala will take place every last Monday of the month until April next year. The final showdown would be held in June 2012.

Event organizer, PaJohn Dadson of Bentsifi-Accra Convention & Visitors Bureau said he was pleased the event came off peacefully without any confrontation, which usually characterises the gathering of such groups.

“I was overwhelmed! I had thought Jama was the cacophony of rhythmic sounds we make during sporting activities but I found that real authentic Jama is more of an art form through which members of the community make commentary about issues that affect them in prose and rhyme; a medium to express their pain, their joy, their needs, their anguish and it was an absolute thrilling evening!

“Too often, living an urban lifestyle, we tend to forget what our essence is. What happened at Bukom Square brought to bear who we really are as a people,” PaJohn recounted.

The Bukon Jama Gala presents a unique occasion for the traditional music groups in Ga Mashie and Chorkor to ‘spar’ in a monthly entertainment faceoff that aims to cause some deserved cultural and economic revival in the community.

It is supported by GAMADA with initial funding from the Ghana Denmark Cultural Fund.