Music
Botri, popularly known as “The Flute Magician,” said his father strongly opposed his involvement in music, describing musicians as “job for vagabonds.”
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Legendary Ghanaian flutist Dela Botri has recalled being brutally beaten by his late father after defying a ban on music and secretly performing with a cultural troupe.
Botri, popularly known as “The Flute Magician,” said his father strongly opposed his involvement in music, describing musicians as “job for vagabonds.”
According to Botri, his passion for music, however, was too strong to suppress.
Botri said the situation escalated after he went to perform without his father’s approval.
“It got to a point where I went to perform somewhere and came back and then he was sleeping by then and I went to sleep at my mom room and I went to hide myself under the bed,” he said.
His father eventually found him and punished him with a horsetail.
“He came to pull me up and hit me with a horse tail ,” Botri recalled, pointing to the mark left by the beating.
“He beat me very well,” he added.
The incident forced Botri to leave Okotobrigya, a cultural troupe within his community, but it did not end his musical journey.
After leaving the troupe, Botri said he developed a deeper interest in percussion and the drums before eventually turning to the flute.
“I have to leave Okotobrigya, a cultural troop within my community. Then I have to go to join Nyemimei cultural troupe. That was when I developed the interest for the percussion, the drum and then later on I jumped to the flute and singing was my last thing that I learned,” he said.
Despite his father’s opposition, Botri’s determination to pursue music ultimately led him to become one of Ghana’s celebrated traditional musicians and master flutists.
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