CASTRO'S GUEST: Ghanaian music legend reveals he lived under president's roof in Cuba

Ghanaian master flutist Dela Botri has revealed that he stayed in the residence of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro during a 2008 visit to Cuba.

Dela Botri said he was sent to Cuba by Former President John Agyekum Kuffuor to perform as Ghana’s representative and was accommodated in Castro’s residence, although he never personally met the former Cuban president.

“Was the president Fidel Castro still there? We were staying in his house,” Dela Botri said during an interview with Kafui Dey.

Asked whether he met Castro, he responded: “No.”

Dela Botri said security at the residence was extremely tight and described the property as a very large compound.

“Security was too tight for real. Yes. It’s a big, big, big, big house,” he recalled.

The musician said the trip was particularly challenging because he had been sent to perform alone and did not have a backing track.

“I panicked in the sense that I was sent alone to perform. By then, I didn’t have even backing track. That was 2008. And I was like, what am I going to do?” he said.

He explained that the pressure increased after seeing musicians from countries such as Senegal, Mali and Nigeria arrive with large groups.

“I was like, Ghana, me alone, what am I going to do to impress these people?” he recalled.

Dela Botri said he eventually relied on his workshop method of involving the audience directly in the performance.

He began with his flute and percussion instruments before getting the audience to participate through call-and-response.

The strategy worked, according to him, as the audience began clapping, singing and responding to his performance.

By the end of the performance, he said, the crowd had given him the nickname “One Man Thousand ” in recognition of the impact he made as a solo Ghanaian performer.

The Cuban experience, he said, became another major moment in his long career of using Ghanaian traditional music to represent the country on international stages.