Daddy Lumba’s Ghost Will Hunt Maame Akosua Serwaa – Lawyer Anokye Frimpong

Legal practitioner and historian, Lawyer Anokye Frimpong, has weighed in on the ongoing controversy surrounding the funeral arrangements of highlife legend Daddy Lumba, arguing that customary norms must be carefully considered alongside legal claims.

Speaking on Sompa, Lawyer Frimpong said the widow’s absence from the late musician’s life raises serious cultural and moral questions, even if she retains legal standing as a spouse.

“If she does not come for the funeral, it is okay,” he stated. “But if she decides to come, Akan tradition attaches spiritual consequences to such actions when marital responsibilities were abandoned during the deceased’s lifetime. The ghost of Daddy Lumba will hunt her”

He explained that under Akan customary belief, a spouse who disengages completely from a marriage and resurfaces only after death may face spiritual repercussions, a view deeply rooted in traditional interpretations of marital duty and ancestral justice.

Providing background to his argument, Lawyer Frimpong noted that Daddy Lumba and his wife married in Germany but later separated, after which the musician returned to Ghana and never travelled back to Germany.

“He came to Ghana, and she never came to check on him,” he said. “During that period, he had children here with another woman, yet the wife did not return at any point to assert her marital authority.”

According to him, customary practice permits a wife to confront or remove perceived threats to her marriage if she is present and actively engaged.

“If she had come and found another woman in the house, the law and custom would have permitted her to act,” he said. “But she did nothing.”

Lawyer Frimpong further stressed that Daddy Lumba’s illness was widely known, even beyond his close circle, yet the wife remained absent.

“People outside his immediate circle knew he was sick, but she still did not come,” he added.

He argued that her decision to return only after the musician’s death to assert widowhood rights has unsettled both the family and the public.

“When he was alive, they were not on talking terms,” he said. “So the question is, why come now to the funeral and create tension, when her actions clearly showed she had walked away from the marriage?”