Akwaaba, Satchmo

In the cities and villages of Ghana and Nigeria, his name leaped forth from billboard, newspaper and radio. Whenever he arrived in a city--in Accra, Kano, Ibadan, Kumasi, Lagos and Enugu--huge crowds turned out to cheer him, including the "all-powerful" King of the Ashantis, King Nana Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II. The object of all this adulation was U.S. Trumpet Ace Louis ("Satchmo") Armstrong, on a gravelly-voiced West African tour last week designed to persuade Africans to drink more Pepsi-Cola. Admission fee to the outdoor concerts by Satchmo and his six All-Stars: five Pepsi-Cola bottle tops and 1 shilling.

To the audiences' delight, he occasionally switched from Dixieland to the "high life," calypso-like melodies much favored in Africa, which Armstrong calls "the home country." Said he: "These cats are solid." Accra Municipal Council Chairman E. C. Quaye greeted Armstrong by pouring a pint of Scotch whisky on the ground as a libation to the gods, and chanted: "Akwaaba [welcome]." Satchmo's answer: "Yeah!" Then, in turn, he poured a fifth of Scotch on the ground, lamented: "I don't know what they say, but I'm sure it's going down the wrong way."

Pepsi shelled out some $300,000 to send Satchmo and the All-Stars on the tour to promote five new West African bottling plants worth $6,000,000, help Pepsi in its war with Coca-Cola. The plants are owned and operated by Africans under license from Pepsi-Cola, will have a capacity of 8,000,000 cases of Pepsi a year. In changing West Africa, where the people love sweet, fizzing drinks and where foreign businessmen are finding that they must hard-sell for the first time, Satchmo's long-holding C note was an advertising message understood by even the many illiterate citizens. Pepsi-Cola's C notes were also holding well. Sales in Ghana have gone up by 53% since Satchmo arrived.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.