Rocky Dawuni was born January 22, 1969 and began his life as the child of a cook on a military barracks in Ghana.
He is a member of the royal family of the Konkomba tribe from a village called Bunbon Nayili in Northern Ghana, where his older brother, Chief Wumbe Dawuni serve as Chief.
The second born of eight siblings, Dawuni excelled at school and eventually his father decided to move him back to their home village where he could learn more about his cultural heritage.
He had his high school education at the Tamale Senior High school and continued his studies at the New Juaben Secondary Commercial school in Koforidua from where he moved on to enter the University of Ghana where he pursue a degree in philosophy and psychology
Part of his humanitarian activities include joining forces with Product (RED), UNICEF, the Carter Center, and the UN Foundation. He has worked on campaigns focused on Guinea worm eradication, environmental issues, women's health and education, HIV Aids advocacy, peace building and clean water. In 2012, Dawuni was appointed the Tourism and Cultural Ambassador of Ghana and World Ambassador for the Musicians Union of Ghana. The same year, he was named a United Nations Foundation Ambassador for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. He also has served on a Brookings Institute think tank on cultural diplomacy (Timbuktu Action Group) as part of the efforts to restore Mali's famed Festival Au Desert and was invited by Aegis Trust and the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center to Rwanda to meet the Minister of Youth and Culture and visit the Gihembe refugee camp in order to highlight Rwanda's shinning efforts to heal the wounds of the past.
Rocky Dawuni has performed at on various platforms including, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCC) in Warsaw, Poland in front of the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and delegates from around the world. Rocky also performanced in front of 18,000 people in Toronto, Canada alongside Somalian superstar K’Naan and at the Freedom Awards in Los Angeles with pop sensation Jason Mraz. In July 2011 he performed at the prestigious Hollywood Bowl with the legendary Stevie Wonder during a night of "Global Soul” and appeared at France’s Les Estivales de la Perriere in August of the same year with Shaggy, Monty Alexander and Diana King where they joined together on a magical rendition of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry." In March 2012, Rocky headlined the Balispirit Festival in Bali, Indonesia for the second time in three years and received a glowing feature in Rolling Stone Indonesia. In July 2013, Rocky appeared at Switzerland's renowned Montreaux Jazz Festival.
His sixth studio album titled Branches of The Same Tree released 31 March 2015 was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in December 2015 for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, which is the first for Ghana and second in that category for Africa. For this, we celebrate him for making us Northerners, Ghanaians and Africa at large proud.
