GHANAIAN POPULAR MUSIC SINCE INDEPENDENCE: by JOHN COLLINS Oct 2007
For spectator newspaper (c 3,500 words)
John Collins came to Ghana in the 1950’s and has been active in the Ghanaian music scene since the late 1960’s. He is currently a Professor at the Music Department of the University of Ghana at Legon, Chair of the BAPMAF Highlife-Music Institute in Accra and co-leader of the Local Dimension palmwine highlife band
GHANA CELEBRATES FIFTY YEARS
Ghana began its celebration of 50th years of Independence with a burst of initial musical activities that included a panorama of all the varieties of Ghana’s highlife music. These musical activities ( mainly co-ordinated by the governmental Ghana@50 Secretariat run by Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby) began in January with festivals in all of Ghana’s ten regions of religious choral music, followed by local gospel music that involved over a thousand singers, including top names like Josh Laryea, Bernice Ofei, Suzzy and Matt, Jude Lamotey, Grace Ashy and Akosua Agyepong. Then in February came the ‘Kakapreku Opemu Show’ at State House in Accra that featured the hiplife artists Obrafour, Praye, Castro and Obour, with a northern Ghanaian touch being provided by the Frafra lute player King Ayisoba. On the 3rd March a nationwide series of ‘Highlife to Hiplife’ concerts were held, organised by Charterhouse and MUSIGA, with the highlife of the Ramblers, Wulomei, Asabea Cropper, George Darko and Rex Omar, and the hiplife of Reggie Rockstone, Wutah, Castro and Tinny. Then came ‘The Presidents’ Show on March the 5th with the ‘classic’ dance band and guitar band highlife of Ebo Taylor, Blay Ambolley, Papa Yankson, CK. Mann, A.B. Crentsil and Nana Ampadu, as well as the youthful hiplife of the Mobile Boys and Obrafour. As this event took place at the Old Polo Ground in Accra, the actual spot where Ghana’s independence was declared in 1957, David Dontor and other Ghanaian actors also re-enacted Kwame Nkrumah’s famous independence speech.
The following Independence Day was one of formal parades at Independence Square at which twenty-four Heads of State attended (including Britain’s Duke of Kent). This was followed on the 10th March by a grand formal affair at Independence Square in Accra which featured the highlife stars Pat Thomas, Kojo Antwi and Jewel Ackah, the hiplifer Samini Batman and the gospel musicians Kwaku Gyasi and Ola Williams. On March 21st the semi-finals of the National Brass Band Competition were held at Agona-Swedru, the Fanti heartland of Ghana’s ‘adaha’ brass-band highlife music. This was followed on the 23rd and 25th march with a gospel ‘Ghana Praise Concert’ held at Independence Square that featured the international gospel music acts of Don Moen, Israel Houghton and the Nigerian Princess Ifoma, as well as Ghana’s Noble Nketia, Naana Frimpong, Moses OK and Christiana Love.
Besides the above programs connected with the Ghana@50 Secretariat, other celebratory events also took place. Two commemorative music CD’s were launched called the ‘Kings of Highlife’ and ‘The Best of Ghanaian Highlife Music ’ released by Metro TV and the One Touch telephone company respectively. On the 24th February the BAPMAF Highlife-Music Institute was opened to the public at the Bokoor House premises of John Collins in South Ofankor, Accra. On the 5th March the University of Ghana organised a ‘Nite of Our Heritage’ at Mensah Sarbah Hall that included the speakers K.B Asante and Professor John Collins, and the musicians Nene and Afi. On Independence Day (March 6th) Ghana’s reggae star Rocky Dawuni performed at an Independence Sunsplash to a huge crowd a La Beach. Then in April the Goethe Institute in Accra put on workshops, lectures and shows called ‘Made in Germany’ celebrating ‘burgher highlife’ and other musical connections between Ghana and Germany. The same month the University of Ghana put on a ‘Time For Highlife’ shows at the Legon Great Hall that featured Ambolley, Jewel Ackah, C.K. Mann, the Ramblers, the Local Dimension palmwine band and Eo Taylor and the University Highlife Band. There have also been musical celebrations abroad and one I will mention here, is a musical exhibition currently going on in the UK this October that myself and the BAPMAF Highlife Institute helped curate. This is a Ghana 50 Music Heritage Exhibition at the Greenwich Heritage Centre in London from 6th.-31st October organised by the African Image Alliance.
But let us turn here to the story of Ghanaian highlife, which goes way back to the late 19th century when foreign music styles came to Ghanaian sea-ports. The regimental brass-band music of European and West Indian soldiers, the dance-music of ballroom and ragtime orchestras, the hymns of Christian missionaries, the guitar songs of seamen and the musical comedies of American vaudeville and British music-hall. These imported performance styles were gradually Africanised from the late 19th century, which resulted in ‘adaha’ and ‘konkoma’ marching-band music, the Fanti ‘osibisaaba’ guitar music of the Fanti Coast, the ‘odonson’ and ‘palmwine’ guitar styles of the rural areas, the ‘highlife’ (i.e. high-class life) music of elite Ghanaian ballroom orchestras of the 1920’s and the indigenised theatrical ‘concert parties’ of Bob Johnson and the Axim Trio .
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POPULAR ENTERTAINERS SUPPORT THE EARLY INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT
The catalyst that sped up Ghana’s move to independence was the Second War during which time 60,000 Ghanaians saw some sort of military service. There were also large numbers of British and American. soldiers stationed in Ghana and it was their ‘swing’ style of jazz that influenced local musicians like E.T. Mensah, Guy Warren, Tommy Grippman and the other members of the Tempos band , whose brilliant blend of highlife and swing became the iconic sound symbol in Ghana and Africa for the optimistic early independence era. Many Ghanaian popular entertainers openly supported Nkrumah’s CPP and were influenced
by its ‘African personality’ and Pan-African ideals. The Tempos played at CPP rallies and concert parties, the Axim Trio and Bob Ansah’s concert parties staged pro-Nkrumah musical plays. Bob Vans actually changed the name of his Burma Trio to the Ghana Trio in 1948, the very year of the Christiansburg shooting of protesting ex-servicemen and the consequent boycott of European shops. In 1952 the highlife guitarist E.K. Nyame formed his Akan Trio and released highlife records in support of Nkrumah, as did other contemporary guitar band and concert party artists, such as those of Kwaa Mensah, I.E. Mason, Bob Cole and Onyina,
As a quid pro quo for their support, when Ghana became independent in 1957, Nkrumah set up government sponsored highlife bands and concert parties attached to the Workers Brigades, state hotels and other governmental agencies, whilst private bands like E.K.’s and the Uhuru dance-band accompanied him on official trips abroad. Nkrumah also encouraged the formation of popular performance unions, established the State Film Corporation that made films like the `Band Series' (featuring the Tempos, Ramblers and Black Beats), and encouraged the broadcasting of popular songs and plays on state radio. Besides it role in the independence struggle, another reason why Nkrumah's vision included a role for highlife performance in nation building was that it is a trans-ethnic creation of the Akan, Ga and Ewe people of Ghana - and so was a particularly useful medium for projecting ‘non-tribal’ national sentiments.
SOUL AND ‘AFRO’ FUSION MUSIC LATE 1960’ AND 70’s .
Although Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966 his Pan African and ‘black consciousness’ ideals continued to thrive in the popular music sphere. Indeed, they were enhanced due to the Afro-centric sentiments introduced to Ghana by a soul and reggae artists who came to the fore after the civil-rights marches in the United States and independence in the Caribbean.. Some even visited Ghana in the early seventies; such as Wilson Pickett, Ike and Tina Turner, Roberta Flack and Jimmy Cliff. With their ‘Black and Proud’ sentiments, ‘Afro’ fashions, and rastafarian reggae ‘back-to-Africa’ ’ message, there was a creative music explosion in Ghana (and other parts of Africa) during in the 1970’s when young artists blended together imported and local music into various ‘Afro-pop’ music styles. The Afro-beat of the Nigerian highlife musicians Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Orlando Julius, the ‘Afro-rock’ of Ghanaian bands Osibisa, Boombaya and Hedzolleh Soundz, and from the end of the seventies the local reggae of Kwadwo Antwi, Kente, Felix Bell and more recently Rocky Dawuni.
HIGHPOINT OF GHANA MUSIC SCENE – AND ITS COLLAPSE IN LATE 1970’S/1980’S
By the early seventies Ghana boasted over seventy highlife guitar/concert bands, scores of private or state run highlife dance-bands and literally hundreds of pop and Afro-rock/beat bands linked to schoolboy ‘pop chain’ competitions. Catering for these were four recording studios, numerous dancing night-clubs (60 in Accra alone), and two local pressing plants (Ambassador Records and the Record Manufacturers of Ghana) that produced hundreds of thousands of records a year. Furthermore, during the early seventies two musical films were produced by Ghana Film Industry Corporation: `I Told You So' starring Bob Cole and the African Brothers band, and `Doing Their Thing' starring the singer Charlotte Dada. From the mid-70’s there was also the introduction of long-running television concert parties series, such as ‘Osofo Dadzie’ and later ‘Obra’. This high point ended in the late 1970’s with the general collapse of the Ghanaian economy that began towards the end of the Acheampong/Akufo military (‘kalabule’) regime. This was followed by a period of political instability (two military coups by J. J. Rawlings in 1979 and 1981), a two-and-a half year night curfew (1982-4) and the imposition of luxury taxes (160%) on imported musical instruments. As a result, the music industry slumped, live bands collapsed and many Ghanaian artists left the country. Other factors of a technological nature also helped in the decline of live music bands. One was the appearance of cheap-to-operate mobile discos or 'spinners' in the late 1970’s that gradually took over the dance floors. Moreover, it was during the 1980’s that cheap-to-produce local video productions began in Ghana and these, like the ‘spinners’, went mobile and so gradually eclipsed concert parties in the rural and provincial areas.
However, from the late 1980’s Ghana’s economy was liberalised and the country gradually began to move towards civilian rule. But by then, many of the old-time ‘classic’ highlife bands and concert parties had been inadvertently wiped out. Nevertheless, liberalisation had a positive effect on the music industry, as it led too the de-regulation of the airwaves from the mid-1990’s when there was a proliferation of private radio and TV stations which broadcast both live performances and music-videos. Liberalisation also encouraged foreign tourism and special festivals were established in the 1990’s to cater for them, such as PANAFEST and Emancipation Day. Also since the 1980’s there has been the introduction of relatively cheap miniaturized and digital technologies which has led to scores of new recording and video studios springing up.
Despite the collapse of live popular entertainment during the late seventies and eighties, three new musical entertainment genres have emerged. One is related to imported techno-pop styles (like disco and rap ), the second is local church gospel music, and the third is ‘folklorised’ performance encouraged by tourism. Each will be discussed in detail.
ONE: GHANAIAN ‘TECHNO-POP’ MUSIC : BURGHER HIGHLIFE AND HIPLIFE
Because of the collapse of the music industry from the late seventies it became difficult to run live popular performance groups. As a result ‘techno-pop’ alternatives emerged whose electronic gadgets made music performance and production simpler and cheaper. These were ‘burgher highlife’ from the mid-eighties and ‘hiplife’ from the mid-nineties.
Burgher highlife was created by Ghanaian musicians who settled in Germany during the late seventies. Hamburg was a favourite place for these economic migrants and it was there that ‘burgher’ (literally Hamburg) highlife was born as a synthesis of highlife music with the drum-machines and synthesisers of disco-music. George Darko and Lee Duodu of the Bus Stop Band began this trend in 1983 when they released ‘Akoo Te Brofo’, followed by other musicians like Daddy Lumba, Sloopy Mike Gyamfi, Rex Gyamfi and Charles Amoah. Burgher highlife became much favoured by the Ghanaian youth of the times who began to treat the older brands of highlife that used live percussion and horns as ‘colo’ or old-fashioned. Another reason burgher highlife bands mushroomed in Ghana is that they consisted of minimal personnel, and so were easier to economically operate than the large ‘classic’ highlife bands; an important consideration taking into account the massive import duties on musical instruments at the time.
Hiplife is a Ghanaian form of rap that has it origins in Jamaican ragga and particularly American hip-hop. By the mid-1990's Ghanaians began to rap in local languages, the most important pioneer being Reggie Rockstone who actually coined the name ‘hiplife’ in 1995 by fusing the words ‘hip hop’ and ‘highlife’. Other early hiplifers were Lord Kenya, Akatakyie and Buk Bak. Other hiplifers, like Mad Fish, Batman and Bandana, concentrated more on the West Indian dance hall ragga style of rap. A striking feature of hiplife is its lack of women rappers, an early exception being Jyoti Chander (Joe T) who was a member of Nananom (with Omanhene Pozo and Sidney). Currently there are only three female rappers: Aberewa Nana, Triple M and Mzbel.
At first hiplife almost exclusively used imported hip-hop and ragga drum-box beats and many of the older generation that its lyrics are too fast, promoted promiscuity and was mimed rather than sung live onstage However, it is not fair to blame the youth for this, as not only did the live popular music-scene collapse in the 1980’s, but also the teaching of music was demoted in the school syllabus. So hiplifers were neither exposed to nor trained to play band instruments. Indeed, without the easy-to-produce and perform electronic music of hiplife, today’s Ghanaian youth would not even have their own special musical idiom. However today the hiplife scene is beginning to change. Artists like being Sidney, Obour and the late Terry Bonchaka began to perform lived. Local rhythms have begun to be used by Tic Tac, Kontihene, Nkasei, Okonfo Kwade, Castro, Adane Best, Batman and the ‘jama’ artists coming out of Jeff Quaye’s Hush Hush Studio. Furthermore some hiplifers (like Obour, Ex Doe and Omanhene Pozo) have also begun to collaborate with highlife musicians, whilst others have concentrated more on singing rather then rapping. These singing rather than rapping hiplifers, like Nana Kwame, Obraafo, Daasebre Gyamena, Slim Busterr and Ofori are now being called ‘contemporary highlifers’.
TWO:LOCAL GOSPEL POPULAR DANCE MUSIC
The gospel music of the numerous Ghanaian separatist and pentecostal Christian churches is largely based on popular dance music, particularly highlife. The proliferation of local gospel began in the late 1970’s and some of the most important early artists and bands were the Joyful Way, Kofi Abraham, Mary Ghansah, the Tagoe Sisters, Ola Williams, Jonathon Javes Addo, Stella Dugan, Yaw Agyeman Baidoo and the Kristo Asafo’s Genesis Gospel Singers. By the late 1980’s a whole host of new local gospel artists came onto the scene: Diana Akiwumi, the Soul Winners, Mike Bonsu, Suzzy and Matt, Cindy Thompson, Helena Rhabbles, Yaw Sarpong, Joe Beecham, Jane and Bernice, Josh Laryea and Amy Newman. It would be true to say that women vocalists have come to dominate the genre, for whereas a family would previously forbid their daughters from becoming a ‘pop’ artist, they could hardly stop them from singing in church choirs, even though they are singing with popular dance-music bands.
A factor that helped the gospel explosion of the 1980’s was that churches, being charitable bodies, did not pay the entertainment taxes and high musical instrument import-duties of secular bands. As a result many Ghanaian highlife artists also moved into gospel music, such as T. O. Jazz, Nana Ampadu, Kofi Ani Johnson Jewel Ackah, Kofi Sammy and Papa Yankson. Today local gospel music is the single largest component of the commercial music industry in Ghana, comprising well over half the local cassettes and CD sales. The local churches also have their own distribution companies and recording studios, make commercial music videos, have unions and run gospel award organisations.
3) GLOBALISATION STIMULATES GHANAIAN LIVE POPULAR AND FOLKLORIC MUSIC
Since the 1980’s African music has gone international (i.e. as a component of ‘World Music’) and an increasing number of tourists are visiting Ghana. Both factors have had a positive benefit on the local live popular music scene and on traditional performance. Western World Music fans do not generally patronize the computerized ‘techno-pop’ styles of burgher highlife and hiplife, but rather music enjoy African music that has a live feel or uses batteries of horns and traditional drums. As a result highlife is making a comeback with older artists like ‘Blay Ambulley (recently crowned as ‘Afro-rap King’) C.K. Mann, Papa Yankson. Jewel Ackah, Amekyie Dede and Koo Nimo, as well as newly established highlife big-bands like Megastar, Alpha Waves, the Ramblers, Wellington’s Band and Avalon’s Gold Coasters. Since 2002 university music department highlife bands have also begun operating, directed by the highlife veterans Ebo Taylor and Bob Pinado. A new generation of young highlifers has also emerged, like ‘Amandzeba’ Brew, Rex Omar, Akosua Agyepong, Felix Owusu, Afro Moses and Smilin’ Osei, and their music is converging with the ‘contemporary highlife’ artists currently emerging out of hiplife.
World Music fans and international tourists also appreciate Ghanaian traditional music and dance, both in theirs ceremonial ethnic context and as ‘folklorised’ or ‘neo-traditional’ commercial forms that are professionally staged at hotels, night-clubs and beach resorts. Examples include Hewale Sounds, the African Showboys, the Pan African Orchestra, Atongo Zimba, , Gonje, Kusum Gboo, the Sensational Wulomei - not forgetting King Ayisoba whose song’ ‘I Want to See my Father’ won the Ghana Music Awards this year.Tourists even come to study local music and dance, such as the of foreign students who come to the University of Ghana’s School of Performing Arts. There are also now numerous non-governmental and private cultural centres teaching traditional performance to foreigners, such as Mustapha Tettey Addy’s African Academy of Music and Arts in Kokrobite, Godwin Agbele’s Dagbe Drum School in the Volta Region, the Kukye Kukye Bamboo Orchestra at Masomogor village near the Kakum Nature Reserve, and more recently Bernard Woma’s Dagara Arts Centre. Furthermore .there are festivals like PANAFEST and Emancipation Day that attract Black American tourists and also artists like Stevie Wonder, Rita Marley and Isaac Hayes. Another external factor on the local music scene is the impact of Ghanaians who have lived abroad coming home, which has stimulated the growth of small clubs that feature jazz and Afro-fusion bands like Dzidudu, Smart Urpah’s Bawasaaba, Jimmy’s Jazz Combo, the Karmah Band, Mac Tontoh’s Kete Warriors, Tony Maneison’s combo, the Senekoye Jazz Ensemble and Musiki w’Afrika who leader Nii Noi Nortey originally played with the Ghanaian god-father of Afro-jazz Kofi Ghanaba
A very positive spin-off of the rise of World Music and musical tourism is that since 2000 the World Bank has initiated projects to assist the music industry of some African countries, including Ghana. Furthermore, the Ghanaian government has been re-appraising the economic value of the popular entertainment sector as a renewable foreign exchange earner, from both tourism and potential World Music sales. As a result in 2004 President Kuffour reduced the massive import duties on musical instruments that has over the years had such a damping effect on the local live popular music scene. This was followed in 2005 by the entertainment industry being added to the governments current Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy . This is the first time since the Nkrumah period that the commercial popular music and entertainment has been integrated into national policy. In Nkrumah’s time it was in connection with national identity, today it is in connection with national economic prosperity.
BRIGHT FUTURE
So right now and despite all its ups and down, the Ghanaian popular music scene should have a bright future. There are hundreds of recording studios and radio stations now operating in Ghana, the booming musical tourist industry is enhancing folkloric music and live performance, the government has recognised the commercial importance of the music and entertainment sector and there is a international interest in African music. At the same time local popular music is being enriched by many creative streams. There is a wealth of trained bandsmen and female singers coming out of the churches. Hiplifers are beginning to perform live and replace American hip-hop beats with local ‘jama’ rhythms. There is a new crop of contemporary highlife artists and bands and a revival of old-time highlife. There is a small but thriving Afro-jazz scene, whilst folkloric music is being given a commercial boost by foreign tourists and music lovers. It must be added that the very bed-rock in this current mix of Ghanaian musical styles is age-old traditional music, which is still thriving as it was never adversely affected by the late 1970’s/80’s downturn in the popular music scene, as indigenous ethnic music does not depend on imported instruments and is played at ceremonies rather than commercial night-clubs. Indeed there is a re-connection going on currently between this traditional performance bed-rock and the many varieties of popular dance-music. Hiplifers, ‘contemporary highlifers’ and Afro-jazz/fusion artists are all drawing on traditional rhythms and instruments, churches are using local dances, whilst commercial folkloric groups are actually developing a ‘neo’ traditional music. This current re-working of the old and the new by contemporary Ghanaian artists in the context of government recognition, the expanding tourist industry and the global interest in African music bodes well for both the creative development of new local Ghanaian sounds and the economic prosperity of Ghanaian musicians.
