From Osibisa to highlife…through “burger” to hiplife (1)

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 Lomotey,  Grace Ashy and Akosua Agyepong.

Then  in February  came the ‘Kasapreku Opeimu Show’  at State House in Accra that featured hiplife artists Obrafour, Praye, Castro and Obour,  with a northern Ghanaian touch being  provided by the Frafra lute player King Ayisoba.

On March 3 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  President’s Show on March 5 with the ‘classic’ dance band and guitar band highlife  of  Ebo Taylor, Blay Ambolley,  Paapa Yankson, C.K. 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 March10 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 (recently deceased).

On March 21, 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 March 23 and 25 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 Ebo 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 .

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 Christiansborg 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 its 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 the 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.