Traditional music
In Ghana, musical tradition is rooted in a particular territory, and therefore varies enormously from region to region. In northern Ghana, for example, music is often played on the gyil (or balafon), a member of the xylophone family. Among the Ewe, and more generally along the entire coast, polyrhythmic orchestras are found (drums, gongs, bells, etc.), and music is often associated with a social function. Among the Akans, the harp - the Seperewa lute - is very present, and is said to "speak".
Among the Akans, there are also two very impressive and expressive dance forms, well known to Ghanaians, in which every gesture carries a symbolism or meaning: Kete and Adowa. Hand movements vary according to context, and can communicate positive emotions at weddings, engagements and funerals.
Throughout the country, instrumentation is dominated by idiophones such as the xylophones mentioned above, gongs, bells and the prempensua, a lamellophone mounted on a large wooden drum, as well as numerous percussion instruments, such as the tam-tam, often used to accompany songs, dances and theatrical performances. In the north, carved wooden flutes or flutes made from bamboo or millet stalks are commonly used.
A major figure in Ghanaian traditional music is Joseph Kwabena Nketia, a composer who was not only a musician, but also the author of over 200 ethnomusicological publications on the traditional dances and songs of his country and the continent, including the pioneering work The Music of Africa, which often led him to be considered Africa's first musicologist.
Anyone wishing to take a closer look at the songs and dances of Ghana will be delighted to learn that the country offers a wealth of opportunities. Each region has its own traditional events, such as the week-long Kudum Festival in Busua, on the coast, where you can discover Fanti folklore.
Highlife
Highlife is derived from palm-wine music, from which it takes its guitar playing (two-finger picking ). Highlife is the totem of music, a pillar for the country and its diaspora worldwide. This is only to be expected when you look at the DNA of the genre, which is based on the main melodic and rhythmic structures of traditional Akan music or the Kpanlogo music of the Ga people - but played with Western orchestration (jazzy brass, several guitars and, more recently, synthesizers).
Contemporary music
The first great modern - even avant-garde - Ghanaian figure is Kiki Gyan, a marvellous keyboardist, who officiated as a youngster (from the age of 15) in Osibisa (a famous Afro-rock band made up of Ghanaians living in London, who enjoyed huge success in England in the 1970s) and recorded a series of cult disco albums during his lifetime. Much less well known - apart from a niche of UFO-loving music lovers - Ata Tak's 1990s work, somewhere between house, rap, sub-genres of highlife and early Afropop, has only recently found success. Fabulous and very Ghanaian at heart, Ata Tak's work was re-released in 2015 by the German label Awesome Tapes From Africa.
Apart from these two outstanding personalities ahead of their time, Ghana's first truly modern musical movement is obviously hiplife, which, as mentioned above, was initiated by Reggie Rockstone with his album Makaa Maka! in 1997. Broadly speaking, hiplife is hip-hop written in the local Ghanaian dialect, especially Akan, and infused with elements of highlife. Since the wave of pioneers - Obrafour, Tinny and Ex-doe - hiplife has produced a number of Ghanaian stars, including Sarkodie, who is very famous even outside the country and a great exponent of Azonto, a popular dance miming everyday gestures, Richie, who is more R&B-oriented, and Tic Tac (now "Tic"), who is more dancehall-oriented and looks to Jamaica, like Samini.
Otherwise, the big stars of Ghanaian music are Camidoh, Kiki, King Promise and MzVee, all kings and queens of Afropop, and Shatta Wale, the great name of Ghanaian dancehall. Many of the hits are produced by Gafacci, Ghana's great afropop hitmaker.
But if Ghana's music scene is booming at the moment, it's because Accra's underground scene is booming, driven by young artists who think outside the box, such as Wanlov The Kubolor, a Romanian-Ghanaian rapper known for his atypical sound, Rvdical The Kid, a soulful beatmaker, Alex Wondergem, a soulful rapper and Ria Boss, a neo-soul singer. We should also mention Ansah and the All My Cousins collective, the driving force behind the next generation of artists. Finally, on the electronic side, tradition is never far away, as demonstrated by DJ Katapila, who plays Ga music as if it were house, and Linda Ayupuka, who takes Frafra music into reckless experimental territory in an approach worthy of Ata Tak.
Of course, the best way to get a taste of this artistic effervescence is to go to the "Nite Clubs", the favorite haunts of Accra's youth and Ghana's urban circles, where sound systems spit out the best of local hip-hop, highlife, hiplife or afropop at very high decibels. Otherwise, the Chale Wote street festival is an excellent gathering of local and international artists in fields such as music, photography, dance, painting, graffiti and film...
And let's not finish without a word about the Ghanaian diaspora who, ever since Osibisa's success in London in the 1970s, have been putting Ghana on the international map. For example, rapper Stormzy pays tribute to his Ghanaian origins by collaborating with local artists (Yaw Tog and Kwesi Arthur) and taking to the stage at Accra's Global Citizen Festival in 2022, rocker Moses Sumney regularly addresses his Ghanaian upbringing, and on singer Tawiah's latest album(Ertha), the sounds of Ghana, where her family hails from, are omnipresent. Ghanaian in blood, Ghanaian in sound.
