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NYU IN GHANA 15 WEEK COURSE OUTLINE ‘AFRICAN POPULAR MUSIC AND THEATRE BY PROF JOHN COLLINS . Jan 2011
COURSE GENERAL OUTLINE A social history (illustrated lectures with numerous slides and musical examples) of African popular music in general and Ghanaian popular music (and drama) in particular over the last 200 years. With particular reference to the relationship between African popular performance and traditional resources, colonisation and the de-colonisation/independence struggle, the impact of the music and entertainment of the Black Americas, urbanization, social protest and commentary, generational identity, changing gender roles, music economics and the rise of ‘World Music’ and new forms of electronic media. After these lectures remaining half of each 3 hour class will include video films, group discussions, presentations, tests and also at least three/four practical classes on local percussion and highlife/traditional African clave/bell rhythms and drumming. As Professor Collins co-runs the Local Dimension a highlife band and is a patron of the Ghana Musicians Union (MUSIGA) and other local cultural bodies he will also occasionally suggest music programs that might be of interest to the students.
GRADING BASED ON: 40% written papers, 30% class participation, 30% tests/exams (1 mid and 1 end-of-semester) . 2% of grades will be subtracted for each un-explained class absence.
MUSIC DIARY & SEMINAR PAPER During the semester students are expected to keep a diary of musical events and observations that will be discussed in class from time to time – this will be part of the class participation grade. Students will discuss and work on a seminar paper for an end-of-semester presentation. For this they will be encouraged to work with Ghanaian artists, local music associations, unions and copyright bodies or local music archives. Prof Collins can put his students in touch with these individuals, bands and organisations. This projects can involve video documentation.
DETAILED WEEK BY WEEK COURSE OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION TO COURSE & OVERVIEW OF GHANAIAN POPULAR MUSIC
2. BRIEF SURVEY OF the music of South Africa
3. BRIEF SURVEY of the music of Zimbabwe .
4. BRIEF SURVEY of the music of Central Africa and/Francophone West Africa.
5. NATURE OF TRADITIONAL AFRICAN MUSIC Types of indigenous African instruments and the functions of music and performance in traditional African societies
6. NATURE OF TRADITIONAL AFRICAN MUSIC Features of traditional African music and performance and the importance of local recreational music for the emergence of popular music, including a look at neo-traditional forms in Ghana: such as Ga kpanlogo drumming and Ewe borborbor music.
7. GOOMBAY: WEST AFRICA’S FIRST POPULAR TRANS-CULTURAL MUSIC Spread of Maroon Jamaican/Caribbean goombay frame drum music to West Africa via Sierra Leone from 1800. Links to migrant workers movements. Ghana regional developments of goombay; 2
Akan konkoma, Ga gome music, 1930’s simpa music of Dagbon and the use of the gome by Ga ‘cultural groups of the 1970’s (Wulomei etc)
8. FIFE AND BRASS BANDS. The emergence of brass band ‘adaha' highlife music in Cape Coast/El Mina from the 1880's. The importance on it of the 6,000 West Indian soldiers stationed in Ghana from 1870. Adaha offshoots - such as konkoma highlife. Comparison of the development of adaha and American jazz. MID TERM TEST
9. Spring BreaK
10. MARITIME INFLUENCE ON EARLY GUITAR/ACCORDION MUSIC Importance of visiting black seamen (particularly the Liberian Kru). Fanti Osibisaaba. The first Highlife recordings (1927/8). The Yaa Amponsah and Odonson (Akan ‘blues’) varieties of rural ‘palmwine’ highlife. Nigerian ‘native blues’, juju music and the maringa of Sierra Leone. Recent revivals Ghana’s Koo Nimo and Freetown’s S.E. Rogie.
11. DANCE ORCHESTRAS AND DANCE BANDS. Local Ghanaian elite ballroom orchestras from 1914 to the 1940s. The origin of term ‘Highlife’ (i.e. high-class life). The link between local dance orchestras and imported vaudeville shows and the origins of the Ghanaian CONCERT PARTY popular theatre. THE IMPACT OF WORLD WAR TWO American/British servicemen and rise of 1950’s swing-jazz influenced highlife dance-bands like E.T Mensah’s Tempos. Kofi Ghanaba’s introduction of Afro-Cuban percussion, the Tempos employment of the first professional female stage performers. King Bruce’s Black Beats and other pioneering Ghanaian and Nigerian highlife bands. Their role in the Pan- African/independence movement.
12. THE CONCERT PARTY. Overview of this local Ghanaian comic opera from 1920’s to the present. Early vaudeville shows and their indigenisation during the 1930’s. Post Second World War developments. The Jaguar Jokers concert party – rural tours and urban socialisation . The use of guitar-band highlife music by concert parties and E.K. Nyame’s role in this. The emergence of concert party actresses from the 1960’s.
13. AFRO-FUSION MUSIC OF THE 1970’S. Emergence of musical blends created by highlife musicians influenced by black diasporic jazz, soul and rock ‘n’ roll (i.e. black R&B) and reggae. The Afro-jazz of Kofi Ghanaba (Guy Warren), the Afro-beat of Nigeria's Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Osibisa's Afro-rock and the influence of West Indian Reggae on Nigerian and Ghanaian artists.
14. COLLAPSE OF THE GHANAIAN MUSIC INDUSTRY in the late 1970’s to 1980’s. Economic and political causes: political corruption in the late 1970’s, military coups, night curfews, a musical ‘brain drain’, the imposition of luxury import duties on musical instruments, the demotion of music in the education system. The formation of musicians unions. THE RISE OF TECHNO POP. Disco-music influenced ‘burher highlife created by Ghanaian expatriates in Germany in the 1980’s. Hiplife (Ghanaian rap) since the 1990’s.
15. GHANAIAN MUSIC SCENE SINCE THE 1980’s. LOCAL GOSPEL MUSIC. Traditional African religious dance. The use of dance in African separatist churches. The fusion of highlife and gospel in the 1980’s. The rise of women gospel artists. A comparison between the emergence of Ghanaian gospel and 1930s/40s American ‘hot gospel’. IMPACT OF ‘WORLD MUSIC’ AND AN EXPANDING GHANAIAN TOURIST INDUSTRY Ghana’s 3
economic liberalisation and the recent growth of commercial folkloric groups and cultural centres. Government recognition of the commercial entertainment sector, the new and controversial copyright bill (its folkloric tax clause), the World Bank interest in the African music industry and local poverty reduction strategies The growth of international ‘World Music’ and its impact on local Ghanaian/African music.
16. SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS AND CLASS EXAM/TEST
BIBLIOGRAPHY CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM NYU IN GHANA LIBRARY West African Pop Roots John Collins (Temple University Press, US, 1992) REQUIRED TEXTBOOK West African Popular Theatre by K.Barber, J.Collins & A.Ricard (Indiana Univ Press/James Currey, 1997) Highlife Time by John Collins (Anansesem Press, Accra, 1996). Sweet Mother by Wolfgang Bender (Trickster Verlag, 1985) Fela: An African Musical Icon by Michael Veal (Temple University Press, 2000) Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway editor Trevor Schoonmaker (Palgrave/MacMillan 2003) In Griot Time, Banning Eyre (Temple University Press, US, 2000) Chapts 3 & 10 (jalis & woussoulou) Makeba: My Story. Miriam Makeba & James Hall J. 1987. New African Library, N York. Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism, & Popmusic (Zimbabwe) T.Turino (Chicago Univ. Press,2000) Chapts 6-8 The Story of Juju Music by Ajayi Thomas. (Thomas Organiation US 1992) In Township Tonight (S. African) David Coplan. (University of Chicago Press 2008) Chapts 2-7 Mande Music by Eric Charry (University of Chicago Press, 2000) Chapts 3 & 5 (jalis & modern music) Fela:Kalakuta Notes. John Collins (Royal Tropical Institute Amsterdam 2009) Africa Oh Ye: A Celebration of African Music by G. Ewens (Guinness Books, UK, 1991).Chapts 4.9.& 10 (Sahelian West Africa, Zimbabwe & South Africa) PHOTOSTAT COPIES African Music A Peoples Art. by Francis Bebey. (Lawrence Hill, N.York, 1974) PHOTOSTAT COPIES African Music & African Sensibility,by J. Chernoff. Chicago Univ Press 1979. Chapts 2&3.PHOTOSTAT
OTHER SUGGESTED READINGS (some available on J Collins CD) Stern’s /De Capo’s ’s Guide to Contemporary African Music (vols. 1 and 2) by Ronnie Graham. (Zwan and Off The Record Press, 1988 and Pluto Press, London, 1998). Juju: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music by Chris Waterman.(University of Chicago Press, 1990) Rough Guide to World Music edited by Simon Broughton and co. (Rough Guide Books, 2004/5 ) Music Makers of West Africa John Collins (3 Continents Press/Passeggiata Press, Colorado, USA, 1985) E. T. Mensah the King of Highlife by John Collins (Anansesem Press, Accra, 1996) Dance and Society in Eastern Africa. T.O .Ranger (Heinemann 1975).
ARTICLES AND PAPERS Prof Collins will make available to the student a CD (to put on lap-top) of many of his writing on West African popular music: including books, articles, discographies and 150 music samples . Some of these are also available on his new 2010 website at www.bapmaf.com
VIDEOGRAPHY Films for classes will include commercial DVD’s on S. African & Sahelian music, Fela Kuti and the 1971 Ghana Soul to Soul Festival. Also snippets of film on traditional Ghanaian drum- dances from the BAPMAF archives pius productions John Collins was involved with: namely 1. ‘Repercussions’ (on Ghanaian popular music). BBC Channel 4/Third Eye Production, 50 mins, 1983. 2. ‘Rhythms of the World: Highlife in Ghana.’ Huschert Realfiln, Germany, 28 minutes, 1993. 3. ‘African Cross Rhythms’ (social context of music). Loki Films Denmark, 52 min, 1994. 4. ‘When The Moment Sings’ (African musical philosophy). Visions TV, Norway, 32 mins, 1995. 5. 'Brass Unbound' (on brass-band music in Ghana) ID TV, Holland, 45 minutes. 199.3 6. ‘Stage Shakers: Ghana’s Concert Party Theatre’. Kwame Braun, Indiana Univ Press, 103 mins, 2001. 7. ‘Highlife Harvest’. Ghana TV3 program on Ghanaian music scene economics, 25 mins, 2000. 8. ‘Women’s Digest’ GTV program (interviews with T.O. Jazz, Prof Nketia etc), 40 mins, 1999. 9. ‘Living The Hiplife’ by Jessie Shipley and Coltan Media 62 minute, 2007.
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STUDENTS CAN AT ANYTIME CONTACT PROF COLLINS At his Legon University Music Dept office or his Bokoor House/BAPMAF Highlife Music Institute Email: [email protected] & [email protected]. Tel numbers 0302 421964 (Bokoor House landline) and 024 3239488 (mobile)