Sunsum Sessions –
Music
Accra, 10th March 2018
The resonance of former highlife great Charlotte Dada, reigning highlife legend Koo Nimo, prince of highlife Kyekyeku, musical filmmaker Anita Afonu, and writer on music Eli Tetteh.
Anita Afonu
Ghanaian filmmaker Anita Afonu runs production company Akuba Films. Some of her acclaimed documentary work includes African Maestro (2015), a portrait of the life and work of ethnomusicologist Prof. Kwabena Nketia; and Perished Diamonds (2012), a film about “the rise and fall of Ghana’s film industry and the controversial sale of the film industry and its repercussions on Ghanaian cinema, culture and identity in recent times” (Afonu, CV). Afonu has screened her work at several international festivals and panels, including FESPACO, African Women in Film Conference, and at the University of Michigan’s Department of Afroamerican and African studies.
Charlotte Dada
Charlotte Dada: The Girl with the Golden Voice, a title she earned when she started off her career with the Uhuru Dance Band early in the 1960's. She also sang with Franco and the Walking Shadows before breaking off as a freelance solo artist, recording with Leader of Uhuru Dance Band Stan Plange and his Experimental Group as well as with the Britain-based group; the Cool Blaze.
Kyekyeku
Kyekyeku combines musical traditions from roots Palmwine (A style of Ghanaian folk) Hilife and Afrobeat; performing live in new and exciting sounds. Described by CNN as 'Wizard of the Guitar' Kyekyeku carries a sound draped in acoustic guitars, intricate percussive grooves and lush horns, locked between folk and a throbbing city Highlife beat. He creates a unique high-energy sound mixed in with Highlife and Afrofunk of fellow countrymen Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas erupting in a pulsationg Afro-urban musical broth.
He has collaborated with world-renowned musicians including Koo Nimo (GH), Peter White (UK/Jazz), Pat Thomas(GH), Ambolley(GH) Thais Morel (Brazil), Mayra Andrade (Cape Verde), Blick Bassy (Cameroun) etc. Kyekyeku & Ghanalogue Highlife proudly reintroduces vintage Highlife music from the late 70s - 90s and linking that to recent Afro-urban music.
Kyekyeku says “our need to make this music again stems from the discontinuity and gap created between the previous and modern eras largely due to coups d'etats, curfews, religious transitions and mass exodus of musicians abroad”. Kyekyeku & Ghanalogue Highlife thus re-establishes the link and evolution to modern urban highlife music; madly loved in Ghana.
Koo Nimo
Koo Nimo has undoubtedly established himself as Ghana's foremost exponent of acoustic guitar highlife and folklore (palm wine music), with more than 100 songs to his credit. He is not only a musician but a teacher of the art, and strives to preserve Ghanaian culture through music and the telling of stories; he is one of the few African musicians whose works are studied in the West African Examinations Council syllabus for music.
By the age of 19, he was teaching brass band music, drumming and the guitar in his village, when he was not in school. It was at this time that he adopted the stage name of Koo Nimo, meaning, one who takes the blame for what someone else has done.
It was not until independence that he first received national acclaim through his performance of folk music at festivals and on Radio Ghana. He organized and directed the Kumasi Adadam Agofomma Group which promoted classical music through drumming and dancing. The group received international recognition by performing at several international festivals like the Festival of Folk Music, the African Music Village etc.
He has served as President of MUSIGA (Musicians' Union of Ghana) and interim chairman of COSGA (Copyright Society of Ghana). In 1990 his album Osabarima became the first work by a Ghanaian artist to be put on CD. He has won many awards including the Asanteman Award from the Asantehene; Konkoma Award; the Flag Star award from ECRAG (Entertainment Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana); a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Columbia University, USA; and a honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) from The University of Science and Technology, Kumasi.
Eli Tetteh
Eli Tetteh is a Lecturer in Ashesi University’s Department for Arts & Sciences. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University, USA and a Master in Arts from Gonzaga University, USA.
Eli worked as an editor in the book publishing industry before joining Ashesi in 2008 and helping to establish and oversee the university’s Writing Centre. He left in 2010 to pursue graduate studies at Gonzaga University where he was part of a team that developed a distance learning initiative providing tertiary education to displaced communities in Kenya and Malawi.
Eli returned to Ashesi in 2014 to manage the Writing Centre alongside teaching Written and Oral Communication, Text and Meaning, and other courses within the liberal arts core. In addition to managing the Writing Centre, he teaches Written & Oral Communication, Text & Meaning and African Literature & Film. A writer and editor, Eli is also the author of the chapbook Ellipses and has been published in GOOD magazine, DUST magazine and nKENTEn.
