African Music
African Music

Author: Alexander Akorlie Agordoh

Publisher: Nova Publishers

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9781594545542

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It is customary in the Western world for people to use the term 'African music' as if it were a single clearly identifiable phenomenon. One should not be surprised at the diversity of music and the difficulty of isolating distinctly African features common to the whole continent. This important book is an overview of music in Africa.

The Akan Diaspora in the Americas
The Akan Diaspora in the Americas

Author: Kwasi Konadu

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2010-05-12

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 0199889279

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In his groundbreaking study of the Akan diaspora, Kwasi Konadu demonstrates how this cultural group originating in West Africa both engaged in and went beyond the familiar diasporic themes of maroonage, resistance, and freedom. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Akan never formed a majority among other Africans in the Americas. But their leadership skills in war and political organization, efficacy in medicinal plant use and spiritual practice, and culture archived in the musical traditions, language, and patterns of African diasporic life far outweighed their sheer numbers. Konadu argues that a composite Akan culture calibrated between the Gold Coast and forest fringe made the contributions of the Akan diaspora possible. The book examines the Akan experience in Guyana, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, former Danish and Dutch colonies, and North America, and how those early experiences foreground the modern engagement and movement of diasporic Africans and Akan people between Ghana and North America. Locating the Akan variable in the African diasporic equation allows scholars and students of the Americas to better understand how the diasporic quilt came to be and is still evolving.

West African Rhythms for Drumset
West African Rhythms for Drumset

Author: Royal Hartigan

Publisher: Alfred Music Publishing

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 9780897247320

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With Freeman Kwazdo Donkor and Abraham Adzenyah. Based on four Ghanaian rhythmic groups (Sikyi, Adowa, Gahu and Akom), this book and CD will provide drumset players with a "new" vocabulary based on some of the oldest and most influential rhythms in the world. A groundbreaking presentation!

Asante Ntahera Trumpets in Ghana
Asante Ntahera Trumpets in Ghana

Author: Joseph S.Kaminski

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-12-05

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1351956868

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Based on the author's fieldwork in Ghana with the Asante and Denkyira ntahera trumpeters, this book draws on interviews, field recordings, oral traditions, written accounts, archaeological evidence, transcriptions and linguistic analyses to situate the Asante trumpet tradition in historical culture. There are seven ivory trumpet ensembles in residence at the Asante Manhyia Palace in Kumase, and ivory trumpets are blown at every Akan court. The Asante trumpets, which are made from elephant tusks, are symbols of Asante strength and have an important role in Asante cosmology. Surrogate speech is performed via lipped tones through a tusk in praise of the Asante royal ancestors and the living Asante king. This book contains transcriptions and analyses of surrogate speech texts and their accompanying ensemble songs. When several ensembles play simultaneously as a representation of power, they make staggered entrances, beginning separate songs in order. This results in a simultaneous performance of separate songs. This phenomenon, which Kaminski has termed 'sound-barrage', is an ancient aesthetic, and is performed to protect the kingdom and the ancestors. It is both spiritual and acoustical. This 'sound barrage' is believed to act in the metaphysical world, dispelling evil spirits from court rituals, ancestor venerations, and funerals, for there is a spirit in the sound.

THE FACET OF BLACK CULTURE
THE FACET OF BLACK CULTURE

Author: Elias Yussif

Publisher: Trafford Publishing

Published: 2013-07

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1466988479

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The Facet of Black Culture is a very unique book that talks about culture of the black people, the birth of a person to his final departure to our ancestors and how his property will be shared if he or she has any. This book begins with the brief history of some ethnic groups in Africa, particularly Ghana. In this chapter you will learn how some of the ethnic groups moved from their original geographical locations to present-day Ghana after which you will move to the next chapter, which talks about birth and naming ceremony in Africa. Chapter 2 basically talks about how naming ceremonies are performed in some parts of Africa. One will also learn about the first religion in Africa in this book; the features and beliefs of the traditional religion are found in this book. Marriage is the dream of every young man and woman in Africa; how marriage rites are performed Africa can also be found this book. The meals and preparations, the art and craft, music and dance, celebrations and festivals, death and funeral rites among black people are all tactically discussed in The Facet of Black Culture.

Music and Dance Traditions of Ghana
Music and Dance Traditions of Ghana

Author: Paschal Yao Younge

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2024-10-17

Total Pages: 477

ISBN-13: 0786485310

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The music and dance traditions of Ghana's four main ethnic groups are covered comprehensively in this book. It discusses concepts of music, dance and performance in general, and also goes into cultural perspectives, performance practices and the form and structure of 22 musical types or dance drumming ceremonies. As a guide to multicultural education, it provides teaching methods and components of curriculum development. Numerous photographs, maps, and musical scores generously illustrate the book.

Poetic Investigations
Poetic Investigations

Author: Paul Naylor

Publisher: Northwestern University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9780810116689

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This text studies five contemporary writers whose radical engagements with poetic form and political content shed new light on issues of race, class and gender. In a detailed reading of three American poets - Susan Howe, Nathaniel Mackey and Lyn Hejinian, and two Caribbean poets, Kamau Brathwaite and M. Nourbese Philip, the book argues that these writers have produced new forms of poetry that address the holes in history that more traditional forms of poetry neglect. By refusing to limit their work to lyrical expressions of personal experience, it maintains that these writers produce poetry that explores the linguistic, historical and political conditions of contemporary culture, advancing a formally and thematically challenging critique of the ways in which women and people of colour are represented. Far from constituting a unified school of poetry however, the book argues that these five writers represent different facets of the various kinds of poetic practice taking place on the margins of contemporary culture.