scholarly journals The Union Trade Company and Its Recordings: An Unintentional Documentation of West African Popular Music, 1931–1957

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 393-405
Author(s):  
Veit Arlt
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
West African ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
Trading Company ◽  
Field Recordings ◽  
Musical Cultures ◽  
Postcolonial Africa ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

This paper introduces a unique collection of roughly 700 historical recordings of African popular music generated by a Swiss trading company, which today is located at the archives of mission 21 (formerly Basel Missioin) in Basel. The music was recorded and distributed by the Union Trade Company of Basel (UTC) during the 1930s and 1950s in the Gold Coast and Nigeria. The collection represents a rich resource for the study of African history and cultures and caters for the growing interest shown by social historians of Africa in everyday life and accordingly in leisure activities and consumption.As music and dance undoubtedly play an important role in African social and religious life, they have received much attention and there is a longstanding tradition of ethnomusicological research that has led to a great number of sound collections. The historian interested in the “modern” and “postmodern” or in popular culture, however, tends in many cases to be frustrated by the material contained in these archives. The ethnographic collectors often showed a blind eye to the modernizing forces within the African musical cultures they researched and concentrated on documenting what they perceived as the “original” or “traditional.” Furthermore the collection and documentation of the popular music of the day was rarely on the agenda of national research institutions and archives in postcolonial Africa. In the case of Ghana at least three initiatives have resulted in important collections of music that go beyond a narrow ethnographic documentation. The first, by Prof. Kwabena Nketia at the Centre of African Studies at the University of Ghana, features a mixture of field recordings and a few commercial records. The others focus specifically on the commercial and popular. These are the Gramophone Records Museum in Cape Coast, discussed below by its founder Kwame Sarpong and the Bokoor African Popular Music Archives Foundation (BAPMAF) of John Collins in Accra.

Applying the “baby nursing model” in under-resourced audiovisual archives in Africa

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Opoku-Boateng
Keyword(s):  
African Countries ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Field Recordings ◽  
Extensive Documentation ◽  
Audiovisual Archives ◽  
The University ◽  
Traditional Arts ◽  
University Of Ghana ◽  
Private Collections ◽  
Positive Results

It is a well-known fact that there has been extensive documentation of African traditional arts in post-colonial Africa, which has contributed to the growing accumulation of field recordings in Africa that could form the nucleus for archives in individual African countries. These include private collections as well as recordings at broadcasting and television stations; government ministries such as Tourism, Culture and Information; museums and academic institutions. Sadly, these precious traditions – which have been expensively captured – are often not properly managed in their host institutions. The caretakers of this heritage mostly sit by as collections deteriorate and sometimes are disposed of due to lack of institutional support. Such practices prevail in most African archives. This paper proposes a new mode of consciousness of the value of audiovisual heritage materials by comparing them with human babies. This new archival management principle, ‘the baby nursing model’, has been adopted and practiced at the University of Ghana and has achieved positive results.

scholarly journals Renewing Cultural Resources and Sustaining J.H. Kwabena Nketia's Vision for an African Music Archive in Ghana

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colter Harper ◽  
Judith Opoku-Boateng
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
African Music ◽  
Cultural Legacies ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Local Students ◽  
A Site ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

This article examines the processes through which the J.H. Kwabena Nketia Archives has struggled to build a sustainable model for audio-visual archiving within an African university and looks to how its contents may serve future students and scholars in an effort to locate African cultural materials and knowledge production in Africa. The archive, operated within the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies, was named in honor of Professor Nketia in 2015 and is the realization of over six decades of gathering audio and visual data, acquiring new collections, conducting research, and preservation efforts. The core collection of quarter-inch reels were recorded by Nketia in the early decades of his extensive career shaping Ghana’s cultural policy, building teaching and research institutions, and studying music, culture, and language in Africa. As a part of the University of Ghana, the Nketia Archives provide a valuable resource for local students and scholars and creates a site in which broader conversations about the country’s cultural legacies are brought into the socio-political discourse. The archive is also a resource for housing and making available new acquisitions including over 300 recently digitized recordings of Ghanaian popular music from professor John Collins’ Bokoor African Popular Music Archives Foundation (BAPMAF). With ongoing challenges in accessibility, the Nketia Archives provides a valuable case study for how an African audio-visual archive is created and sustained.

scholarly journals The 2010 APSA Workshop on Global Perspectives on Politics and Gender: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, July 18–August 6, 2010

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (04) ◽  
pp. 851-852
Author(s):  
Helena Saele
Keyword(s):  
Dar Es Salaam ◽  
West African ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The West ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Politics And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

The APSA Workshop on Global Perspectives on Politics and Gender was convened in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from July 18 to August 6. It was the third annual residential workshop of a multi-year initiative that APSA is organizing in sub-Saharan Africa from 2008 though 2014. The first workshop took place in Dakar, Senegal (2008), at the facilities of the West African Research Center; the second workshop was convened in Accra, Ghana (2009), at the Institute for African Studies and the University of Ghana, Legon.

scholarly journals Gender Differences in Stressors and Coping Strategies Among Teacher Education Students at University of Ghana

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Grace S. Adasi ◽  
Kwaku D. Amponsah ◽  
Salifu M. Mohammed ◽  
Rita Yeboah ◽  
Priscilla C. Mintah
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
Brief Cope ◽  
Stress Levels ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana ◽  
Teacher Education Students

This study explored gender differences in stressors experienced by teacher education students at the University of Ghana, and adaptation stratagems they might utilise to manage stress. In 2018–2019 academic year, a total of two hundred and seventy (270) second- and third-year students were selected using random sampling procedure to respond to closed-ended and open-ended questions in a survey questionnaire. The questionnaire was adapted from Dental Environmental Stress (DES) to measure stressors students encounter and the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (Brief COPE) to measure students’ coping stratagems they might use to minimise their stress levels (Folkman & Lazarus, 1984). It was pre-tested to learners of the faculty of education at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, to ensure the reliability and validity of the statements. The findings show that the students use multiple strategies, such as praying/meditating and self-distracting activities to cope with stress. Although, females had higher overall perceived stress levels regarding encountered academic stressors and health stressors, the difference between genders was insignificant. Similarly, females had a higher perception of stress from psychosocial stressors when likened to males, however, the difference between genders was also insignificant. Regarding perceived coping stratagems, females utilised adaptive coping stratagems whilst males utilised maladaptive and avoidance coping stratagems although the difference between genders was also not significant. The study recommended among others that males be urged to likewise utilise increasingly adaptive strategies to control strain.

African Perspectives on Programs for North American Students in Africa: The Experience of the University of Ghana–Legon

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 28-33
Author(s):  
Florence Abena Dolphyne
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
American Universities ◽  
Exchange Programs ◽  
Kwame Nkrumah ◽  
American Students ◽  
Student Exchange ◽  
Student Exchange Programs ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

The University of Ghana is the oldest of the five universities in Ghana. The others are Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Cape Coast, the University College of Education in Winneba, and the University of Development Studies in Tamale. The last two are only three years old and do not as yet have student exchange programs with North American universities. Kwame Nkrumah University and the University of Cape Coast do have student exchange programs with a few North American universities.

scholarly journals Utilization of computer technology in public universities in Ghana: Implications for management

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Rosemary S. Bosu
Keyword(s):  
Staff Development ◽  
Computer Technology ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
Kwame Nkrumah ◽  
Lecture Notes ◽  
Access To Technology ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

This study investigated computer technology for instructional and administrative use in public universities in Ghana. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 450 academic staff and 98 administrators in three Ghanaian public universities: the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the University of Ghana (UG), and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technologv (KNUST).Computers were generally available for both lecturers and administrators 10 use. Availability' and access to technology did not differ significantly between universities. Academic staff used computers mainly for preparing lecture notes or reports while administrators used them mainly for preparing memos and reports. Forty-five percent of lecturers and 58% of administrators reported low or moderate skills in the use of computers. A majority of the respondents obtained their skills through self intuition rather than formal tuition. The findings suggest that universities could improve the availability; access and skills in the use of relevant technologies as part of their staff development programmes. Progress could be monitored by current accreditation programmes.

From Trinidad and Tobago to the World: Determining the role of Calypso in a new Era

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 7-11
Author(s):  
Malek Abdel-Shehid
Keyword(s):  
Trinidad And Tobago ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
West African ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
New Era ◽  
Transatlantic Slave Trade ◽  
Cultural Sovereignty ◽  
Caribbean Culture ◽  
Musical Cultures

Calypso is a popular Caribbean musical genre that originated in the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. The genre was developed primarily by enslaved West Africans brought to the region via the transatlantic slave trade during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although West-African Kaiso music was a major influence, the genre has also been shaped by other African genres, and by Indian, British, French, and Spanish musical cultures. Emerging in the early twentieth century, Calypso became a tool of resistance by Afro-Caribbean working-class Trinbagonians. Calypso flourished in Trinidad due to a combination of factors—namely, the migration of Afro-Caribbean people from across the region in search of upward social mobility. These people sought to expose the injustices perpetrated by a foreign European and a domestic elite against labourers in industries such as petroleum extraction. The genre is heavily anti-colonial, anti-imperial, and anti-elitist, and it advocated for regional integration. Although this did not occur immediately, Calypsonians sought to establish unity across the region regardless of race, nationality, and class through their songwriting and performing. Today, Calypso remains a unifying force and an important part of Caribbean culture. Considering Calypso's history and purpose, as well as its ever-changing creators and audiences, this essay will demonstrate that the goal of regional integration is not possible without cultural sovereignty.

Estimated attitude of students to cultural and leisure activities at the university

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (03) ◽  
pp. 268-281
Author(s):  
Usmanova Azizakhon Abdullajonovna ◽  
Kosimova Dildora Xashimovna ◽  
Abduraimova Barno Bakhtiyarovna
Keyword(s):  
Leisure Activities ◽  
The University

scholarly journals LAW, RELIGION, AND SAME-SEX RELATIONS IN AFRICA

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-71
Author(s):  
M. Christian Green
Keyword(s):  
Moral Issue ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Biblical Law ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
International Conference ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Political Act ◽  
The University ◽  
University Of Ghana

Some years back, around 2013, I was asked to write an article on the uses of the Bible in African law. Researching references to the Bible and biblical law across the African continent, I soon learned that, besides support for arguments by a few states in favor of declaring themselves “Christian nations,” the main use was in emerging debates over homosexuality and same-sex relationships—almost exclusively to condemn those relationships. In January 2013, the newly formed African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ACLARS) held its first international conference at the University of Ghana Legon. There, African sexuality debates emerged forcefully in consideration of a paper by Sylvia Tamale, then dean of the Makarere University School of Law in Uganda, who argued pointedly, “[P]olitical Christianity and Islam, especially, have constructed a discourse that suggests that sexuality is the key moral issue on the continent today, diverting attention from the real critical moral issues for the majority of Africans . . . . Employing religion, culture and the law to flag sexuality as the biggest moral issue of our times and dislocating the real issue is a political act and must be recognised as such.”

Medina Gounass: Constructing Extra-National Space in a West African Borderland

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
David Newman Glovsky
Keyword(s):  
Islamic Law ◽  
West African ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
National Space ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
History Of ◽  
Postcolonial Africa ◽  
Postcolonial States ◽  
The Town

Abstract The historical autonomy of the religious community of Medina Gounass in Senegal represents an alternative geographic territory to that of colonial and postcolonial states. The borderland location of Medina Gounass allowed the town to detach itself from colonial and independent Senegal, creating parallel governmental structures and imposing a particular interpretation of Islamic law. While in certain facets this autonomy was limited, the community was able to distance itself through immigration, cross-border religious ties, and smuggling. Glovsky’s analysis of the history of Medina Gounass offers a case study for the multiplicity of geographical and territorial entities in colonial and postcolonial Africa.

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