This paper exposes Nicodemus Kofi Badu as one of the relatively younger generation Ghanaian Choral Music composers. It is projected as a spotlight into his family and educational background, musical endeavours as well as titles and awards he had won. This information built up in the paper was conducted through interview with Kofi Badu himself. In addition I collected his pieces and studied to ascertain the fact that he can be characterized a younger generation composer who has utilized traditional music elements in his choral works. It is palpable among other things that Nicodemus Kofi Badu belongs to the third generation of Ghanaian Choral Music composers.This implies that he has received training from the first and the second generations and has incorporated what he learned in his works to make him distinct from his contemporaries. The paper closes that, in order to come out with much music theory related to African art music, research works must be conducted on more composers of diverse styles in Africa/Ghana.

The need for the creative forces of the playwright, the director, the actor, the designer and the architect as well as the dexterity of the general crew to forge and constitute a cohesive, potent effort in the development of a successful theatre production cannot be over-emphasized. As theatre artists, it should serve us well to take into cognizance the impact of what the likes of Adolphe Appia, Gordon Craig and the doyenne Efua Sutherland spent a large part of their lifetime to achieve in order that theatre might be what it is today and ought to be in the already-here tomorrow. This essay considers the inseparable interplay of the academic thinker’s invaluable inferences and the practically creative academic’s tangible exhibitions and demonstrations.

The Arts can be active instrument for meaningfully progressive development in Ghana. It can also be used as ‘litmus test’ in national economic development to expedite the developmental success stories of Ghana. Can Ghana rethink the place of her art in national development to save her from her titanic economic affliction? The paper attempts to discuss the massive artistic orientation for Ghana in using her arts to accumulate wealth and promote health to her people, and justify how this could be done, supporting this argument with empirical and circumstantial evidences. Based on the findings of this study, further suggestion are given through which wealth creation and health promotion could be maximized so that the arts and craft industry could become the lynchpin of the country’s economy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the original indigenous music of the foundation emergence and the decline of Ghanaian highlife music.  The foundations of Ghanaian highlife music can be traced between the1880s and the 1920s through Ghanaian native entertainment music, colonial military and police marching bands, local masquerades, brass bands and the popular ‘concert’ party theatre. Ghanaian highlife music emerged on the scene from the 1920s to the 1970s.The first Ghanaian highlife music was recorded in 1928 in London by the Kumasi trio under the leadership of Jocob Sam. This indigenous music style was known as the palmwine highlife music. It rose to its peak during the independent and post independent eras with hits such as E. K. Annang’s ‘Onua do’ and E..H. K. Williams ‘mene wobeko Tamale’. The momentum was sustained in the post-independent era by Daniel Amponsah’s rendition of ‘Yaa Amponsah’ and ‘Odo Akosomo’ and Kwaa Mensah’s ‘Odo me, me som do no’. The end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s saw the decline of indigenous Ghanaian highlife music with the advent of both popular music from Europe and America and electric guitar bands. Today, Daniel Amponsah popularly known as Koo Nimo stands as a living legend of the indigenous Ghanaian highlife music style.

The popular conventional view of the brain is that, it is rational, logical, ruler of all. The body in this medium has been primarily considered as merely the vehicle that carried the brain from one cerebral task to another. Now, however, current research has revealed that there is no hierarchy, no separation between the body and the brain. What the Greeks knew 2000 years ago that in order to obtain the best performance from the brain, the body and brain need to be tuned together. Formerly, the press and books informed us of physical fitness as a means of increasing mental sharpness and reducing stress, to overall health and well-being.  But the story emerging from brain research is amazing.  

This paper examines the roles that art plays in the various aspects of festival celebrations that occur among various societies in Ghana. The paper identifies and analyses the prospects in importance of art as a justification for the celebration of contemporary festivals in Ghana. In discussing the paper, some attempts have been made to examine art as a nucleus of culture and how art constitutes the vehicular body by which traditions are transmitted from generation to generation. This is based on the fact that the concept of art as reflected in Ghanaian cultural festivals, revealed what art is and why its infusion in festival celebrations in Ghana.  The authors therefore, argued that art is a dynamic and adoptable product which has a socio-cultural heritage component, and that is why art is a major component in the celebration of festivals and it performs both sacred and secular roles in the traditional festivals.

The idea of a particular society or region creating a kind of theatre, which would be seen as authentic cannot be underestimated. There is the need to seek expressions which have the capacity of conveying our peculiar experiences as an African nation in our performances (drama), while relieving us from the somewhat burden of entrenched Eurocentric classics drama impositions. This paper firstly attempts to justify the need for the search for an authentic Ghanaian theatre, secondly, bringing to the fore how creative writers can view as well as tap into indigenous knowledge, thus, the rich cultural heritage, history and totality of  the people’s experience as a source material for theatre/ drama which may qualify as an authentic Ghanaian theatre. Postcolonial theatrical discourse is the framework in which this paper is situated.

Traditionally, the aesthetics of music is concentrated on the quality and study of the beauty and enjoyment of music. Through the writing of Kant, the ancient term aesthetics (sensory perception) received its present day connotation. The paper discusses the notion of aesthetic experience in an African context without overlooking the western concept of the beautiful and the sublime. The paper also suggests the utility of aesthetics in the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to explore the aesthetic experience in 4mpε as an analytical tool. It looks at the choices or preferences that are exercised by music makers and music users and the ideas behind them. Data for the study was collected using observations, oral interviews and informal interactions. The research question that directs the discussions in this paper is: how does the 4mpε music maker and user interpret the music in aesthetic terms. Findings indicate that the enjoyment and appreciation of music is conveyed diversely, and aesthetic experiences in music are tied to people’s values and tastes.

This paper considers the new trends that have taken place in asafo musical performance, taking Kyirem Asafo No.1 of Ajumako Mando, Ghana, as a case study. It seeks to examine the interplay between tradition and innovation and the sociocultural impact. The study describes the retrospective aspect of asafo music performance some decades ago and goes on to bring to the fore some changes that have been brought into it to sustain and modernize it. It is seen that education and social change are powerful forces influencing most innovations of asafo music. It calls for a concerted effort of all traditional music makers to embrace the changes pertaining to asafo musical performance and use them to modernize other existing musical genres in their areas.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems are the local knowledge systems that are unique to a given culture.  The information base of a society which facilitates communication and decision making are all areas that help in developing a community. Some development strategists in Africa and elsewhere in the developing countries are now paying attention to indigenous culture which they hitherto believed hindered development and therefore must be ignored in contemporary development programmes.  The same critics of indigenous knowledge systems are now calling for modifications within the cultural systems to support modern development and change. Cultural variables are now perceived as very important tool in any attempt to generate behavioral change among people and therefore must receive attention. This paper considers especially the communicative potency of folk media for participatory and sustainable development as against the sometimes cynical reference to popular art-forms as conduits for mere entertainment. It will also seek to explore the pessimism with which Indigenous Knowledge and Communication Systems in Africa are viewed.  It further contends that, even in a media environment saturated with Western approaches to technology practices, traditional media still have a role to play. Attention is also paid to the importance of combining the traditional African and Western media systems in producing and delivering development communication, and projects, that the two systems can be complementary and indeed can accomplish much more in cohesion than either on its own.