Music is an important part of Ghanaian culture, permeating nearly every part of life here. And while most people associate drumming with Africa music, Ghana pioneered an entirely new genre: highlife.
Searching for the Roots of Highlife
Highlife is a product of colonialism and globalism. Highlife is most often described as beginning in the 1920s and ’30s. However, its roots can be traced back even further, to Adaha music in the 1880s.
Adaha was brass band music played in the coastal areas dominated by the Fante people. This style was introduced by the thousands of West Indian soldiers that were stationed in Cape Coast and Elmina by the British. This Adaha music spread throughout the villages, though because many of the villagers could not afford the brass instruments, the people adapted to drums and call-and-response singing. This continued to spread across West Africa through the 1930s.
In the 1920s, colonialism thrived in Accra, Ghana’s capital, and the aristocracy particularly enjoyed foxtrots and calypso tunes. These genres of music, played by local musicians, mingled with local Ghanaian rhythms, like Fanti Osibisaaba.
The Fante people took their traditional percussion music and mixed it with the guitars and accordions of the Kru seamen from Liberia. The Kru had developed an Africanized cross-fingering technique on the guitar, which also spread throughout the continent. This cross-pollination became the Osibisaaba beats.
The Osibisaaba beats continued to change and adapt as they mixed with Akan music, creating palm-wine music.
When poor folks in the streets heard their street songs being played by full orchestration for the aristocracy, the term highlife was born. Yebuah Mensah, E.T. Mensah’s (a highlife great) brother, said:
“The people outside [the clubs] called it the highlife as they did not reach the class of the couples going inside, who not only had to pay a relatively high entrance fee of about 7s 6d (seven shillings and sixpence), but also had to wear full evening dress, including top-hats if they could afford it.”
The Rise of Highlife
Through the 1930s and ’40s, Ghanaians migrated throughout West Africa, bringing the nascent highlife genre with them. As the music continued to pick-up the influences of local music, two different kinds of highlife came about: dancehall and guitar.
Guitar band highlife really took root in the rural areas because of the historic use of stringed instruments. Koo Nimo and E.K. Nyame are prime examples of guitar highlife.
Dance band highlife, on the other hand, became a staple of the urban centers and rose to prominence after World War II. What began as large dance orchestras, shrank to small professional dance bands. E.T. Mensah was one of the main pioneers of this style.
After gaining independence in 1957, Mensah began to incorporate even more traditional sounds into highlife, such as the 3:2 clave-motif. Kwame Nkrumah saw highlife as an opportunity to contribute to a national identity and pull people away from tribalism. State-sponsored highlife bands began to pop up all over the place. E.T. Mensah even played highlife with Louis Armstrong when he visited Ghana, bringing him lots of recognition and expanding the influence of highlife.
The Heyday of Highlife
Through the 1960s and ’70s, highlife really thrived. Osibisa was the biggest name in highlife, and they didn’t even live in Ghana. Mixing highlife with rock ‘n’ roll and other Afro-beats produced their signature sound.
Disco, funk and soul began to influence highlife as well. Highlife bands played throughout the country and internationally.
As the sound spread across the continent, other hotbeds of musical experimentation were inevitably influenced. Fela Kuti, the famed Nigerian Afro-beat artist, was influenced by highlife and created a whole new image of African music.
Highlife in Modern Music
Today, highlife continues to adapt and thrive among current tastes. In the 1990s, with the rise of hip-hop, a number of artists combined rap and highlife to create hiplife.
Ghanaian expats and musicians in Germany combined the electronic music that was popular there with highlife to create “burgher highlife.”
While highlife might not be at the heights it once was, many clubs I’ve been to devotes Saturday nights to highlife music here.
What are some of your favorite highlife bands and songs?