Tagged: ghana
Out of Africa
Doctoral student Karl Haas (Ethnomusicology) is spending 12 weeks in Ghana this summer doing fieldwork for his dissertation, courtesy of a predoctoral grant he received from the West African Research Association. Karl is researching drumming in tribes of Ghana.
Pictured below are pictures of of Karl and his research assistant, Fatawu, scenes from Accra and Tamale, and a performance of Dikala. Karl explains, “The Dikala involves drumming, singing, and the playing of metal clappers called “sabaani”. The music is for when VIPs, such as chiefs or political dignitaries, die, and the sabaani are played by blacksmiths. In Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, descendants of sub-Saharan slaves play trance music involving these metal clappers, but their use in West Africa has all but disappeared. This may actually be the only place they are still used. Picture from Tamale, Ghana.”
