/ 12 March 2007

Living the highlife in Ghana

Historian Martin Meredith records that when Ghanaian independence leader Kwame Nkrumah learned he was expected to take the lead at an independence ball he “groaned, complaining he could only dance the highlife”.

He might have felt the same way if he were still alive to attend this week’s official celebrations to mark Ghana’s 50 years of independence from colonial rule at which crowds of dignitaries and heads of state spent many hours watching military brass bands parade past. Nkrumah might have felt more comfortable beyond the police cordons, where the soundtrack to the street parties, free concerts and beach bashes is still “highlife”.

Highlife, a fusion of African and Western influences that is as distinctive as South Africa’s township jazz, the blues of North America or Brazil’s samba, is a music that has defined Ghana’s history.

Until the mid-20th century, it was the music of the upper class, played by dance orchestras to Europeans and African elites. But when Ghanaian musicians blended African drums, guitar techniques from Liberian sailors and the brass instruments of colonial military bands with jazz, highlife broke out of the concert halls and on to the streets.

Professor John Collins, a musicologist at the University of Ghana, says, “Ghanaians hijacked European colonial and military music and made it their own right under the noses of their colonial masters. It was not the dance orchestras of the elites, but the guitar bands of the masses that became the music of independence.”

Rebelling against the establishment appealed to Nkrumah, who led the split from a political party that the British were grooming and started a mass movement for self-government.

Highlife also suited Nkrumah’s wider purposes because, as broad-based non-ethnic music, it was ideal for encouraging the idea of a new nation. The highlife guitar bands of the Fifties threw their support behind Nkrumah, even travelling with him on state visits.

The joyful, easygoing music of the late Fifties and early Sixties encapsulated the optimism of the early years of independence. During these musical boom years, highlife spread beyond Ghana’s borders, especially to Nigeria. But, as Nkrumah’s economic mismanagement, paranoia and dictatorial tendencies took hold in the mid-Sixties, even his old musical supporters became critical. In 1966, few were sad to see Nkrumah overthrown by the military.

Between the Fifties and Seventies, there were an estimated 500 highlife bands, but the dark years of military rule in the Seventies and Eighties caused a decline: curfews were imposed and the economy collapsed still further, leaving little to spend on entertainment. As a result, many musicians fled the country for Europe. When Jerry Rawlings took power in 1981, he imposed an import duty on musical instruments, which all but silenced highlife in Ghana.

In its place, American rock, reggae and gospel music became popular, but abroad it was a different story. Ghanaian expatriates invented “burger highlife” in Hamburg, Germany, again fusing new and old influences using modern drum machines and synthesisers.

The 1992 elections legitimised Rawlings as the head of state and the relative stability, democracy and economic growth of the last 15 years has come hand-in-hand with a resurgence in highlife, or at least new forms of it. “Raglife” incorporates popular reggae and ragga styles, while “hiplife” is a fusion with hip-hop that is today the most popular form of highlife music. Two years ago, Ghana’s current President, John Kufuor, lifted the import duty on instruments, spurring a move back towards traditional highlife.