Female Song Tradition and the Akan of Ghana ─ The Creative Process in Nnwonkoro

The Akan are a group of people in Ghana consisting of a variety of ethnic groups who speak mutually intelligible dialects and share cultural norms, musical ensembles, and traditions. Nnwonkoro is a song tradition confined to adult Akan women who in the past sang to entertain themselves in the night when the moon shone brightly. Because of the urbanization and socio-cultural transformation of Akan society, nnwonkoro has become part of public celebrations in contexts of both rejoicing and mourning. Herself an Akan, Ampene (musicology, U. of Colorado-Boulder) explains how the music has changed because of its new contexts, focusing especially on how the musicians compose new songs in the old tradition to meet contemporary needs. The disk contains 28 excerpts from live field recordings. Annotation c2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kwasi Ampene is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA.