Browsing by Author "Opoku-Boateng, J."

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Archives and the Public Good – 70 Years of University of Ghana’s Contribution to Unifying Ghanaian Cultures: The J.H. Kwabena Nketia Archives in Perspective
(University of Ghana, 2018-06-08) Opoku-Boateng, J.
National independence in many African countries has been followed by a cultural self-assessment. Many African heritage institutions as well as some institutions of learning, therefore, started undertaking research and documentation of their cultural traditions in the wake of and after independence. The initiative taken by the University of Ghana to record, preserve, promote and disseminate knowledge of traditional music and related arts, is a remarkable achievement of the twentieth century. Four years into the establishment of the University of Ghana (UG), the idea of unifying the nation through collecting and archiving Ghanaian musical resources was conceived by young Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia, a research fellow in African Studies at the Sociology Department of the University. Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia embraced this initiative and generously supported the young Nketia with the necessary resources. The unique collection hosted by the Archives has brought new challenges and insights, not only to the music public, but also to scholars, researchers, educators and record managers in Ghana and beyond.
The J.H. Kwabena Nketia archive at the University of Ghana- Legon
(History in Africa, 2020-02-14) Opoku-Boateng, J.; Cann, E.; Ntewusu, S.A.; Owusu, S.
This report is on the J.H. Kwabena Nketia Archive at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra. In the light of growing destruction of public archives in Ghana, mainly due to chieftaincy and land litigation but also because of the lack of a proper maintenance culture, this report will suggest that other, non-conventional archives, such as the J.H. Kwabena Nketia Archive should be explored by historians and researchers. This report highlights the contribution of J.H. Kwabena Nketia who sought to preserve information that is crucial at a time when the world seems to be abandoning most of the most important and significant aspects of Africa’s cultural and artistic history
Local Preservation of a Global Heritage, International Co-operation and the Digitization of Written and Non-Written Material at the University of Ghana, Legon
(2015-07-08) Barfi-Adomako, O.; Opoku-Boateng, J.
Since the 16th century Africa and in particular today’s Ghana has with an ever increasing speed become entrenched into a global network of intellectual, commercial and technological exchange, whose ambivalent nature also reflects in the very state and nature of the documents, that this history of incorporation has left behind. In this joint presentation an Archivist and Systems Librarian from the University of Ghana will share their experiences during the digitized of historical material with a special emphasis on the amount, prospects and challenges of international co-operation that has been involved in its preservation. While the digitization of rare and hitherto unavailable documents on Dutch economic activities in the Gold Coast is executed by both the Balme Library and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) with partial funding from the Dutch Embassy; a precious post- and pre-independence collection of traditional music by J. H. Kwabena Nketia who taught as the first major African Musicologist in USA is currently been digitized in a joint effort of Ghanaian and American teams from Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana and New York University’s Audiovisual Preservation Exchange (APEX) under Making African Academic Resources Accessible or MAARA project. The different nature of these historical sources (written and paper-based vs. audiovisual media) finally adds yet another comparative dimension to this lecture: In spite of various overarching similarities each of these collections touches upon the important issue of international cooperation and accessibility of the preserved material in its own peculiar way.