Abstract:
Songs have played important roles in the political history of Ghana.
From the colonial to post-colonial times, songs have featured
prominently in the body politic of the country. In contemporary times,
political songs have taken center stage in expressing issues about
governance, democracy and development. Using the qualitative model,
the paper interrogates the contributions of political songs in sustaining
good governance and development in Ghanaian politics. In the conduct
of this research, the following research questions were posed. What are
political songs? How do they contribute to the sustenance of good
governance and development in Ghanaian politics? What messages do
these songs send out to the public? What roles do political songs play
during elections? The first section focuses on the history of political
songs in colonial and post-colonial Ghana. The second section discusses
three selected political songs to ascertain the messages they send out to
the public. The third section deals with the roles of political songs in
sustaining good governance and development in Ghana. In this section,
the paper employs textual analysis and interviews to analyze six-selected
political songs that depict the theme of good governance. The paper
concludes that political songs educate the public about governance
issues, help politicians to send messages to the electorates during
electioneering campaigns and preach the message of peace and unity to
Ghanaians. Political songs are relevant in sustaining good governance in
contemporary Ghanaian politics