Negotiating Nationalism Through Ghanaian Contemporary Art Music: The Creative Patriotism of Ephraim Amu

Abstract

The emergence of nationalism in Ghana, formerly the Gold Coast, stemmed from resistance to British hegemony and imperialism paralleling similar movements in other West-African countries such as Nigeria and Liberia. Realising the need for cultural liberation and emancipation, West-African elite such as J. B. Danquah, J. E. Casely-Hayford, Ako Adjei, and Kwame Nkrumah inspired nationalist sentiments and led the fight for independence in the Gold Coast that was created as a synthesis of different ethnic cultures in West Africa through colonisation. As a contribution of their quota to the struggle, a number of African art music composers, for instance, Isaac D. Riverson, Joseph E. Allotey-Pappoe, Philip Gbeho, etc., attempted to decolonise music in the Gold Coast through their approaches to contemporary art music that could satisfactorily mediate the boundaries between the Africans’ surge towards Europeanism and their obsession for Africanism. However, the sui generis of Ephraim Amu has established a creative framework that has profoundly influenced subsequent generations of Ghanaian contemporary art music composers idealised for mediating collective cultural awakening in the country. Scholars acknowledge the potencies of Amu’s innovative approaches but have taken for granted why the genre negotiates nationalism within the universe of ethnic and linguistic synthesis. Therefore, by interrogating the sociopolitical events of the Gold Coast, institutional contributions, agencies of cultural negotiation, traits of development, etc., through qualitative research methodologies and the conceptual frameworks of Critical Sankofaism and Imagined Communities, the study posits that Ephraim Amu as culture intellectual and creative patriot engenders a community of African and/or Ghanaian contemporary art music by consolidating sociopolitical and religious sentiments and themes into a genre, capable of providing a medium for collective national expressions and the realisation of Culture-Self, hitherto, defining a political unit.