The Highlife and the Ghanaian Novel
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2013-12-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This paper examines the different ways in which three Ghanaian novelists adopt the lyrics of the highlife, the popular West African musical form, into their novels. Ama Ata Aidoo in Changes makes a fleeting allusion to the words of a highlife song, but provides in that brief moment an ironic comment on the irrepressible optimism that is so prevalent among Ghanaians. Cameron Duodu in The Gab Boys shows a more sustained adoption of the highlife in which he not only expresses his own love of the music, but more significantly uses it as a prop for his realism, for his vivid depiction of time and place. Finally, AyiKweiArmah’s first twonovels employ the lyrics of the highlife and a focus on its rhythm as a device for thematicreinforcement and as a means of probing the Ghanaian character.