Author: Gina Donovan

Adenkum is a type of recreational band and associated dance style found among several Akan peoples, not just the Fante. Singers are predominantly if not entirely females–the only males in such a group typically are a pair of dondo (hourglass pressure drum) players. Adenkum music uses the same timeline rhythm that we heard in the

odenkese group’s performance, played on afirikyiwa, abaa and, in a slightly varied form, several adenkum (rattles). The dondo players interlock their parts to produce a steady and rapid stream of articulations that are subtly inflected by their squeezing of the lacing on the drums. Unlike so many

other forms of Fante and Akan music, there are no further drums used in adenkum to contribute to a more complex polyrhythmic texture. Songs are delivered in this style in the call-response format with a few women serving as cantors and the rest as the chorus, who generally sing in unison but occasionally in two-part harmony. Song texts can deal with moral issues or historical or current events, or can be boastful in nature.

The one adenkum band of Anomabu performs at funerals and for large community celebrations. It had been active for about thirty years at the time of the arranged recordings heard here (November 1992).

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Audio Selections:

During the audio clip, try to focus on the support drum part while hearing how the lead part cuts across it to produce shifting composite rhythms. You can also tap along at times with the bamboo clappers. As you listen to the vocal parts, notice how a forceful vocal production is used and how the songs seem to be set in the high register of the singers’ vocal range.

Texts / Translations for the Songs Heard on the Audio Example:

[Egya Nkrumah is a great warrior] whose war dress was never removed. Even if he were not at the war front, he still performed his juju to win the war.

[Oba yi w’ana ba oruwu]
Adze yi w’ana dze a oruwu
Yaa Asuantse Buoo ayee
[Someone’s child is dying] (Note: Yaa Asuantse was a woman warrior who led the Asante army to victory in c. 1903.)

[Esigyafo yeatsew hen ayer mpanyimfo mbohwe]
[Elders, come and witness our performance]

[Aye a kotoku bo aben]
Donkonyi no ho akyer no ampa.
Donkonyi n’ayer saw a!
Proverbial: [There are times that the sack can produce music] (i.e., the slave can blow the horn)
The slave, can he also dance? (Note: here they are saying that the slave cannot dance as royals do.)
Even if you are poor, there is always hope for prosperity.

[Womma abofra nkohwe Egya dakor]
[A child should visit his father] (Note: paying the elders a visit for a day is not a waste of time. Probably the group is cautioning youths to study their culture from their elders.)

Video Selection:

The short video clip focuses first of the drummers. The group’s leader Kwaw Atta, nearest the camera, is performing the lead part. The end of the clip includes some older women dancing to this music.

Performance Forces:

several abaa	a pair of bamboo concussion sticks; time-keeping instrument
odenkesekyen	single-headed tubular drum with elongated barrel-shaped body, struck with one stick beater and with an open palm; lead rhythmic instrument
ansaba	single-headed tubular drum, footed, struck with two straight sticks; supporting rhythmic instrument
cantors	male, two trading off
chorus	male, approximately eight

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Odenkese, which translates roughly as “because of love,” is, as best as I can tell, an old form or Fante recreational music. It was an all male form of music making at the time I recorded the group in 1993, open to any interested men in Anomabu (however, it sounded as though at some time in the past female singers were included). I was told that the odenkese style is at least 150 years old, although the key members of the band heard here have been together for only about thirty years. The two drums used in the accompaniment of this band are found also in a number of other Fante ensembles associated with asafo companies and religious cults; drums that clearly originate from outside the Fante territories–rectangular drums, congas and western-modeled side and bass drums–are not used for this music. Unlike much of the drumming in other recreational bands but more like deeper Fante drumming, one drum (the ansaba) is clearly a support rhythm drum, while the other (the odenkesekyen) functions as a lead drum. The only time keeping instrument is the bamboo clapper (abaa), which is used to keep a short beat pattern throughout the performance: beat-beat-beat-rest. As usual, the voices are organized into a call and response relationship with the chorus sometimes singing in harmony. Whereas many of the recreational groups heard on this site have been clearly influenced by the popular music idiom known as highlife, the drumming and singing of odenkese is deeply rooted in uniquely Fante sensibilities. The music of this group offers us probably the purest echo of pre-highlife-era Fante recreational music making of the six styles found in this section of the site.

This group plays at funerals, community celebrations, or any time that they wish or are asked to play. Their song texts seem to be a bit more serious in content than is the case with other recreational music. Moralistic, proverbial, praise, historical, and boastful texts are used, and sometimes they borrow songs from the music of warrior organizations.

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Audio Selections:

In the audio clip notice in particular the general intensity of playing, the multi-layered bell parts, the occasional two-part harmony in the choral responses, and the forceful vocal production of the cantors.

Texts/Translations for the Songs Heard on the Audio Example:

[Aworansu.]
Group appellation: [to pour water into a container or onto the ground]

Kolomashie gyina ho.
Cautions members of the group to stand firm, remain united.

Efua Nyame. Ata Kwesi beba. Efur dontweon.
Efua Nyame is a pregnant woman being advised to exercise patience and to wait for her husband. Ata Kwesi, her husband, will arrive soon.

Onnyim ye Kwaa Ata.
Kwaa Ata (the group’s patron) is being condemned for not being good at doing things; the group is making fun of him.

Yooyoo.
“Okay,” or “agreed.” (Note: Used as nonsense syllable in this piece.

Mosinyi a oreba Conductor a oreba Kwaa Moku woefir yoomo.
Yaa Aniwa e Kwaa Moku woefir yoono.
A Mosi person (Mosinyi) from Northern Ghana, a bus conductor, and Yaa Aniwa are being told that Kwaa Moku has no money, that he even bought hair dye on credit.

Yerbekyer aboa obi ammba.
A song about a lost hunter who might have been killed by a wild animal.

Aworansu e asem ba a hen ara, oko ba a hen ara.
Performers are bragging about themselves, how they are called upon when there is a quarrel and war.

Obonoma, yeye a obeye.
Yedze ebibir nsa yedze aborofo nsa yeye a obeye (Yedze kentsen ko nsu.)
Another bragging song. Obonoma, a variant on the name of Anomabu, is being used as a group appellation here. With the whiteman’s wine and the blackman’s wine, they can do what is expected of them. They can fetch water with a basket.

Kyer no manngyae no.
Aye a kyer no odze ne sekan ato ne tsir doe.
Aye a kyer no manngyae no.
Expresses the need to catch (arrest) a person who has put his machete on his head.
Machetes are supposed to be held in the hand.

Ama hwe me monso monhwe wo.
Ama (name given to Saturday-born females), care for me so that I also care for you.

Bra Yaw ofi Nkran reba.
Brother Yaw is being welcomed from Accra.

Video Selection:

The video clip includes a number of close-ups of the various instruments in the ensemble (refer to “Performance Forces” section below for the instrument names). The energetic, animated quality of the performance is clearly seen, and an appropriate style of movement for this music, expressed spontaneously by a number of women present at the session, is captured toward the end of the clip.

Performance Forces:

afirikyiwa	metal castanet consisting of a wide ring worn on the thumb and a somewhat globular-shaped bell hanging from the second finger of the same hand; time-keeping instrument
two ager	thick metal percussion plaques, struck with a large nail; used in pairs to produce a two-tone ostinato
adawur ntaa	double iron bell, clapperless, struck with wooden stick; support time-keeping instrument
bankese	single-headed frame drum, rectangular-shaped, struck with an open palm; support drum
adamu	single-headed frame drum, rectangular-shaped, struck with an open palm; support drum
agyedu	single-headed frame drum, rectangular-shaped, struck with an open palm; support drum
ampaa	single-headed tubular drum, goblet-shaped, struck with both hands; support drum
akonko(n)	small military-style side drum, double-headed, cylindrical body, struck with one wooden beater; rhythmic instrument
cantors	males, three trading off
chorus	males, approximately twenty-five

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Kolomashie is a genre of recreational music the origin of which is not amongst the Fante but another coastal (non-Akan) group, the Ga (whose homeland is to the east of Anomabu, in the area now occupied by the national capital, Accra). I have no sense as to how old this tradition is or when and how it was picked up by the Fante of Anomabu, although it seems logical that contact between fishermen of these two groups made possible its

transmission. The group heard on and seen in the clips on the next page is locally called Kolomashie #2 and nicknamed “Club Boys.” When I asked them why they were called “Kolomashie #2″ they replied that up until recently (this was in 1993) there had been an older, rival group in town that has since disbanded. Rectangular drums from both groups were being used for the recording session, and group emblems for both groups are visible on the drumheads. The drum for Kolomashie #2 displays clubs (as on a deck of cards) framing the name, in English, “Club Boys.”

I would describe this genre as quintessential Fante male music making–tough, rough around the edges, aggressive, macho. Vocal production has an almost shouting quality to it with the cantors in particular appearing to compete with one another in a race to see who goes hoarse first. The forms of drums used in the ensemble, especially the rectangular frame drums and the akonkon, reinforce the “foreign” (non-Fante) origins of this musical style. Three types of bells are found in the

ensemble, with the afirikyiwa providing the basic highlife time line while the two ager players add a two-tone ostinato and the adawur ntaa player improvises a two-toned rhythmic line. The three frame drums work together to provide a rhythmic underpinning to the more independent and spontaneously-generated rhythms created by the ampaa

and akonkon players. All the instrumentalists and vocalists appear to be operating at full volume. The final section of the audio clip features the voices accompanied only by sporadic and non-metrical punctuations by some of the drummers. Two-part vocal harmony is present throughout much of this section.

Kolomashie, like other recreational forms, has no institutional association. To a certain extent this independence is reflected in the song texts, which are often topical in content and in the case of this performance make reference to individuals actually present at the recording session.

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There exist a cluster of music organizations in Anomabu that are in no way ritually or ceremonially bound to traditional institutions. These recreational groups can gather and perform for no other reason than their members wanting to do so. However, one is most likely to hear such a group in the context of a funeral for a commoner, the group being contracted for the occasion by the family of the deceased. While it is desirable to have a recreational band perform for the wake and funeral of an adult person, the music is not ceremonial in nature nor is the type of music to be performed prescribed–the presence of such a group simply makes the occasion out of the ordinary and allows people in attendance to spontaneously dance their grief. Another context in which recreational bands are heard is the yearly community festival of thanksgiving. For such events these recreational ensembles are just another of many elements contributing to the festive and cacophonous atmosphere of such celebrations.

Recreational groups form around one or a few individuals respected for their musical knowledge. Membership in these groups is open to everyone in the community. While some groups perform styles of music for mixed membership, several styles require either all female or all male singers–drummers, however, are always men, even in otherwise all female groups. Although some groups stay in existence for several generations, most of them have a more transient existence, both because styles of recreational music come into and go out of fashion, and because groups might break up as a result of personality clashes or for lack of funds to repair damaged drums. During my year in Anomabu, there were about a half dozen active recreational bands to be found, another inactive one (due to the disrepair of their drums), and yet another that had recently disbanded. Several of the satellite villages in the Anomabu Traditional Area supported one or a few recreational groups, a few of which are represented below.

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Audio Selection:

The group heard in this selection is attached to the Kyirem No. 6 asafo company of Anomabu, whose asafoakyere is Ama Sektiwah. It is, I believe, the only active adzewa group in Anomabu, and it has been in existence for over one hundred years. There is only one drum in this ensemble, so the musical texture of this type of music is not as polyrhythmically rich as is the case with many other Fante genres. Two time-keeping patterns are present: a simple one performed in unison on gourd rattles by several group members, and a more asymmetrical pattern performed on a metal percussion plaque by a single performer.

Texts / Translations for the Songs Heard on the Audio Example:

Yee ogya Kwesi Bentum.
[Ohia ye wu.]
Poverty is killing Kwesi Bentum.
[Poverty is killing.]

Yehu no daa, Ohia ye wu.
[Amandzehun yehu no daa.]
[We are continuously in the grip of poverty and suffering.]

Video Selections:

The first video selection, made at a recording session, begins with the asafoakyere pouring a libation to the ancestors to ask for their support. Although adzewa groups are female organizations, it can be seen in this clip that the drummer is a male–Fante women, indeed Akan women in general, are prohibited from drumming, so a male member of the associated asafo company is enlisted. I never found out why the second male, seen in this clip singing and playing a danka, was involved in the performance.

The second selection was taken during the funeral for Mr. K. B. Annan, a successful construction contractor and an officer in the Kyirem No. 6 asafo company of Anomabu. While the deceased’s employees follow the hearse in trucks with their horns blaring, on foot alongside the hearse is the adzewa group the members of which sporadically burst into a brief episodes of performance.

Performance Forces:

asow	metal percussion plaque, struck with metal rod; time-keeping instrument
danka	gourd rattle with external net of beads, shaken or stamped against an open hand; time-keeping instrument
ampaa	single-headed tubular drum, goblet-shaped, struck with both hands; rhythmic instrument
cantor	female
chorus	female (although one male participated), approximately fifteen

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Adzewa groups are women’s auxiliaries to Fante asafo (warrior organizations). Their membership generally consists of older women who sing and dance at ceremonies. All members of an adzewa group are daughters of male members of a particular asafo company. Asafoakyere (“sister of the warriors”) is the title bestowed on the leader of an adzewa group. Traditionally, adzewa groups followed their asafo company to the battlefield to provide support services. Today there are no battlefields, but adzewa groups still provide moral support for their asafo companies during festival processions and at funerals, as well as providing their own music on such occasions. The women play gourds (danka) while singing; the gourds are sometimes believed to contain supernatural power due to being kept in a room with an obosom of the company.

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Audio Selection:

The audio clip presents an extended example of the full drum and vocal ensemble of the Kyirem Co. No. 6 of Anomabu. It was recorded during the funeral for an officer of the company. All the basic components of Fante ensemble music are perceivable in this example, from the strong bell pattern (played on two large bells by two players) to the lead drummer vacillating between the dance and speech modes of drumming. The forced, almost shouting style of male singing is evident especially in the cantors’ voices (three men alternate in this role). The chorus part is less pronounced than is usually heard with this group; several company members could not forego fishing that day (the funeral took place on a Saturday instead of a Tuesday, which is the day of the week during which the spirit of the sea is honored and fishing is prohibited).

Texts / Translations for the Songs Heard on the Audio Example:

[Yerebo don safohen ewu]
yerebo don dom nye mbra
[We are ringing the bell to announce the death of the captain of the warriors]
We are ringing the bell so that people should come.

Omanhen e yese yerebo don e.
Safohen bi okyir hen.
Hen safohen e hen ara a.
Paramount chief, we are ringing the bell (i.e, listen to us)
Our captain hates us.
Our captain, here we are.

Yeregye aba [kuwmba yeregye aba.]
Pa hen kyew.
Yeenya e.
[We are coming home as champions.]
Beg to us. (note: said to the enemy)
We have got it.

[Yenam o Paapa boa hen.]
Nsu afon hen.
[We are still on the way (i.e., fighting), help us, father (i.e., leader)]
We are fed up with the water.

[Bobo aben] abofra roko a mannko.
Opanyin roko a mannko.
Bobo aben.
[Come and play the horn] with us.
Don’t go with either the young or the old.
Just come and play the horn with us. (Note: Come and join the asafo company.)

[Onyimpa rowu.]
[Someone is dying.] (Note: the group is calling for help for a man on the verge of death.)

Video Selection:

In this brief video excerpt taken during a funeral (for a fuller documentation of this event see: Events Involving Music–Funeral for Asafo Officer), the bell players and the drummers can be seen in the foreground and the singers in the background. The intensity of this organization’s music is captured nicely in this excerpt.

Performance Forces:

two adawur	single iron bell, clapperless, struck with a wooden stick; time-keeping instrument
asafokyen	single-headed tubular drum, elongated barrel-shaped body, struck with one stick beater and one open hand or occasionally two stick beaters; master drum
ampaa	single-headed tubular drum, goblet-shaped, struck with both hands; support drum
ansaba	single-headed tubular drum, footed, struck with two straight sticks; support drum
kumkum	single-headed tubular drum with elongated barrel-shaped body, struck with one stick beater and with an open palm; support drum
cantors	male, four trading off
chorus	male, approximately twelve

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A tradition dating back at least to the seventeenth century amongst the Fante is for each town to have from two to seven warrior organizations called asafo (sa=war, fo=people) companies. In a given town, one’s membership in a particular asafo company is inherited through one’s father, i.e., patrilineally. Each company possesses a name that has local significance either in terms of its function in war, its position in the hierarchy of the state, or its members’ occupation or history. Companies are also known by number (a result of the British requiring such organizations to register with the colonial government)–e.g., Kyirem Co. No. 6 of Anomabu.

Asafo companies serve a number of political and social functions in their communities even though their primary historical function–as military units–is no longer relevant. Each company has a well-defined chain of command: a senior officer of the company, several heads of squads within a company, a chief scout, etc. All positions are inherited patrilineally. Other positions in a company include a flag bearer (flags being important emblems of a group’s identity), a drummer, priests, the group of elders, and a military policeman (who is responsible for keeping order during meetings).

The identity and spirit of each asafo company is embodied in its principle drum. Indeed, the Fante word for “drum” is often used synonymously with “company,” for when asked how many companies there are in town the reply is often “there are seven drums.” A considerable amount of specialized attention is directed towards such a drum, from its early stages of construction, during its ceremonial use, and even after it is retired from regular use. An understanding of this special treatment of a musical instrument must begin with the recognition that traditionally the Fante are animists who believe in spirits they call bosom, who inhabit natural objects such as trees, rocks, or ponds. An asafo company’s post or meeting place is structured around a mound of clay, believed to contain supernatural power, and a nearby tree that is considered an obosom. Also, some sort of structure is constructed at the post to house company property and ceremonial paraphernalia. Originally, such structures were simple huts. Since the colonial period they have in some instances grown into impressive cement edifices decorated with sculptures of lions, leopards, and other animals, or taken on the form of a warship or airplane. The primary obosom of an asafo group is

the company drum (asafokyen), which is made from an odum tree that itself is believed to be an obosom. Before felling the tree, the carver will offer a bottle of gin and eggs or a fowl to the obosom in the tree, saying “Odum tree, we need a new drum. We offer you drink, fowl and eggs. After we have taken you, help us, and come dwell in our drum.” The skin of a red deer is used for a drumhead. After construction is completed it is brought to the edge of town where the entire company meets it, offers more sacrifices, then parades it through town firing salvos from their guns until they reach the post storehouse where it is placed. Drums that are worn out are saved. The original drum of the company is held to be its most powerful obosom, and later asafokyen are called its officers. Sacrifices of eggs and fowls are often made to these drums. Thus, the asafokyen comes to represent the collective voice of the company and, along with the company’s flags, serves as a visual symbol of the group’s identity when it participates in community celebrations.

When I say the drum serves as the voice of the company, I am not speaking metaphorically. The language of the Fante people is a tonal one, and instruments such as drums can be used as speech surrogates to convey texts. There exist numerous tales of riots, not uncommonly leading to fatalities, between companies that were precipitated when, during a ceremonial procession, the drummer of one company hurled a drummed insult toward another company as they pass that company’s post. Such incidents were in part what led the British colonial authorities at the turn of the twentieth century to require all asafo companies to register with them.

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