Asante Court Music and Verbal Arts in Ghana

The Porcupine and the Gold Stool

Kwasi Ampene

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000060324
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Ethnomusicology

Asante Court Music and Verbal Arts in Ghana is a comprehensive portrait of Asante court musical arts. Weaving together historical narratives with analyses of texts performed on drums, ivory trumpets, and a cane flute, the book includes a critical assembly of ancient song texts, the poetry of bards (kwadwom), and referential poetry performed by members of the constabulary (apae). The focus is on the intersections between lived experience, music, and values, and refers to musical examples drawn from court ceremonies, rituals, festivals, as well as casual performances elicited in the course of fieldwork. For the Asante, the performing arts are complex sites for recording and storing personal experiences, and they have done so for centuries with remarkable consistency and self-consciousness.

This book draws on archaeological, archival, historical, ethnographical and analytical sources to craft a view of the Asante experience as manifested in its musical and allied arts. Its goal is to privilege the voices of the Asante and how they express their history, religious philosophy, social values, economic, and political experiences through the musical and allied arts. The author's theoretical formulation includes the concept of value, referring to ideas, worldview concepts, beliefs, and social relationships that inform musical practices and choices in Asante.

1 Introduction

Ananse Ntentan (The Spider’s Web: Symbol of wisdom, creativity, and the complexities of life). Akan Adinkra pictographic writing.

While by no means exhaustive, my description of a present-day Akwasidae Public Assembly at Manhyia Palace is meant to highlight the centrality of court music and verbal arts as fundamental pillars of socio-political and religious life in Asante. With religious undertones, the periodic assembly is a performance of history, experience, and values. Knowledge of history is power, and the assembly provides a space for the performance of Asante history, as well as lived and current experience. The past and historical experience are encoded in the variety of musical arts in terms of instrumentation as mediating material culture, instrumental texts, drumming and dancing, songs, and referential and chronicle poetry. Artistic expressions are not restricted to the past; ongoing and current challenges are also artistically expressed. My rationale for choosing performing arts in the royal court is founded on the premise that since antiquity, Akan royal courts have been the focal point of the highest artistic expressions for the orderly function of state.¹ In addition to aesthetic and artistic value, the performing arts lend credibility, prestige, and power to chieftaincy and political structures. Court musicians are quick to point out how in the days of warfare and territorial conquests, several wars were won or lost just by capturing the musical instruments belonging to an adversary. This is succinctly expressed in instrumental verse by the nkɔntwema ivory trumpet group as: Nipa ɔne wo sɛ, kyerɛ wo mmɛn, kyerɛ wo dɔm (“those who claim your status, they should show their trumpets, they should show their people” (See Example 3.6). Power and prestige, meant to elevate the status of the occupant of the Gold Stool, is not limited to ivory trumpets, but also includes the variety of drums and court musicians. The previous situation is not unique to the Asante or the Akan. During the restoration of the Buganda monarchy in 1993, Peter Cooke describes a performance involving over 220 mujaguzo drums, an unnamed number of trumpeters, and seventy-four “praise drummers” (Cooke, 1996: 439). For the masses, artistic expressions at the courts “stimulate and maintain collective consciousness of state” (Nketia, 1987: 201). We may add issues of identity, as the word of caution in the Akan proverb seems to affirm: if you forget the motto of your chief’s ivory trumpets, you will be lost in a festival (sɛ wo werɛ firi wo kurom hene abɛn a, wo yera wɔ dwabɔ ase). That is, in Public Assemblies with several varieties of ivory trumpets sounding verses specific to their respective chiefs in a plural performance space, participants are able to identify where they belong by picking out the motto or philosophical statement of their chief’s ivory trumpets. Without that, they would be lost in a festival and the resulting plural soundscape.

Although the constant presence of court music and poetry in rituals and ceremonies is often observed, scholars have often been restricted from access to the vast resources of the Asantehene’s court, including the musical arts and their mediating material culture. However, my ethnographic description of the Akwasidae Public Assembly raises a number of fascinating questions that guide my study. For instance, using the July 17, 2016 Akwasidae as our frame of reference, how do we access the text-laden performances involving fɔntɔmfrɔm, mpintin, and kete drum ensembles? What were the ivory trumpeters, both short and long, expressing in the instrumental texts? How do we unpack ancient song texts, the verbal poetry of the bards, and the referential poetry of the constabulary? In order to address these questions, I weave together historical narratives with detailed analyses of texts performed on drums, ivory trumpets, and short trumpets. Additionally, I include a critical assembly of song texts, chronicle poetry of the bards (kwadwom), and referential poetry by members of the constabulary (apae). The focus throughout is on the intersections between lived experience, music, and values, and I refer to a variety of musical examples drawn from court ceremonies, rituals, and festivals, as well as from intimate performances elicited in the course of fieldwork. Since the performing arts are complex sites for recording and storing lived experience, and they have done so for centuries with remarkable consistency and self-consciousness, I will include the contemporary experience of the Asante in post-colonial Ghana. My description of the Adae Public Assembly brings into sharp focus a well-known practice in African cultures, where all modes of artistic expressions are tightly knit together in a holistic performance. Writing on the same subject, Ruth Stone refers to this conceptual framework as a “constellation of arts” and demonstrates how the Kpelle of Liberia, for instance, use the single word sang to describe three different types of artistic forms: an exceptional dance movement, a beautifully sung phrase, and outstanding drumming (Stone, 2000: 7–12). Due to disciplinary focus and space limitations, I shall limit my inquiry to court music and verbal arts, and occasionally make reference to visual arts and dance gestures when necessary for a fuller appreciation and understanding. As the official residence of the Asante king and the Asantehemaa, Manhyia Palace in Kumase has the largest collection of Asante visual and performing arts, and thus provides rich resources in a single space for scholarly engagement.

Unlike the court music of "Renaissance Europe, which was generally based on love songs and social class, Asante court music is not based on courtly love or the entertainment of the ruler. As we shall see in the following chapters, Asante court music and verbal arts are ritualistic, and depending on the type of ritual, all citizens can and do participate in court music.² Asante court music refers to all forms of music associated with Akan chieftaincy. Known as ahengorɔ in the Twi language, court music is different from popular bands including adowa, nnwonkorɔ, adenkum, akatape, asɔnkɔ, ntwiise, sanga, and others. It is also different from music for occupational groups such as hunters’ associations, fishermen, and farmers, or music performed as part of divination by traditional priests (akɔm). Furthermore, it is quite distinct from music for nubility rites for girls, children’s games, or song interludes for storytelling (anansesɛm).³ But there are noticeable overlaps, as in the use of atumpan drums in adowa ensembles and the court. In such cases, the atumpan at the courts tend to be bigger than those used in adowa groups.⁴ Similarly, the lead drummer in adowa ensembles may be referred to as Ɔkyerɛma, and he may play the speech mode type of drumming during performances, but he is not considered to be the Creator’s Drummer (Ɔdomankoma Kyerɛma). Such titles are reserved for the court drummer, who, among his duties, is to play drum poetry (ayan), send messages, play eulogies, offer condolences, and other activities. The leader of an adowa group (adowahemaa) is also one of the elders at the court of the ɔhemaa. Apart from the atumpan drums, the shapes and sizes of drums such as the apentema and petia drums in the public domain are the same as those used at the courts. Another area of overlap is the participation of popular bands at festivals, funerals, and other events, when rulers lead the communities or when performances are at a ruler’s palace as described in the Prologue. My observations imply that, although court music may be different on several levels from music in the community, it is seen as being on a continuum of different domains of musical expression. The notion of a continuum of music in the communities and the courts results in both domains being featured performances during festivals or funerals. All citizens, rich or poor, do participate in court dances as long as they know how to dance to, say, fɔntɔmfrɔm or kete. Asante or Akan court music is not based on class, since court musicians and their families are from the same communities as other citizens, and Asante court music is not conceived as entertainment for rulers. Unlike the practice in other kingdoms in Africa, including the Jali among the Mande or the Lunsi among the Dagbon, Asante court musicians are not professional musicians who are able to perform for compensation outside of their roles at the court.

Despite the ubiquity of court music and poetry, and the variety of musical instruments and ensembles at Manhyia Palace, it was not until the early twentieth century that aspects of Asante arts appeared in R.S. "Rattary’s trilogy (1923, 1927, 1929). Based on anthropological research, Rattary’s monographs essentially fulfilled his mandate as the head of the newly created Anthropological Office in the colonial Gold Coast, and the resulting colonial bias is to be expected. From the mid-twentieth century, especially in the days leading up to and just after independence, Ghanaian scholars became engaged with traditions that had been neglected during the colonial era and began producing their own publications based on field research. Pioneering research by Kwabena Nketia (1963) and A.A.Y. Kyerematen (1966) introduced a few drums, ivory trumpets, and some ensembles to the general public and academics. Yet, while more recent specialized studies by William Carter (1971, 1984), Joseph Kaminski (2012), and Kwasi Ampene (2016) have contributed to our understanding, the astonishing variety of royal instruments, ensembles, and repertoires remain relatively unknown. Starting in 2009, I became the first ethnomusicologist, since the 1980s, to be granted unrestricted access to the centuries-old court music and verbal arts practiced at Manhyia Palace. In order to ensure the success of my research, the Asantehene elected the Chief of Treasury, Nana Kwadwo Nyantakyi III, to preside over and coordinate my meetings with courtiers and court musicians. Known in Akan as the Sanaahene, the Chief of Treasury is responsible for the practical day-to-day running of Manhyia Palace, making his responsibility all-encompassing. He provides funds for the royal household, including the Asantehemaa’s court, for the making of new regalia and the repair of existing ones including sound-producing and musical instruments. Further, he provides funds for royal funerary rites, funerary rites for courtiers (nhenkwaa), palace chiefs and officials, and for those inside and outside the kingdom. Similarly, he provides items for rituals at various locations within the kingdom.⁵ Having served three kings—Otumfoɔ Agyeman Prempeh II (1935–1970), Otumfoɔ Opoku Ware II (1970–1999), and Otumfoɔ Osei Tutu II (since 1999)—Nana Nyantakyi III has accumulated an extraordinary wealth of knowledge on Akan and Asante culture spanning over five decades. Fortunately for me, I worked with him previously, although unofficially, from 1995 to 1998 during my field research on the Akan vocal genre Nnwonkorɔ for my doctoral dissertation and first monograph (see Ampene, 2005). In those early days of my academic career, I was impressed by his encyclopedic knowledge of Asante and Akan traditional political systems and the associated material culture.

Since 2009, I have consistently spent two or three months of the summer in Kumase recording the oral histories of sound-producing instruments and ensembles, as well as col...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of music examples
• Acknowledgments
• Prologue
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Asante court music in historical perspective
• 3 The language and poetry of ivory trumpets and durugya flute
• 4 The language and poetry of drums
• 5 Rhetoric and history: Kete songs and songs by physicians
• 6 Rhetoric and history: chronicle and referential poetry (kwadwom and apae)
• Epilogue: concluding Akwasidae public assembly
• Appendix A: The genealogical structure of the royal Ɔyoko dynasty of the Gold Stool of Asante from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first century
• Appendix B: The genealogy of Asante kings and ahemaa (queens)
• Index