Traditional Way of Telling Stories in Africa Still Remains the Greatest Despite the Influx of Social Media...Dr Adinkra.

Traditional Way of Telling Stories in Africa Still Remains the Greatest Despite the Influx of Social Media...Dr Adinkra.

1.  Traditional storytelling remains Africa’s greatest narrative tool — Dr. Adinkra

2.   Social media surge has not killed Africa’s storytelling tradition — Dr. Adinkra

3.   African traditional storytelling still reigns supreme — Dr. Adinkra

4.    Dr. Adinkra champions traditional African storytelling in social media era

5.   Traditional storytelling holds its place despite social media influx — Dr. Adinkra

Ghana's ace broadcaster and musician, Dr Luther King Kwame Adinkra, has explained that despite the influx of social media, the traditional way of telling stories in Africa remains the greatest.

The song writer said, "Long before the rise of digital streaming, African communities used songs, chants, proverbs, and drum language to preserve history, as evidenced by the presence of griots in Mande royal courts, fontomfrom drummers and atumpan players in Asante’s royal courts, etc."

Dr Adinkra made the observation when he presented a paper on the topic "Music as Cultural Memory: Storytelling Traditions in Contemporary Akan Music" at Durham University in the United Kingdom.

He explained that "By combining romantic desire with elements of traditional folklore and the supernatural, the song demonstrates how contemporary music can retell and provide new meanings to traditional stories."

Read below the full paper:

Title: Music as Cultural Memory: Storytelling Traditions in Contemporary Akan Music

Dr. Luther King Adinkrah, USTED, Ghana

Thank you, Chair. I stand before you, knowing exactly where I come from, as told through the oral history of our ancestors. The obligation has now fallen on me, as a teacher and a musician, to also document our enduring oral history, passed down to us in African Music and Literature, just as the Griots of Mande culture did and still do in preserving their genealogy and historical footprints.

I am excited to speak on a subject that is both deeply African and universally human: the symbolic and cultural relevance of my songs as stories. My genre is Ghanaian highlife.

In one of my songs titled, Metowo Kropon, a man proudly recounts naming his first child after his mother, his second after his father, and his third after a Paramount Chief in the area.

Yet, when he reflects on the woman he loves, he imagines something far greater. Rather than simply naming a child after her, he dreams of acquiring a vast expanse of land, building a magnificent city, and naming that city in her honour. Have you ever dreamed on that?

That is a very powerful and ambitious declaration. It also elevates naming beyond a personal gesture of affection to an enduring act of remembrance. It suggests that true love seeks permanence, that the greatest tribute one can offer is not merely a name within a family, but a legacy etched into the geography and history of a people.

According to Asante Oral tradition, Okomfo Anokye, the revered priest and co-founder of the Asante Kingdom, planted two trees, called Kum, in two separate settlements to symbolize their destinies. The settlement where the tree sprang up forcefully was named Kumasi 

(under the Kum tree), whereas the settlement where the tree withered came to be known as Kumawu, reflecting the tree's failure to flourish.

Mbiti (1969), Vansina (1985), and Finnegan (2012), argue that in many African cultures, naming is far more than an act of identification; it is an act of preservation, a means of recording history, and a way of transmitting cultural memory across generations. Through names, stories, and oral traditions, African societies explain who they are, where they come from, and the values and aspirations that shape their future.

In his book, Music of Africa, JHK Nketia observed that African music has never been only about rhythm, melody, or dance. It has long served as a vessel of memory, identity, and communication, preserving history, transmitting cultural values, and expressing the collective experiences of communities across generations

Long before the rise of digital streaming, African communities used songs, chants, proverbs, and drum language to preserve history, as evidenced by the presence of griots in Mande royal courts, fontomfrom drummers and atumpan players in Asante royal courts, etc.

 

At the heart of my song Metowo Kropon is the powerful African idea that naming a place is itself an act of memory.

(Sing)

The second song l want to share with you is titled Feyiase. The song engages directly with the history of the Asante people. The narrative of the song draws inspiration from the historic battle between the Asantes and the people of Denkyira, which came to be known as the Battle of Feyiase, according to Wilks 1975.

Historically, the Denkyira Kingdom had exercised authority over several Akan states, including the Asantes. The Asantes were required to pay tribute to the Denkyira king to demonstrate political allegiance and loyalty. Tensions eventually arose when the Asante leadership resisted this authority, leading to military confrontation. The Denkyira forces advanced toward Kumasi and established a military camp at Feyiase. The battle that followed resulted in a decisive Asante victory and marked the decline of Denkyira dominance and the beginning of the Asante confederacy noted by Wilks, 1975

The song reimagines this historical event through a fictional love story. In the narrative, the Princess of Feyiase falls in love with a Denkyira prisoner of war who is serving at the Feyiase palace.  Eventually, the Princess becomes pregnant, and now she has to help her lover to escape in order to avoid death. The man flees at night to Dunkwa, the capital of the Denkyira Kingdom, where he now persuades the newly enthroned King, Nana Boamponsen, to launch another military campaign against the Asante Kingdom so that he can rescue his lover at the Feyiase palace. If you were the King, what would have been your advice?

This song attempts to humanize historical conflict and demonstrates how music can transform historical memory into emotional storytelling for a contemporary audience.

The third and final  song that I want to share with you is Mmoatiahene (the King of the Dwarfs). The song draws inspiration from childhood experiences and village storytelling traditions associated with Christmas.

In the village where this narrative originates, children traditionally plant banana trees in front of their houses on Christmas Eve and decorate them with flowers as part of the celebrations. Children will often collect blossoms from a tree known locally as Akonkodee (an oak tree), which conveniently blooms around Christmas.

However, elders would warn children not to stay under the tree for long periods, especially at night. (Rattray, 1927) noted that, according to Akan folklore, the tree was believed to be the dwelling place of dwarfs, and in Akan cosmology, dwarfs possess the ability to make people disappear or vanish.

So, in the story told through the song, a desperate young man consciously stands under the Akonkodee tree at night, waiting for the King of dwarfs to perform his magic and make him vanish to his lover, who is miles away from him.

By combining romantic desire with elements of traditional folklore and the supernatural, the song demonstrates how contemporary music can retell and give new meaning to traditional stories.

The modern rhythm of the song makes the story accessible and appealing to younger audiences while preserving the elements of Akan and African folklore.

Today, many African artists continue the tradition of storytelling.

We tell stories through Afrobeats, highlife, hiplife, rap, Afro-fusion, Amapiano, and many other styles.

Finnegan, 2012; Barber, 1997; Okpewho, 1992 all affirm my belief that “the instruments may be modern, the platforms may be digital, and the audience may be global, but the storytelling impulse remains deeply African.

Nketiah (1997) again noted that in contemporary African music, the artist is often more than an entertainer. The artist becomes a historian. Sometimes the artist becomes a moral voice. Similarly, Ben-Daniels et al. reaffirm this assertion by reiterating that the African writer assumes the multi-responsibility of a historian and entertainer, among other duties. 

So, when we speak about contemporary African music, we must resist the temptation to treat it as mere entertainment or imported fashion. It is also a repository African philosophy. It is a way of documenting history. The kwardwom of the Asante Royal court is a repository of knowledge, history and a library. 

And now before the Dwarfs take me away l must conclude that,

Africans do not only live by sound and rhythm; we live by the meaning of sound and rhythm.

So I'm ready, King of Dwarfs let me vanish to the backstage.

Thank you very much.

Source: Alrich24newsgh.blogspot.com