Legon Journal of the Humanities Volume 27 No. 2 2016

189 Pages·2017·3.94 MB·English

Vol 27. 2 (2016)
SPECIAL ISSUE: Music, Health and Wellbeing: African Perspectives

LEGON
JOURNAL OF THE
HUMANITIES
COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES, UNIVERSITY OF GHANA
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Legon Journal of the Humanities, 27 No. 2
LEGON JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES

VOLUME 27, NO. 2 (2016)
SPECIAL ISSUE: Music, Health and Wellbeing: African Perspectives

GUEST EDITORS
Florian Carl
Eric Debrah Otchere

EDITOR
Augustine H. Asaah

COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES,
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA

E-ISSN: 2458-746X
ISSN: 0855-1502

Legon Journal of the Humanities, 27 No. 2 P a g e| iii
Legon Journal of the Humanities is indexed on African Journals Online
(AJOL) and Ghana Journals Online (GHANJOL)

EDITORIAL BOARD

Nana Aba A. Amfo ………………………………………………………Chair
Associate Professor of Linguistics
Dean, School of Languages, College of Humanities
University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
[email protected]

Augustine H. Asaah ………………………………………………………Editor
Professor, Department of French
School of Languages, College of Humanities
University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
[email protected]

Rosemary Amenga-Etego ………………………………………Assistant Editor
Senior Lecturer, Department for the Study of Religions
School of Arts, College of Humanities
University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
[email protected]

Esi Sutherland-Addy ……………………………………………………Member
Associate Professor
Institute of African Studies, College of Humanities
University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
[email protected]

Susanne Gehrmann ……………………………………………………...Member
Professor of African Literatures and Cultures
Department of Asian and African Studies
Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
[email protected]

Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni ……………………………………………...Member
Professor, Department of Development Studies
Professor and Head, Archie Mafeje Research Institute (AMRI)
University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
[email protected]
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Legon Journal of the Humanities, 27 No. 2
Cas Wepener ……………………………………………………………Member
Professor of Religions and Head
Department of Practical Theology
University of Pretoria, South Africa
[email protected]

Joshua Amuah …………………………………………………………..Member
Senior Lecturer and Head
Department of Music
School of Performing Arts, College of Humanities
University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
[email protected]

Proofreader: Abobo Kumbalonah, Lecturer, Department of English, School of
Languages, College of Humanities, University of Ghana

PAST EDITORS
1974-1977: Lawrence A. Boadi
1987-1994: John N. D. Dodoo
1994-1999: Alex K. Dzameshie
1999-2003: E. Kweku Osam
2004-2009: Gordon S. K. Adika
2009-2015: Helen A. Yitah

Legon Journal of the Humanities, 27 No. 2 P a g e| v
ADVISORY BOARD

Moradewun Adejunmobi, Professor, African American and African Studies,
University of California, Davis, USA; President, African Literature Association
(ALA).

Charity Akotia, Associate Professor of Psychology; Dean, School of Social
Sciences, College of Humanities, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.

Emmanuel K. Akyeampong, Professor of History; Professor of African and
American Studies, Center for Government and International Studies, Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Jane Ande, Professor, Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management
Studies, University of Jos, Nigeria.

Li Anshan, Professor of International Relations; Director, Institute of Afro-
Asian Studies and Center for African Studies, Peking University; Vice-
President, Chinese African Studies, China.

Elizabeth Ardayfio-Schandorf, Professor Emerita, Department of Geography
and Resource Development, School of Social Sciences, College of Humanities,
University of Ghana, Legon; Vice-President (Arts), Ghana Academy of Arts
and Science (GAAS), Accra, Ghana.

Richard Boateng, Associate Professor; Head, Department of Operations and
Management Information Systems, University of Ghana Business School, Col-
lege of Humanities; University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.

Perpetua S. Dadzie, University Librarian, Associate Professor; Department of
Information Studies; College of Education, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.

Audrey Gadzekpo, Associate Professor of Communication Studies; Dean,
School of Information and Communication Studies, College of Education, Uni-
versity of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.

Hyun-Chin Lim, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Founding Director of Asia
Center, Seoul National University; President, Korean Social Science Research
Council, Korea.

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Legon Journal of the Humanities, 27 No. 2
Dorothy Odartey-Wellington, Associate Professor of Spanish, School of Lan-
guages and Literatures, University of Guelph, Canada.

Tope Omoniyi, Professor of Sociolinguistics; Director, Center for Research in
English Language and Linguistics (CRELL), Department of Media, Culture,
and Language, Roehampton University, UK.

David Owusu-Ansah, Professor of History; Executive Director, Faculty Access
and Inclusion, James Madison University, Harrisonburg-VA, USA.

Nicola Piper, Professor of International Migration, Department of Sociology
and Social Policy, Director of Human Rights and Democratization (Asia Pacif-
ic), The University of Sidney; Convener, Sidney Asia Pacific Migration Net-
work (SAPMIN), Australia.

Laud Ato Quayson, Professor and Director, Center for Transnational and Di-
aspora Studies, University of Toronto, Canada.

João José Reis, Professor, Department of History, Federal University of Bahia,
Salvador, Brazil.

Maria Koptjevskaja Tamm, Professor of General Linguistics, Department of
Linguistics, Stockholm University, Sweden.

Legon Journal of the Humanities, 27 No. 2 P a g e| vii
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

For further details, (e.g. guide for contributors, copyright, etc.), kindly go to the
journal’s website: http://coh.ug.edu.gh/ljh

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Preface
Knowledge about the relationship between music, health and wellbeing is
probably as old as humanity itself. Ritual specialists across the African conti-
nent and elsewhere have been making use of the therapeutic and curative poten-
tial of music and dance for millennia. Similarly, for a considerable period of
human existence, ordinary people have utilized song, dance and play to enhance
individual and collective wellbeing. Various philosophers have also tried to
comprehend the healing powers of the performing arts. Philosophical inquisi-
tions of such nature have further emphasized the close connection between art
and humanity. More recent research in musicology, dance and performance
studies, psychology, neuroscience and medicine – to mention but a few of the
relevant fields – has added much to our understanding of the socio-cultural,
psychological, as well as, biological foundations of human-music interaction.
Such studies are shedding light on the influence of music on affective behaviour
and our basic brain chemistry. Against this backdrop, music, dance and related
art forms are increasingly employed in both informal and formal therapeutic set-
tings to treat illness, alleviate pain, cure mental disorder and promote general
human wellbeing.
The idea for this Special Issue on Music, Health and Wellbeing: African
Perspectives grew out of a collaborative research at the Department of Music
and Dance, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, under its institutionally adopted
research agenda for the 2013-17 academic years. After scrutinizing the literature
on the relationship between music, health and wellbeing, it was observed that,
while scholarship in this field is generally increasing, it is only a handful of ac-
ademics in Africa who have given this topic extensive scholarly attention. It is
worth stressing, however, that the healing potential of music and related per-
forming arts is culture-specific. Consequently, some of the therapeutic uses to
which certain kinds of music are put in one cultural environment may not nec-
essarily be applicable in another setting. While there is growing consensus that
music can have a transformative impact on the health and wellbeing of individ-
uals and communities, there is the need to investigate this phenomenon more
systematically in African cultural contexts, from diverse ideological and disci-
plinary perspectives.
The purpose of this Special Issue is, therefore, to further explore the
transformative potential of music and cognate creative performances by investi-
gating their role in formal and informal health care, as well as, the promotion of
individual and collective wellbeing. The articles in this issue probe the ex-
pressed topic of investigation from various disciplinary and interdisciplinary
perspectives. Emmanuel Acquah (pp. 1-16) examines the impact of choral sing-
ing on wellbeing in a Ghanaian university setting. His findings suggest that
Legon Journal of the Humanities, 27 No. 2 P a g e| ix
singing in a mixed choir has a great impact on the health and wellbeing of stu-
dents. It helps them to connect socially, to cope with stress, and to increase
emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Kathy Armstrong (pp. 17-35) observes simi-
lar effects on North American students performing in Ghanaian dance-
drumming ensembles in Canada. Her article identifies the ecological factors that
enhance the health and well-being of students involved in the performance of
the Ewe dance-drumming piece Gahu. Drawing on Christopher Small’s notion
of “musicking”, she stresses particularly the participatory aspect of performance
that enables people at various skill-levels to partake in music and develop rela-
tionships through it.
Florian Carl and Rosemond Kutsidzo (pp. 36-58) highlight everyday mu-
sic experience in Ghana, employing the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) to
examine how people use music in potentially beneficial ways to boost subjec-
tive wellbeing. They contend that their research participants used solitary music
listening as an important means of regulating their emotional states and energy
levels. They further ascribe a similar therapeutic function to music even where
it is publicly performed as a social and participatory event. This became particu-
larly clear in the intersection between music, religion and social dance. Michael
Frishkopf et al. (pp. 59-90), on the other hand, report on Participant Action Re-
search (PAR) and interventions that use music and dance-drama as a social
technology to promote community health in the Northern Region of Ghana.
Their project “Singing and Dancing for Health” employed “edutainment” and
community engagement to disseminate preventive health messages and sensitize
communities, thereby improving public health and community wellbeing in sus-
tainable ways.
Katrin Lengwinat (pp. 91-115), in her detailed ethnographic study, ex-
plores Afro-Venezuelan music rituals for health and community wellbeing, with
specific interest in the infusion of Afro-Catholic traditions into Corpus Christi
and the Feast of Saint John. While she affirms that people use these rituals to
address and cure specific individual health problems, she also stresses that the
festivals provide people of African descent in Venezuela with contexts within
which group solidarity, unity, identity and resistance are expressed, reinforced
and celebrated. Writing on a different cultural performance, Christopher Mtaku
(pp. 116-129) investigates the twin ritual which is practiced by the Bura people
of north-eastern Nigeria. The ceremony, known locally as the kamta bulikur, is
based on the people’s belief in the extraordinary powers of twins. Mtaku argues
that traditional music and musicians play a significant role in the health and
wellbeing of twins by counteracting and containing the work of spirits that may
intend to cause them harm or disrupt the tranquil order of the society at large.
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