Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ghatam music'

Ghanaian choral music emerged from the colonial experience through a process of musical hybridity and became relevant in the post-independent state of Ghana. This dissertation begins by exploring how two distinct musical forms developed from within the Methodist and Presbyterian missions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These musical forms utilized both European hymn harmony and local musical features. The institutional histories and structures of these missions explain the significance of this hybridity and distinct characteristics of the forms. These local-language choral works spread through these institutions despite the attempts of people in leadership positions to keep local culture separate from Christian schools and churches. The fourth chapter explores the broader social impact of the choral tradition that emerged from the Presbyterian mission, and its implications for the national independence movement through the history of one choral work composed by 1929 by Ephraim Amu. Then, based on a case study of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and its workplace choir, I examine how intellectual leaders such as Kwabena Nketia have, in the context of the post-independent state of Ghana, promoted choral music as an aspect of national development and unity. Ethnographic work at the GBC reveals the sometimes contentious negotiations that are involved in this process. This dissertation is based on both ethnographic and archival research conducted during three research trips to Ghana from 2012 to 2015. This research reveals how Ghanaians have challenged colonial ideology through composing and performing choral music. Peircian semiotics and postcolonial theory provides a framework for exploring how the hybridity of choral music in Ghana has contributed to the development of postcolonial consciousness there.

This thesis explores the landscape of popular music culture in Accra as it is experienced by a loosely interactive group of young self-identified rastafarians. The global pop-culture idiom born of the Jamaican socio-religious movement of rastafari allows these young Accrans to articulate self-concepts vis-a-vis very current trends in local and foreign youth cultures (such as hiphop), with reference to an ostensibly ageless collective identity. Questions of authenticity are made complex by the movement's weighty historical and political roots, its nuanced symbolic bonds with "local African culture", and the semiotic plasticity of its identifying practices. Ethnographic portions of this thesis are based on three months of fieldwork in Accra, during the summer of 2004. Key theoretical points are gleaned from a critical examination of early British Cultural Studies and its theoretical progeny, including the body of recent work tentatively dubbed "post-subcultural studies".

In the wake of the digital revolution, the Musicians' Union of Ghana has begun a massive campaign to re-establish its membership base, advocate for enforceable copyright policy changes, and introduce the technology necessary to make its members' music available for sale to digital consumers. However, despite the excitement behind this project, the vision of a professional class of musicians, enabled by the digitization and digital sale of Ghana's new and existing music, is problematic. Recent revenue reports collected from musicians based in the United States suggest that revenue collected from digital sales may not be the silver bullet Ghanaian musicians hope it will be. Analyzing corporate, government, development, and news documents, this study examines the history and the political economy of the current digitization efforts in Ghana to determine who claims to benefit from the project and who stands to bear the costs. Overall, this study recommends the introduction of new forms of cultural protectionism alongside existing copyright protections to avoid the potential exploitation associated with musical success. The empowering and imperial effects of the project are also debated.

My published output represents an ongoing engagement with the issues of studying, learning, understanding and transmitting music. More specifically, it has the music of Ghana in West Africa as its primary focus. This music is then considered from a number of points of view:- • as music, where the sonic events can be charted, documented and analysed • as 'ethnic' music where the function and meaning of this music for its culture can be considered • as a cultural artefact where the changing processes of transmission and preservation are observed • as pedagogical material where the nature of learning related to culture and the processes of translation by the teacher and the learner are examined. Music as object for documentation and discussion is a substantial part of Xylophone music from Ghana, the two articles in Composing the Music of Africa and the article in the British journal of Ethnomusicology as well as the COs, 'Bewaare - they are coming' Dagaare songs and dances from Nandom, Ghana and 'In the time of my fourth great-grandfather ... ' Western Sisaala music from Lambussie, Ghana. These same publications also consider the roles and function of the music within its culture. Music as a cultural artefact, its transmission and preservation, particularly in relation to formal education, is the focus of the two articles in the British journal of Music Education, the Music Teacher publication, the article in Cahiers de Musiques Traditionelles, and the ESEM conference paper. Pedagogical issues and materials form the basis for Music of West Africa, Kpatsa, and the symposium papers.

This volume describes the influences that shaped music in southern Ghana before 1966. It is divided into three chapters, covering the periods up to the mid-19th century, from then until the 1930s and from then until the first decade of Independence. Topics covered include music in oral societies, the influence of Kru mariners, Christian missions and urbanisation, the recording industry and the role of nationalism.
Dieser Band beschreibt die Einflüsse, die die Musik im südlichen Ghana vor 1966 formten. Er setzt sich aus drei Teilen zusammen, wobei die Zeiträume bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhundert, von dort bis zu den 1930er Jahren und schließlich bis zur Unabhängigkeit beleuchtet werden. Die bearbeiteten Themen beinhalten Musik in oralen Gesellschaften, den Einfluss der ''Kru-Matrosen'', christliche Missionen und Verstädterung, sowie die Aufnahme-Industrie und die Rolle des Nationalismus.

The study ascertained elementary school teachers' and supervisors' views about their role in the implementation of Sankofa (Go back and retrieve) in school music. Sankofa mandates the integration of distinctive Ghanian traditional values and practices with Western educational concepts in the school curriculum. In music, it calls for the fusion of multi-ethnic musics of Ghana with Western musical concepts in public school music instruction. Some concerns expressed by Ghanian music educators regarding teachers' negative attitudes toward Sankofa in public school music had prompted the study.

Context: Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and its related applications are increasingly penetrating all spheres of individual, organizational, and societal aspects of everyday life in the developing economies and Africa as well. The Internet is emerging as an important technology for commerce and business. The employment of Internet based technologies and applications in music service both in online sales and marketing of music records and digital music service is significantly altering the approach that traditional commerce is done. It eliminates all geographical bottlenecks, allowing the establishment of virtual outlets and presence throughout the world, and permits direct and instant foreign market entry to less known artistes and music records businesses. Objectives: In this study, I investigate the state of internet and e-commerce adoption in the music record business in Ghana. I seek to find out the reasons for the adoption of e-commerce platform within the music industry and to assess the challenges confronting the adoption of e-commerce. Methods: We conducted a Literature Review to get an overview of the music industry as a whole, and also to describe the diffusion of e-commerce technologies in music services. We use qualitative research approach to collect data and to identify reasons for the adoption of e-commerce platforms primarily among consumers and retailers of the music services. We conducted interviews with musicians and managers of record companies were conducted to ascertain their reasons for using or non using e-commerce technologies, and identify prospects and challenges confronting its adoption within the industry. Conclusion: The evaluation from musicians, consumers and other key players indicated their willingness to go for the e-commerce platforms in music service delivery. However, they are challenged by poor infrastructures, unsettled issues of monetization of music contents coupled with high digital gap among the citizenry. Prevailing government efforts contribute nevertheless in closing the digital disparity among the populace, and Telecom and ISPs improvement in service delivery give an outlook of full realization of the goal of e-commerce adoption in the music industry in Ghana.
Samuel Kwesi Wiafe P.O. Box KF 2034, Koforidua-Ghana Tel: +233 (0)208801106

Changes occurring in the educational system of Ghana since independence in 1957 have been many and varied. The recent inclusion of the Cultural Studies program as part of the compulsory core curriculum is an example of such a change. The Cultural Studies program was designed to nurture cultural awareness and appreciation in the Ghanaian school child through music, drama, religion and social systems. The focus of this study was Music in the Cultural Studies program. The approach of the music teacher to music teaching and learning determines the successful realization of the curriculum. Music teaching strategies employed in Ghanaian elementary schools are many and varied. The content of the curriculum the teacher has to work with also enhances the realization of the program objectives. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe music teaching strategies and their degree of use in Ghanaian elementary schools and also offer suggestions for improving music instruction drawing on Ghanaian indigenous methods of music education, the Orff-Schulwerk, and Kodály pedagogy. In a survey involving fifty-six music teachers from five of the ten regions of Ghana, the researcher drew the following conclusions: a) the most frequently used teaching strategies included singing games, vocables, solfege, speech and poetry, movement and dance. b) there was evidence to suggest that the music teaching strategies of teachers are not related to their regional location, district, gender, teaching experience, or academic qualifications. c) It is feasible to combine the approaches of the Kodály pedagogy, the Orff-Schulwerk, and Ghanaian indigenous forms of music education in the development of a curriculum framework aimed at improving music instructional methodology in Ghanaian elementary schools.
Education, Faculty of
Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of
Graduate

The creative economy discourse now informs both cultural and development policies around the world. Virtually every country now uses the concept in politics, policy, advocacy, and practice. My aim is to show what this uptake means in conceptual and empirical terms. Through an ethnography of the music industries in Burkina Faso and Ghana I explore the changing meaning and position of ‘culture’ in cultural and development policies in both countries. How does the creative economy discourse help the pursuit human development, if at all? What does this discourse mean precisely? And, most importantly, what should it mean to develop cultural industries? Overall, my dissertation frames this issue broadly and narrowly. The narrow focus is on the situation in Ouagadougou and Accra, capital cities of respectively Burkina Faso and Ghana. The particularities of these countries serve as examples to simultaneously build and illustrate the argument. Yet, the scope extends well beyond this: the aim at large is to ask questions that can be asked beyond these countries. Even though they may yield different answers around the world, I hope they will help to critically understand and use the hegemonic creative economy discourse. The originality of my dissertation work is threefold. First, I link cultural policy studies with critical development studies. I do this by connecting cultural industries to the human development approach of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum by exploring the link with ‘capabilities.’ Second, I provide empirical insight in the particularities of the music industries in Burkina Faso and Ghana, as both countries are nearly ab-sent from the literature. Third, I provide a theoretical framework to rethink the way cultural and creative industries can be inscribed in cultural policies and development plans by including the cultural and historical palimpsest of existing practices that both enables and limits change.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: African art music practices of western origin have oftentimes been excluded from general discourses on western art music practices. In this study, close readings of selected art songs by twentieth and twenty-first century Nigerian, Ghanaian, Egyptian and South African composers serve to ‘map’ this music through challenging existing general discourses on art music composition, and genre-specific discourses on art song composition in Africa. The readings also serve to create new discourses, including ones that promote African crossregional engagements. In the first part of this dissertation, the readings take place in the contexts of the selected countries. The second section presents pre-selected discourses and theories as points of departure. Chapter 2 proposes to question how the theory of African vocalism can be expanded, and how animist materialism could serve as an alternative context in which to read the composition of art music in Nigeria and Ghana. Chapter 3 aims to answer which strategies in anti-exotic self-representation have been followed in twentieth-century Egyptian art song. Chapter 4 asks how South African composers of art song have denoted ‘Africa’ in their works, and how these denotations relate to their oeuvres and general stylistic practices. Chapter 5 interrogates how composers have dealt with the requirements of tonal languages in their setting of texts in such languages to music. Chapter 6 probes possible interpretations of composers’ display of the ‘objects’ of cultural affiliation, positing expatriate African composers as diplomats. Chapter 7 asks what the contexts are in which to read specific examples of African intercultural art music, without which the analyst might make an inappropriate (perhaps unethical?) value judgement. The conclusion presents a comparison of trends and styles in African art song to those in certain western song traditions. A discussion on folk and popular song styles as art is followed by a consideration of African vocalism in the context of the dissertation as a whole. A continuation of an earlier discussion on the compositional denotation of ‘Africa’ leads to a consideration of the ‘duty to denote’ in the context of western modernity.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Kunsmusiekpraktyke van westerse oorsprong in Afrika is gereeld van algemene diskoerse oor westerse kunsmusiekpraktyke uitgesluit. Stip-lesings van geselekteerde kunsliedere deur Nigeriese, Ghanese, Egiptiese en Suid-Afrikaanse komponiste dien in hierdie studie om die musiek op die ‘kaart te plaas’ deur in gesprek te tree met bestaande algemene diskoerse oor kunsmusiekkomposisie, asook genre-spesifieke diskoerse oor kunsliedkomposisie in Afrika. Die lesings dien ook om nuwe diskoerse te skep, insluitend diskoerse wat gesprekke óór die grense van verskillende streke in Afrika bevorder. Die lesings in die eerste helfde van die proefskrif vind plaas binne die kontekste van die geselekteerde lande. In die tweede deel word vooraf-geselekteerde diskoerse en teorieë as wegspringpunte gebruik. Hoofstuk 2 stel dit ten doel om te vra hoe die teorie van Afrikavokalisme (African vocalism) uitgebrei kan word, en hoe animistiese realisering (animist materialism) as alternatiewe konteks kan dien waarin die komposisie van kunsmusiek in Nigerië en Ghana gelees kan word. In Hoofstuk 3 word gepoog om uit te vind watter strategieë in anti-eksotiese self-uitbeelding gevolg is in twintigste-eeuse Egiptiese kunsliedkomposisie. Die doel van Hoofstuk 5 is om uit te vind hoe komponiste die vereistes van toontale in hul toonsettings van tekste in sulke tale hanteer het. Hoofstuk 6 ondersoek moontlike interpretasies van komponiste se aanbiedings van die ‘objekte’ van kultuuraffiliasie deur die postulering van geëmigreerde komponiste as diplomate. Hoofstuk 7 vra wat die kontekste is waarin spesifieke voorbeelde van interkulturele kunsmusiek uit Afrika gelees kan word, waarsonder die analis ‘n onvanpaste (dalk onetiese?) waardebeoordeling kan maak. Die slot bied ’n vergelyking van tendense en style in Afrika-kunsliedere met dié in sekere westerse liedtradisies aan. ’n Bespreking van volks- en populêre liedstyle as kuns word gevolg deur ’n oorweging van Afrika-vokalisme in die konteks van die proefskrif as geheel. ‘n Voortsetting van ’n vroeëre gesprek oor die komposisionele uitbeelding van ‘Afrika’ lei tot ‘n oorweging van die ‘plig om uit te beeld’ in die konteks van westerse moderniteit.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2008.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 11, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-08, Section: A, page: 3277. Adviser: John H. Hanson.

Among the Anlo-Ewe of Ghana, dance functions essentially as a pivot around which indigenous cultural practices revolve. Anlo-Ewe music and dance tradition which is the focus of this study, serves as a dynamic tool in the transmission of indigenous knowledge, skills, values and virtues. In addition to being a repository of Anlo-Ewe knowledge dance provides the avenue through which dancers, musicians, story tellers and visual artists are able to document, preserve and transmit indigenous knowledge and reenact the historical, socio-cultural and political structure of the Anlo-Ewe. Twenty-first century global cultural transformation in the midst of constant human migration continues to influence Anlo-Ewe cultural forms. Commodification of dance has affected the educational and cultural function of Anlo-Ewe dance and its related arts and continues to reduce them to mere entertainment activities. Due to these challenges, some Anlo-Ewe youths in Ghana and in Britain are gradually being separated from their cultural heritage and therefore, losing cultural identity. In view of the above, this study responds to the need to examine the elements and functions of Anlo-Ewe dance in the transmission of indigenous knowledge and values to serve as a source of information to help policy makers to create and promote the awareness of the use of Anlo-Ewe knowledge and values among Anlo-Ewe youths and scholars in Ghana, Britain and the diaspora. It investigates the indigenous knowledge and values embedded in Anlo-Ewe dance and the extent to which these cultural forms can be harnessed in building contemporary society in both the indigenous and the international settings. Therefore, this thesis focuses on the dance tradition of the Anlo-Ewe people in Ghana, its emergence in Britain as an art form in cross-cultural education as well as its dynamics or processes of change within the indigenous and international settings. It uses fieldwork including iii auto-ethnography and focuses on my own practice and the 21 years of operations by the British funded ‘Adzido Pan-African Dance Ensemble’ (1984-2005), a Ghanaian group that brought Anlo-Ewe dances to Britain. Through the lenses of key concepts including heritage, aesthetics, identity, nationalism and representation, I explore the fundamental elements of Anlo-Ewe dance, its use and significance as well as how it can be harnessed to serve the needs of contemporary multicultural society.

陶罐鼓是由泥土烧制而成的一种民间打击乐器，广泛运用在印度南部音乐中。长久以来，陶罐鼓被认为是男性专属的乐器，因为演奏乐器时需要较大的力气才能使乐器正确发声，女性通常被认为不具备这一能力。然而，苏坎雅·拉格帕姆开始改变这一情况，她成为了第一个著名的女性陶罐鼓演奏家。与此同时，拉个帕姆建立了一个全女性的乐团，名为斯特·塔·塔朗，这个乐团的成员包括维纳琴、小提琴、木里丹加鼓和口弦演奏家。拉格帕姆的变革不仅将陶罐鼓提升到舞台的中央地位，也改变了女性打击乐器演奏家在南印度音乐中的地位。本论文有两个主要研究目标，第一个是探究苏坎雅·拉个帕姆成为第一个女性陶罐鼓演奏家的经历，以及成立一个全女性演奏乐团的过程和引起的反响。第二个目的是讨论印度南部音乐发生的变化，以及这些变化发生的原因和影响。这个问题着重讨论导致印度传统音乐性别不平衡的社会-文化原因，和南印度音乐中女性音乐家的历史地位变化。
The ghatam is an old folk and classical percussion instrument made of clay that is widely used in South Indian music. It has always been considered an instrument of the male domain because making a sound on the surface of the pot requires strength and special skill, which female musicians are seen as not possessing. However, Sukanya Ramgopal has begun to change this situation by becoming the first high-profile female ghatam artist and establishing an all-female ensemble called Stree Taal Tarang, which comprises of female musicians on the veena, violin, mridangam, and morching. Ramgopal’s reforms have not only elevated the ghatam to a center-stage instrument, but have also changed the position of the female instrumentalist on the stage of South Indian classical music. The research of this thesis has two main goals. The first is to examine the process of how Sukkanya Rampogal became the first celebrated female ghatam artist and went on to establish Stree Taal Tarang, an all female musician ensemble. The second aim of this thesis is to discuss the reasons of these changes happened. This question centers on the social-cultural factors that resulted in the gender imbalances found in the world of Indian classical music and the historical relationship between female musicians in Carnatic music.
Zhang, Xiao.
Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2017.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves ).
Abstracts also in Chinese.
Title from PDF title page (viewed on …).
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

This dissertation is a video ethnography of the enculturation and learning patterns among children on three school playgrounds in the Central Region of Ghana, West Africa. It includes a) a discussion of colonialism on the redefinition of Ghanaian cultural identity in relation to play culture and the school curriculum b) performance-based case studies of six singing games, which comprise a description of sound and structural features and an explanation of cultural forms evident in singing games and c) a discussion on the role multimedia technologies (video, audio, and computer technologies) played in configuring my explanations and the explanations of all participants: children, teachers, and community members. Goldman-Segall' s "configurational validity" is the conceptual basis of this ethnography of Ghanaian children's music cultures. Configurational validity is a collaborative theory for analyzing video documents that expands on the premise that research is enriched by multiple points of view. Performance stylistic features of singing games emerge that reflected the marriage of two music cultures, indigenous Ghanaian and European. These include: speech tones, onomatopoeia, repetition and elaboration of recurring melodic cliches, portamentos or cadential drops, syncopations, triplets, melisma, polyrhythms, vocables, anacrusis, strophic, circle, lines, and partner formations. During play, the children were cultural interlocutors and recipients of adult cultural interlocution as they learned about accepted and shared social behavioural patterns, recreated their culture, and demonstrated the changing Ghanaian culture. The culture forms that emerged include community solidarity, inclusion, ways of exploring and expressing emotions, coordination, cooperation, gender relations, and linguistic code switching. For children in Ghana, knowledge is uninhibited shared constructions; knowledge grows when every one is involved; and knowledge is like "midwifery." I recommended a teaching style that encouraged the expression of children's wide ranging knowledge by a) offering opportunities for cooperative learning through group work, b) encouraging continuous assessment, c) establishing stronger ties with the adult community, and d) recognizing that the ability of children to hear, interpret, and compensate for dialectic differences in closely related languages can be used to enrich the language arts curriculum and also e) recognizing that the cultural studies curriculum can be enriched by the ability of children to re-create hybrid performing arts cultures.

Chronic unemployment and decreased agricultural production over the last two decades have left an increasing number of men throughout Ghana’s historically under-developed North unable to meet the financial and moral expectations traditionally associated with masculinity. Paralleling the liberalization of Ghana’s political economy over this period, this “crisis of masculinity” has resulted in unprecedented transformations in traditional kinship structures, patriarchy, and channels for the transmission of traditional practices in Dagbamba communities. Driven by anxieties over these changes, Dagbamba “tradition” is being promoted as a prescription for problems stemming from poverty, environmental degradation, and political conflict, placing music and dance at the center of this discourse. Music, Masculinity, and Tradition, investigates the mobilization of traditional music as a site for the restoration of masculinity within the Dagbamba community of northern Ghana. Drawing on eleven months of participant-observation conducted with Dagbamba warriors in Ghana’s Northern Region, archival research, and ethnographic interviews, this dissertation explores the relationship between performances of traditional music, preservationist discourses, and the construction of masculinity in the first decades of the 21st century. Through analyses of the warriors’ ritual performances, including sounds, movements, and dramatized violence, I ask how traditional ideals and contemporary realities of Dagbamba masculinity are constructed, negotiated, and reinforced through performances of traditional music, suggesting links between the “iterative performativity” of the ritual and evolving constructions of gender. This dissertation offers insight into the musical construction of masculinity and the place of “tradition” in the 21st century. It also challenges over-determined notions of power/resistance through a critical evaluation of traditional musical performances as sites for the negotiation of ideas about gender, power, and history in contemporary Africa.

Abstract is in English, Zulu and Xhosa
In Ghanaian primary schools, music is a compulsory study area which is taught by generalist teachers. However, information is deficient on the strategies teachers use to implement the music curriculum. The aim of this study was to determine how teachers organise musical learning experiences in terms of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) for lower primary school pupils. DAP is an educational concept which refers to teaching strategies that consider children’s age, abilities, interests and experiences, to help them achieve challenging and achievable goals. The study was underpinned by the concept of teaching within the context of constructivist theory. Qualitative Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and ethnographic research methods were used to find answers to the research questions. Data were collected by means of observations, interviews and document analysis. Singing, movements and the playing of improvised instruments (although they constitute only a part of the planned music curriculum in the Creative Arts syllabus) dominate the music activities provided in the schools. In fact, unplanned music activities dominate planned music lessons due to teachers’ perceived lack of adequate training to teach music, the non-application of ICT in teaching, a lack of teaching and learning materials, unsuitable physical conditions for teaching, lack of motivation and support to teach, and lack of time to teach music because of the emphasis on meeting the targets of teaching and assessment in core subjects. Strategies the teachers adopt to overcome the challenges they encounter in teaching music include collaboration with their colleagues in planning, teaching and integrating music into most classroom activities and drawing on pupils’ expertise in teaching and learning. It is recommended that teachers be given in-service training, that specialist teachers be used, and that adequate teaching and learning materials be provided, as well as support for teachers to integrate ICT in teaching music. Limitations associated with the study make generalisation of the findings impossible. A larger sample from various primary schools within the Ashanti region of Ghana should be considered for further research. Functional integration of music in the other subject areas within the Ghanaian context should also be explored and further studies should be conducted about the application of developmentally appropriate practice in teaching music in the lower-primary classroom.
Ezikoleni zamabanga aphansi zaseGhana, umculo uyindawo eyimpoqo yokufunda efundiswa ngothisha abajwayelekile. Kodwa-ke, ulwazi alwanele ngamasu othisha abawasebenzisayo ukwenza izifundo zomculo. Inhloso yalolu cwaningo kwakuwukuthola ukuthi othisha bahlela kanjani amava okufunda omculo ngokwendlela efanelekile yokuthuthuka (NET) yabafundi bezikole zamabanga aphansi. NET ingumqondo wezemfundo obhekisa kumasu okufundisa abheka iminyaka yezingane, amakhono, izintshisekelo kanye nezipiliyoni ezithile, ukuzisiza ukuthi zifeze izinhloso eziyinselele futhi ezingafinyeleleka.Ucwaningo lwalusekelwa ngumqondo wokufundisa ngokwengqikithi yethiyori yokwakha. Ukuhlaziywa Okufanelekile Kokuhunyushelwa Kokubukeka Kwabantu nezindlela zokucwaninga ngobuzwe zisetshenzisiwe ukuthola izimpendulo zemibuzo yocwaningo. Kuye kwaqoqwa imininingwane yolwazi ngokubheka okwenzekayo, izinhlolokhono kanye nokuhlaziywa kwemibhalo. Ukucula, ukunyakaza nokudlalwa kwezinsimbi ezithuthukisiwe (yize ziyingxenye nje kuphela zekharikhulamu yomculo ehleliwe kusilabhasi Yezobuciko Bokuzenzela) kulawula imisebenzi yomculo enikezwe ezikoleni. Empeleni, imisebenzi yomculo engahlelwanga ilawula izifundo zomculo ezihleliwe ngenxa yokungabi bikho kothisha abaqeqeshwe ngokwanele ukufundisa umculo, ukungasetshenziswa kwe- ICT/Ezobuchwepheshe ekufundiseni, ukuntuleka kwezinto zokufundisa nokufunda, izimo ezzibambekayo ezingafanelekile zokufundisa, ukungabi nogqozi nokusekelwa ekufundiseni, nokungabi nesikhathi sokufundisa umculo ngenxa yokugcizelelwa ekuhlangabezaneni nezinhloso zokufundisa nokuhlola ezifundweni ezibalulekile. Amasu othisha abawasebenzisayo ukunqoba izinselelo abahlangabezana nazo ekufundiseni umculo kufaka phakathi ukusebenzisana nozakwabo ekuhleleni, ukufundisa nokuhlanganisa umculo emisebenzini eminingi yasekilasini nokudweba ubuchwepheshe babafundi ekufundiseni nasekufundeni. Kunconywa ukuthi othisha banikezwe ukuqeqeshwa emsebenzini, ukuthi kusetshenziswe othisha abangochwepheshe, nokuthi kuhlinzekwe ngezinto ezanele zokufundisa nokufunda, kanye nokuxhaswa kothisha ukuze bahlanganise i-ICT/Ezobuchwepheshe ekufundiseni umculo. Ukulinganiselwa okuhambisana nesifundo kwenza ukuthi okwenziwa jikelele kokutholakale kungenzeki. Isampula elikhudlwana elivela ezikoleni ezahlukahlukene zamabanga aphansi esifundeni sase-Ashanti eGhana kufanele licatshangwe ukuqhubeka nocwaningo. Ukuhlanganiswa kokusebenza komculo kwezinye izindawo ezingaphansi komongo waseGhana nakho kufanele kuhlolwe futhi kufanele kuqhutshekwe nezifundo ezimayelana nokusetshenziswa kwenqubo efanelekile yentuthuko ekufundiseni umculo ekilasini lamabanga aphansi.
Kwizikolo zaseGhana zamabanga asezantsi, kusisinyanzelo ukufundisa umculo, kwaye oku kwenziwa ngabafundisi ntsapho okanye ootitshala abafundisa yonke into. Noxa kunjalo, akukho lwazi lwaneleyo ngamacebo asetyenziswa ziititshala ekufundiseni ikharityhulam yomculo. Injongo yesi sifundo kukuqwalasela ukuba iititshala zikulungiselela njani ukufundisa ngendlela yophuhliso olufanelekileyo (iDAP) kumabanga asezantsi. Le DAP nesisishunqulelo sesiNgesi sebinza elithi developmentally appropriate practice, yingcinga yezemfundo emalunga namacebo okufundisa athathela ingqalelo ubudala bomntwana, izinto akwaziyo ukuzenza, umdla namava akhe, ukuze ancedwe ekufezekiseni iinjongo ezicela umngeni nezinokufikeleleka. Esi sifundo sisekelwe yingcinga yokufundisa ephuma kwimeko yengcingane yokuzakhela ulwazi. Iimpendulo zophando zifunyenwe ngokusebenzisa iindlela zophando ngokuxoxa nokutolika iimeko ezahlukeneyo (Qualitative Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis) kunye nokuqwalasela inkcubeko. Iinkcukacha zolwazi okanye idatha, ziqokelelwe ngokujonga okuqhubekayo, udliwano ndlebe nokuphengulula imibhalo ekhoyo. Ukucula, ukushukuma nokudlala izixhobo zomculo ezingoozenzele (nangona ziyinxalenye yekharityhulam ecetywayo yobuGcisa Bokuzenzela) kudlala indima eyongameleyo kwimisebenzi yomculo eyenziwa ezikolweni. Xa sithetha inyaniso, into eyenzekayo ekufundiseni umculo yimisebenzi engacetywanga ezifundweni ngenxa yokuba ootitshala abaqeqeshekanga kakuhle ekufundiseni umculo, abusetyenziswa ubuchwepheshe ekufundiseni umculo, azikho izixhobo zokufundisa nokufunda umculo, iindawo ekufundiselwa kuzo azifanelekanga, inkxaso nenkuthazo yokufundisa umculo iyasilela kwaye lincinci ixesha lokufundisa umculo ngenxa yokuleqa ukufezekisa imiqathango yokufundisa nokuhlola kwizifundo ezingoondoqo. Ekulweni nemingeni yokufundisa umculo, ootitshala babhenela ekusebenzisaneni nabanye ekwenzeni amacebo okufundisa nokubandakanya umculo kwimisebenzi yeklasi nasekusebenziseni ulwazi lwabafundi. Kucetyiswa ukuba ootitshala bafumane uqeqesho lo gama besebenza, kusetyenziswe ootitshala abaziingcali zomculo kwaye kufumaneke izixhobo ezifanelekileyo zokufundisa nokufunda, kuxhaswe ootitshala ekusebenziseni ubuchwepheshe xa befundisa umculo. Ukunqaba kolwazi okungqonge esi sifundo kwenza kube nzima ukugqiba jikelele ngokufunyanisiweyo. Mhlawumbi kunokuthathwa isampulu yophando enkulu kwingingqi yaseAshanti eGhana ukuze kwandiswe olu phando. Okunye okunokwenziwa kukuhlanganisa umculo nezinye izifundo ngokwemeko yaseGhana, kwaye kufuneka kuqhutywe izifundo ezithe chatha malunga nokusebenzisa iindlela zokufundisa ezinophuhliso olufanelekileyo ekufundiseni umculo kwiklasi yamabanga asezantsi.
Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology
Ph D. (Music)

Ephraim Amu is a distinguished musician. He is well known for his advocacy on African tradition and culture. Amu's pride in the African personality has earned him a place in Ghana's hall of fame. It was in recognition of these achievements that his portrait was embossed on Ghana's highest currency, the Twenty Thousand Cedi note. But there is more to the Amu story. In this thesis I have drawn substantially on Amu's own works to demonstrate how, in fact, he is an exemplar of mother tongue apprehension of the Christian faith in Africa. Amu showed in his songs, diaries, sermons, letters, addresses and private papers that the mother tongue, in this case, Ewe and Twi can be used to express not only Christian experience but also to formulate theological ideas in an innovative and creative ways. Amu's credentials as "African statesman" and "a self-conscious nationalist" owe not so much to Pan-African ideologies as his understanding of African culture and tradition from a biblical perspective. Amu believed that the entire universe, including the African cosmos, was created by God from the very beginning as kronkronkron (pure), pepeepe (exact), and fitafitafita (without blemish). He wrestled with the problem of (evil) and how this may have polluted an otherwise unblemished creation. Amu also wrestled with the issue of human participation in God's work of creation and the extent to which humankind may have contributed to the desecration of creation. In spite of the pollution, Amu believed that creation can be redeemed and restored to its original status by cleansing with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. This belief led him to adopt a positive stance towards African culture and tradition. Amu demonstrated this particularly in the use of language. Most of his sermons and notable musical compositions are in Twi or Ewe. He kept a diary in his mother tongue, Ewe, for almost seventy years. Amu demonstrated that by using indigenous African languages it is possible to make a fresh contribution to theological issues and thereby present African Christianity as an authentic expression to God and capable of contributing to world Christianity. Apart from language, Amu believed that other elements in the African tradition could be employed to express the Christian faith. It is in this regard that his contribution to Christian worship, particularly the use of indigenous musical instruments, must be appreciated. Amu's realisation, that "There are deep truths underlying our indigenous religions, truths which are dim representations of the great Christian truths", led him to deal with the perception that
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.