Ghana’s Edikanfo back with debut reissue after four decades

Nicknamed ‘The Pace Setters’, which is also the title of the album, Edikanfo knocked on the door of world fame in the early ‘80s with an infectious fusion of forward-looking highlife and Afro-funk.

The album, which will now be released on CD, LP and digitally, further gained international recognition because of its producer Brian Eno, who was discovering African music at the time. Faisal Helwani, Edikanfo’s manager, had invited Eno to Ghana as an international observer for the biennial African Song and Dance Festival, which was held in Sunyani.

After the festival, Eno ended up recording the eight-piece Edikanfo in Studio One at Helwani’s avant-garde Napoleon Club in the Accra suburb of Osu. The record was released worldwide by British label EG Music. Fleetwood Mac drummer and bandleader Nick Fleetwood then went to Ghana to also work with the band and various other Ghanianan musicians.

Just when the sky was the limit for the band, a coup d’état on 31 December 1981, led by Jerry John Rawlings, brought the band’s fortune to a halt. For years, Ghana had to endure curfews, and many bands and their members, which typically performed at night, were forced to leave the country for greener pastures. Ironically, Edinkanfo’s hit ‘Nka Bom’, which loosely translates to ‘togetherness’, became the rallying anthem of the military cum civilian Provisional National Defence Council government in its attempt to instil patriotism and rally the people to rebuild the country.

“We were getting ready for a world tour the following year, in early 1982, after the release of the album,” Edikanfo bass player Gilbert Amartey Amar, who is now based in Amsterdam, said. “But because of the coup, everything fizzled out. As a result, the management said there was no money to pay the musicians. That is where the confusion started. All the musicians left to ply their trade elsewhere. We’ve never played this album live. But, with the reissue almost four decades later, the surviving members are back to tour and play this album live to music lovers around the world.”

Artist: Edikanfo
Album: The Pace Setters
Year: 1981
Label: Glitterbeat Records