Book on Ghanaian highlife to be released

John Collins’ Highlife Time 3 will be launched 1 July in Accra, Ghana. Published by Dakpabli and Associates, the book is an account of the evolution of the genre, which is sometimes referred to as “Ghana’s most important genre”. The new book is the second sequel to the original Highlife Time. The second book in the series was published in 1996.

In 64 chapters and within 442 pages, the book, say the publishers, “traces the origins of highlife music to the present – and includes information on palmwine music, adaha brass bands, concert party guitar bands, dance bands, right up to off-shoots such as Afro-rock, Afrobeat, burger highlife, gospel highlife, hiphop highlife (hiplife) and contemporary highlife”.

There are also discussions on “the traditional background or roots of highlife, the entrance of women into the Ghanaian highlife profession and the biographies of numerous Ghanaian (and some Nigerian) highlife musicians, composers and producers.”.

Although an old genre, highlife is also treated in the present, with such artists as the late Ebony and reggae-dancehall star Shatta Wale make appearances.

Collins, a naturalised Ghanaian since 2008, is considered an authority in the field of Ghanaian highlife and the forthcoming book is the result of his studies, for which he has a PhD in ethnomusicology, and a music career that has seen him play alongside prominent West African musicians from the past.

An advance book review by Ghanaian writer Ivor Agyeman-Duah says: “Because he also knows so much of his subject and worked with some as biographer, Fela and ET Mensah among them, or playing the harmonica, curating for the BBC the series In the African Groove, or as the British colonial officer dramatist in Fela Kuti’s The Black President, Collins becomes ‘too much’.”

Collins has also written other books on music from the region, including 2016’s Highlife Giants: West African Dance Band Pioneers.

Highlife Time 3 will be launched at +233 Club House in Accra on 1 July at 5pm.