Ghana 2009 syllabi

Staff

Academic leader

Professor Michael Frishkopf, michaelf@ualberta.ca
Tel. in Ghana TBA; (780) 492-0670, 435-4834, 707-4785 (pre-trip until May 31; by email thereafter)
University of Ghana Guest Centre, July 2 - July 17
Office hours TBA.

Ghana Coordinators

Prof. Nathan Bampo (Institute for African Studies)

Course schedules

Note: We'll stay at the University of Ghana, Legon campus, July 3-16, with a fieldtrip July 6-9. We'll then embark on a Ghana study tour July 17-24, and conclude with village field school July 25-Aug 3, with a farewell dinner and performance Aug 3. You should arrive by July 2 (or July 3 at the latest) and leave not prior to August 4.

West African Music Ensemble (Music 144/544)

July 6 - 16: University of Ghana's Legon campus. Meets at the drum station under the trees, behind the Department of Music. Instructors: Johnson Kemeh, Aaron Sukura.

July 25 - Aug 3: Dagbamete. Study continues at the village field site. Instructor: Prof. Kwasi Dunyo.

Final performances: Aug 3 (Dagbamete).

Introduction to Ethnomusicology: The ethnomusicology of Ghanaian music and dance (Music 365/565)

July 6-16, University of Ghana's Legon campus, in the Computer LAB (School of Performing Arts)

• Prof. J.H. Kwabena Nketia, Introduction to Music of Ghana
• Prof. John Collins: Popular Music and Ghanaian history
• Prof. Simeon David Asiama: Akan music (hunters' music, funeral music)
• Prof. Nissio Fiagbedzi: Ewe music and aesthetics
• Prof. Willie Anku: African rhythm

July 25-Aug 3 (Dagbamete village): Prof. Michael Frishkopf: fieldwork component; Prof. Kwasi Dunyo: Ewe musical performance.

West African culture, language, and society (Middle Eastern and African Studies 300/500)

July 6-16, University of Ghana's Legon campus.

Lectures from:

Prof. Alex Dzameshie Prof. Addo Fenning Prof. Esi Sutherland-Addy Prof. Akosua Perbi Prof. Mohammed Abdallah Seth Ablosu Prof. Kofi Anyidoho Rev.Prof. Elorm Dovlo

July 25-Aug 3(Dagbamete village): Prof. Frishkopf: fieldwork and oral history supervision; Prof. Kwasi Dunyo: Ewe culture.

Assignments and grading

Assignments

The following is subject to change for 2009.

Participation

In order to learn, it is essential to participate fully in the program. Beyond completing reading and writing assignments, you must attend every class and every mandatory activity (some of the fieldtrips are optional, but attendance is strongly encouraged), except in cases of illness. It is equally important to make every effort to engage yourself with life in Ghana beyond the classroom.

Reading

Readings include (1) articles, (2) book chapters, (3) literature

Readings will be assigned from the reading list below, and in Ghana. Some readings are optional, while others are required. I will try to assign at least one reading for every class in Music 365 and MEAS 300.

Writing

These short assignments are designed to encourage reflection, analytical thinking, and synthesis, drawing on both academic work and experience. Page lengths refer to handwritten, single-spaced pages (please write neatly!). Bring a composition book allowing you to tear pages out along perforations, or looseleaf. Also you'll need 4x6 notecards for the reading reviews (see below).

Due dates to be determined. Longer papers will be due at the end of August to give you a chance to digest information after you return home.

• Lecture note cards. For each lecture on the University of Ghana campus you will prepare one 4x6 notecard with your name and the name of the lecturer on the top line (your name at the left, lecturer name to the right). Below, you will provide a summary of the lecturer's main points. It is crucial that you attend every lecture, on time, and take notes. Bring a notebook for this purpose. Don't forget to bring notecards with you!

• Reading review cards. For each required reading (article or book chapter) (to be assigned) you will prepare one 4x6 notecard with your name and the title of the reading on the top line (name at the left, title to the right). Below, you will provide a succinct summary and critique of the reading. In your summary, indicate coverage and main points; in your critique, indicate limitations, authorial biases and implicit assumptions. These are very short writing assignments. I will return cards to you for use in other assignments. Reading cards are due by Friday in the week assigned.

• Pan-Africanism and West African literature. You'll each read one novel by a West African author (your choice--there are plenty to choose from in the campus bookstore), as well as Kofi Anyidoho's essay The Pan African Ideal in Literatures of the Black World (to be distributed), and prepare a 4 page essay about these works (reading review cards are not required), drawing on other material from MEAS 300/500 as needed.

• Interpreting “music in Ghana” for North Americans. Using everything that you've learned in Music 365, Music 144, and other experiences in Ghana, you'll write a 4 page essay explaining the diversity of music in Ghana (relating this diversity to social and historical factors) for a North American audience.

• Ethnography of ritual performance. A 2 page description of the Dagbamete Apetorku shrine ritual, to take place Sunday July 26, and August 2).

• Music and language (4 pages). Using your knowledge of ethnomusicology and sociolinguistics, you'll compare music and language as social systems -- and the related ways of studying them.

• Fieldnotes. You will keep a daily journal in which you record your experiences in Ghana, both on and off campus, reflecting on the relations between music, culture, society, and history. Write about music, people you see, hear, or meet, conversations, sights and sounds and smells, behaviors, food, dress, language, TV programs. 10-15 minutes daily is all that is required, though some of you will probably want to write more. Please keep personal journal entries in a different notebook, because you will hand in your fieldnotes journal (journals will be returned to you).

• Oral history project: Musical change in Dagbamete. During our two week stay in Dagbamete I will be lecturing about ethnomusicological fieldwork, and we'll conduct a collaborative oral history about socio-musical change in Dagbamete and the surrounding region, and the factors underlying such change. Everyone will conduct interviews, and hand in transcripts, summaries, and analyses.

• Instructor assignments. We'll have a wide variety of lecturers for both Music 365 and MEAS 300. Some of these instructors may ask you to prepare short written assignments, throughout the courses. Due: as assigned.

Practicing

These assignments are not handed in, and thus are not graded. But that doesn't mean they aren't important! Remember: "practice makes perfect!". You learn both music and language in similar ways: by doing.

• Ewe language. You must practice your Ewe, by listening and repeating phrases. Audio recordings are essential for learning any modern language, but especially for a tonal language such as Ewe.

• Music 144. You must practice music presented in Music 144 (by Johnson Kemeh on the UofG campus, and by Kwasi Dunyo and his assistants in Dagbamete), by reviewing drumming patterns, performing with your colleagues, and listening (if possible try to record your lessons). I suggest you purchase a drum; everyone will purchase drum sticks.

Grading

All coursework will be graded on a scale from 1-4 points. These grades will be combined (according to the percentage weights given below), then rounded to the nearest value in the following table, in order to arrive at a final grade for each course. Unexcused late assignments will be downgraded one quarter point per day.

Table

• A: 4.0
• A-: 3.7
• B+: 3.3
• B: 3.0
• B-: 2.7
• C+: 2.3
• C: 2.0
• C-: 1.7
• D+: 1.3
• D: 1.0
• F: 0.0

Weighting

• Music 144/544: Participation (70%); music and language (15%); interpreting music in Ghana (15%). Your final grade will depend primarily on active participation, not on proficiency in music and dance. However it is essential to practice and participate actively in all domains--singing, percussion, dancing--to the best of your ability.

• Music 365/565: Reading review cards for Music 365 readings (15%); fieldnotes (15%); oral history project (15%); ethnography of ritual performance (10%); music and language (15%); interpreting music in Ghana (15%); instructor assignments, participation (15%)

• MEAS 300/500: Reading review cards for MEAS 300 readings (15%); fieldnotes (15%); oral history project (15%); music and language (15%); Pan-Africanism and West African literature (15%); Ewe quiz (10%); instructor assignments, participation (15%)

Academic integrity

The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at www.ualberta.ca/secretariat/appeals.htm) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University. (GFC 29 SEP 2003)

On plagiarism see also: http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism/avoiding/index.cfm

Policy about course outlines can be found in Section 23.4(2) of the University Calendar.” (GFC 29 SEP 2003).

Readings

Textbooks to order in advance

required:

Kevin Shillington, History of Africa (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)

optional:

John Collins - West African Pop Roots (Temple University Press, 1992).

John Chernoff - African Music, African Sensibility (University Of Chicago Press, 1981)

Click here for ordering information.

Textbook to download and print

You can download/print minimal pages, or the whole thing, or bring an electronic device allowing you to read without printing.

Ghana country study Download and print at least the Introduction and Chapters 1 & 2. Also available piecemeal here. Courtesy of the US Library of Congress.

Resources, by course segment/professor

Note: the following list may be modified in the coming weeks depending on the lecturer schedule that materializes...stay tuned!

Music 144: Johnson Kemeh, Kwasi Dunyo

Handouts.

John Chernoff - African Music, African Sensibility (University Of Chicago Press, 1981) (optional).

Music 365

The following readings are required, except as marked. Please complete each reading prior to the lecture by the professor under whose name it appears.

Before July 2, please read the following

The Problem of Meaning in African Music, J. H. Kwabena Nketia, Ethnomusicology, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Jan., 1962), pp. 1-7

Jazz feedback, by Prof John Collins

My mother has a television, by Professor James Burns (on Ewe funerals)

Professor J. H. Kwabena Nketia

The Problem of Meaning in African Music, J. H. Kwabena Nketia, Ethnomusicology, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Jan., 1962), pp. 1-7

Modern African Music (Euba)

An interview with J.H. Kwabena Nketia

Professor John Collins

West African Highlife

Jazz feedback

The Ghanaian music industry

Many of Prof Collins' articles are available on his website.

Professor Simeon David Asiama

Women's roles in the mourning rituals of the Akan of Ghana

My mother has a television, by Professor James Burns (on Ewe funerals)

Professor Nissio Fiagbedzi

Ewe rural-urban interchange

John Chernoff - African Music, African Sensibility (University Of Chicago Press, 1981) (focus on Ewe music) (optional)

Professor William Anku

Circles and Time: A Theory of Structural Organization of Rhythm in African Music

Principles of Rhythmic integration in African drumming

Aaron Sukura

Documenting spoken and sung texts of the Dagaaba

MEAS 300

Before July 2, please read the following

Shillington, chapters 1,2,3,6,7,12,13,16

Ghana, A Country Study: read to the end of chapter 1; skim chapter 2.

History of the Ewes, by Dr. Wisdom Agorde

Browse the Ethnologue's Languages of Ghana, and note the distribution of languages on a map.

Note the position of Ewe within the Niger-Congo family.

Browse The souls of black folk, by W.E.B Dubois (optional)

Professor Alex Dzameshie

Paper on sociolinguistics (soon to be available here)

Browse the Ethnologue's Languages of Ghana, and note the distribution of languages on a map.

Note the position of Ewe within the Niger-Congo family.

Prof Addo Fenning

Ghana: A Country Study, Chapter 1, sections 7.1 - 7.4

West Africa-related material in Shillington, chapters 20,21,23,24,25,26

Prof Elom Dovlo

Return home movements in Ghana

Seth Ablosu

Ghana: A Country Study, Chapter 1, sections 7.5-7.7

Shillington, chapters 28-30

Dr Akosua Perbi

Shillington, chapters 12, 16 (review)

Perbi chapter (to be distributed)

Professor Mohammed Abdallah

The Trial of Mallam Ilya and Other Plays: A collection of his plays, available at the University of Ghana bookstore.

Professor Sutherland-Addy

Women writing Africa

Professor Kofi Anyidoho

The back without which there is no front (Anyidoho)

Sundiata: An epic of old Mali