Kwasi Davor
Name: Kwasi Davor
Age: 82 years
Birth Place: Dagbamate
Profession: Teacher of history, geography, culture, traditional dance and music at Education College
Family: 10 children, 1 wife
First interview
Kwasi Davor explained to me that there is a wide generation gap with regards to musical tastes. The older, non-educated people are more interested in traditional music, whereas the youth are influenced by western culture and tend to forget traditional culture and music. For example at Atrikpui, the elders can dance, play and act on it, whereas most of the youth are not as attached to this music.
This is because TV, radio and other media affects youth, who only see westerners and their world experiences; therefore they prefer to be like them. Kwasi was afraid that they are losing their musical tradition because the youth have no knowledge of their tradition and not even interested in it due to distraction of western music.
He says that the elderly women are just as involved in music as the men; however the youth keep to themselves, and are not very interested. Sometimes the young people come and join but unless they sit down and think, they will lose it.
Kwasi Davor considers himself a drummer, dancer and singer, and can play most of Ewe music as well as sing and dance them too. About five years back, he taught a young woman and a young man who were learning from Kwashi. He learnt his dancing through his senior brother in the primary school. Later he organized a musical group in college, and he was the leader. With time, he began to learn more because there are new variations constantly. Kwasi said that some educated people look down upon tradition but because of education and exposure, their interest could be stirred again.
He says that as a result of tourism, people try to imitate the foreigners who bring their own culture. He says that the process of teaching can be hampered or facilitated depending on how the students receive it. The influence of Christianity is such that because of the shrine, the traditional religion has kept in tact and so people still play the drums. People are well-inclined in traditional musical and there are different types of traditional groups, such as Akpoka, Atsitamevu/unity, Kinka, Kpegisu, Adzogbon, Gakpa, Singa, Agutany, Agbosu, Adro. He said that not much has changed due to the presence of Christianity.
However, the youth are not ready to involve themselves in the music, and they have to educate and influence the youth to join the traditional groups in order to keep the tradition alive. He remarked that the old people are vessels of knowledge and when they die, it is as if an encyclopedia has been destroyed. He loves traditional music, and goes traveling in order to perform, for example to Accra. He also likes dancing and music in general and it helps him to stay young and fit.
He said that music is always changing, and the change can be both positive and negative. The positive change is that new variations are added to make improvements in how people play, but a negative effect could occur if a person who originally played the piece may not have taught the piece exactly. Therefore it’s lost.
Interviewed by Julia Santana-Parrilla, July 2008
Second interview
Kwasi Dadon currently teaches drumming in the village. He was previously a teacher of geography and other topics in another village. Kwasi first learned to play Singa music in a dance group at age 8. His elder brother taught him. He would play lead drum in this group and would have to stand on a stool to reach the large drum. He is a member of 8 drumming groups.
Kwasi explained that many members of younger generations tend to follow the traditions of the West. Many kids no longer want to learn traditional drumming and will even change existing rhythms to make them simpler to play. They will then use this for self-entertainment and dance to it. Influences in Dagbamete that Kwasi ties to the West include ¾ time, highlife, reggae and hiplife. Much of this is learned from the radio. Sometimes Westerners join the younger people while they are listening to this music and teach them Western style dances. He explained that Westerners do not know how to do traditional Ewe dance very well. The youth will tend to imitate the poor Ewe dancing of the Westerners since many look up to white people and Western culture.
Kwasi explained that the tempo of many Ewe drum rhythms has greatly increased over the years. He associates this with the influence of modern Western music and tempo. He claims that these traditions generate energy with quicker tempo and that the youth look up to these Western traditions.
Also, young people cannot sing properly and many young people sing songs in new dialects, which differ from village to village. Borborbor is very popular in the village even though it came from another region. Western culture has reduced the originality of traditional music in addition to quicker tempo and new words. He fears that traditional music will dwindle and feels sorry for the younger generations who will not learn the music. Some musical traditions in Dagbamete will not be changed. The music of the shrine will not change because the songs are composed for spiritual effects. Composers were inspired by spirits who provided them with the lyrics. The music’s association with spiritual powers prevents it from changing over time. All who are musically inclined are allowed to play in the shrine including women. However, it is not common to see a woman playing drums. He said that there has been no change in gender roles in the shrine during his lifetime.
Electricity improved dancing and drumming because the words are communicated clearly to people through amplification. Those who sing the lyrics with speakers feel more proud about what they are saying and doing as opposed to those who tried to project singing without amplification. Technology such as video recorders and cassette recorders allow people to propagate drumming groups. However, at the same time Kwasi feels that the composers and the musicians are cheated when their music is not played live.
Kwasi likes the work that his student, Kwasi (our teacher), us doing in the village. He explained that the people who come to study under Kwasi do not bring about more change in the village because they are studying the Ewe culture. People are coming to Kwasi to understand Ewe people and to propagate their music and traditions. Kenyo dancing involves women dressing in traditional Ewe clothing and exhibiting their elegance and wealth. In the dance they look at a bowl of water or a mirror. Kwasi related this with the coming of Europeans in the area who brought mirrors for trade.
War dances such as Atrikpui will not change much as this is the way in which modern people recall Ewe battles with the Ashante and the power of their ancestors. Christians are not allowed to teach in the school in Dagbamete. The school in Dagbamete teaches Ewe music while schools in other villages will sometimes teach music in English.
Interviewed by Patrick Smith, July 27th 2008
Third interview
Kwasi Davor is a dancer and drummer and speaks Ewe. He has taught geography, history, cultural studies and traditional drumming and dance from 1988– 2001 (20 years). He learnt drumming from his senior brother, who learnt it from his great Uncle. Kwasi still teaches drumming and dancing to groups such as the Udzogo dance group and Atpoka dance group, AonAdzo dance group, Kinka dance group and Atrikpui dance group. There are over two hundred people in most groups but in the Adzogbo group, there is only about forty because the dance uses more special techniques. Women and men from age 12-30 years and 18-70 years participate in the group and Kwasi describes that they are blessed with the shrine.
Kwasi says that children come to shrine every sunday in Dagbamete, and those who are able to pick up the rhythms learn it. He describes the shrine as a community-based drumming practice. There have been changes in dances, according to Kwasi, and some have faded because the elders that played them have died. The songs in shrine are composed by the older people and he says these songs are not changing. He says that nowadays the young people are not able to pick up old rhythms on the drums and dancing, and this is because of the influence of modern instruments like guitars. xylophones. On the other hand, traditional instruments, such as drum, gong gong, rattle, cassanet are being used increasingly in Western music, for example the use of the Gong Gong in Western music
Regarding the gender roles in drumming and dances, he says that some girls have started to learn to play at the shrine, but they were not doing so in the last 40- 50 years. There is now an inclination for women play drums, and according to Kwasi if the women can play the drums then the performance will change because they are not as good as the men and this will change the rhythm. But the elders will correct this, he says. The influence of the western religion, especially orthodox religion has influenced traditional music and even the traditional beliefs.
According to Kwasi, the young people do not have as much inclination to play the drums because of the influence of Western music and they like Western music instead. When Kwasi was growing up there was more interest in playing the drums. He explains that he has a duty to play and to teach. He has not seen the use of guitars or western instrumentation such as the use of amplification and he remarks that it brings variation to break the repetitiveness of the music. “The young people like it but the older people don’t like it,” he says. There is more access to Western music through radio and television compared to traditional music, he says.
Some recordings have also been made of Dagbamete groups, for example Unity has done recording of songs and drum and they distribute in stores, and this trend has been continuing for 10-15 years. Sometimes they record live at festivals and then select groups to do special records.“It helps people learn the songs and rhythms of the drums,” he says.
Interviewed by Hannah Searson and Leanne Arnison, July 2008