Accra, Ghana
Lab, IF-LAB-0005
Vernacular Songs as Archives and Modes of Social Redress in Jamestown, Accra
Ghana
https://imaginingfutures.world/labs/accra-ghana/
Ghana
Preliminary Findings and Output
Overall, Ghana Lab has been able to gather formally and informally archived information that humanities research often glosses over and to expose archiving processes that reflect multiple co- existing experiences and memorialisation of value and relevance. Notwithstanding variations that exist, trends that are common to the three settlements are outlined below:- Songs, performances, communal celebrations, monuments, names, photographs, stories, proverbs and the landscape are key media through which people of the settlements studied conserve and transmit information about the past they choose to keep and use to guide their present and to inform their futures.
- The archived past is an instrument for managing trauma, fostering social cohesion and peaceful relations and for maintaining the fabric of society.
- Various communities bonded by kinship, profession, spirituality, social status, and gender deliberately choose aspects of the past and present they wish to remember and conserve or disremember based on changing life circumstances and interests.
- Heterogeneity of the settlements make nonsense of tribalism and ethnicity.
Affiliated Groups and Organisations
- Ghana’s Public Records and Archives Administration Department (PRAAD)
- Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB)
- Ghana Heritage Committee (Ghana Commission for UNESCO)
- Ghana Education Service
- Jamestown Sub-Metropolitan Assembly
- Jamestown Gbekebii
- Voice of Waste
- Firebeads Media
- KEEA District Assembly
- Edina Konkobesia (Fishmongers Association, Elmina)
- Edina Traditional Council
- Edina Catholic Diocese
- Keta Municipal Assembly
- Keta Evangelical Presbyterian Mission
- A Ga-Mashie Boxing Heritage Photobook has been created for the project which you can view and download HERE, and a video is available to watch with this link.
https://imaginingfutures.world/labs/accra-ghana/
Loading...