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| Brass bands back to life |
6/1/2008 |
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A street carnival has marked the launch of a National Brass Band competition at Agona Swedru in the Central Region of Ghana.
Music performances by three brass band groups from Swedru, Winneba and Agona Kwanyako lighted up the spirits of the people in the streets and brought back some good memories.
The event last Thursday was heavily patronised by both the youth and the elderly of the Swedru township who found in it an opportunity to satisfy their craving for this type of music which they used to be fond of but which has been dying gradually.
In time past, Brass Band music featured prominently in social gatherings such as church festivities and funerals.
The Swedru Brass band and other such bands which was mainly responsible for such performances in the township have lately changed their music style.
They now prefer to play highlife music using guitars and other instruments that are used by dance band groups to the disadvantage of the wind instruments of brass bands.
What happened at the launch of the National Brass competition last Thursday was a statement by the people that they still cherish their brass band music which sometime ago enabled them dance to their local ‘Adaha’ and traditional styles of dancing.
Originally, the street carnival was meant as a procession for the three brass bands and some masqueraders from Winneba, Kwanyako and Agona Swedru, but as the bands started playing, scores of Swedru youth joined the masqueraders in dancing to cover a distance of over one kilometre from their starting point to the main lorry station where the event was held.
Free drinks at the venue did not help the situation when the procession got to its final destination, the launching grounds.
The Kasapreko group who co-sponsored the event with Dateline Marketng Company had enough drinks for anybody who cared, the youth and especially the porters group from the Swedru market threw generous shots of “Alomo†and the latest brand of the company “Cocoa Liqueur†down their throats, there was no stopping for them as they virtually remained glued to the spacious floor of the launching ground.
Other groups who joined the dancing fray to make the occassion grand were the hair-dressers association, the market women and other women’s groups.
Launching the festival, Mr. S K Boafo, Minister for Chieftancy and Culture said brass band groups will now be encouraged and nurtured into holding annual festivals as an event tourism to draw people from other countries to come and watch. The programme is also intended to promote local tourism.
He said even though brass band was a relic of our colonial past it has been adapted and integrated into our culture in a way that it has become authentically Ghanaian to the admiration of the people who brought it.
The Chieftancy and Culture Minister said the time had come to put everything we have to good use by making them useful in our national development agenda.
The event attracted a good representation of VIPs which included Messrs Joe Aggrey, former Deputy Minister of Sports, Samuel Obodai, MP for Agona West, Ben Mensah, Municipal Chief Executive of Agona and Nana Kobina Botwe II Chief of Agona Swedru.
Brass band music was introduced into the Gold Coast by the British Colonial Administration during the Second World War. It was used for military parades to ensure the alertness of the troops to prosecute the war.
Some of the indigenous people who found themselves in regimental bands learnt to play foreign dance tunes to entertain the white officers at their club house and later used the brass band instruments to play indiginous music forms like “Adaha,†“Konkomaâ€and and highlife.
The National Brass Band competition is slated for June 5 at the Swedru Sports Stadium and is organised by Dateline Marketing Company.
Source: Graphic Showbiz
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