Mariama

For over thirty years, African Brothers have been the most popular band in Ghana. Their leader, Patrick Kwame Paa Steel Ampadu, was born on 31 March 1945 in Obo-Kwahu, a small village on the Kwahu Plateau, in southern Ghana, where a lot of highlife musicians come from. They often have built big houses there, not to reside but only to come for festive occasions. He stands out at his school because of his beautiful voice.  Even though he passes the entrance exam for Secondary School, his father’s financial incapacity leaves him no choice but to only finish Middle School. After this, in 1960, he goes to family members in Accra to look for a job. His father finds him a job at the Ministry of Agriculture in Kwahu Mpraeso. He does his job remarkably well, and it is here that he discovers his gift to compose. He comes up with songs that he sings a few times, but never forgets. A school friend, who plays the guitar, asks him to come to Accra to start a band together. But upon arrival, the friend has already left. A family member, Nana Nyarko, a member of Yamoah’s Band, then introduces him to Peter Kwabena Yamoah, the band’s leader. He let him join the band because of his high-pitched voice. When Yamoah and his band travel to Kumasi, Kwame Ampadu’s family won’t allow him to travel with them to the ‘dangerous’ Kumasi. In 1963, when he is 18, he creates together with Eddie Donkor, Yaw Asante, and Nana Nyarko the African Brothers Band. They perform as an amateur band at weddings and funerals. Even though Ampadu is very good at composing songs, the band is initially not taken very seriously by producers because they are ‘small boys’. Kwame Ampadu himself is also very small. But then he meets Jerry Hanses, leader of the Ramblers Dance Band. Ampadu gives him eight of his songs for free, those are recorded by the Ramblers and all of them become hits. In return, Hansen introduces him to Philips West Africa, and the African Brothers can record there two songs, including one of these eight songs, ‘Agyanka Dabre‘. This song made the African Brother Band famous in 1966. In the following years, the African Brothers Band record many singles, including ‘Ebi Te Yie‘, their biggest hit. After 56 singles, they record their first LP in 1969. It was called ‘African Brothers Dance Band International‘, it includes ‘Ebi Te Yie‘. Nana Kwame Ampadu I, as Patrick Kwame Ampadu calls himself later, is not only the band’s leader, he is a solo guitarist as well and he composes most of the songs. In the seventies, the African Brothers often go on a tour through the whole country. A band’s performance is more than just music to dance on. They start with a comedy play in Twi, the language that is spoken in central Ghana. The play is interspersed with musical intermezzos. A relevant text is sung, accompanied by drums in the so-called Cantata drumming style. This style, by then popular in many areas in Ghana, is often performed by young people, in a school or church, of course mostly with Christian texts. After the play and a break, when it is almost midnight, the band starts to play so the audience can start to dance.

The Cantata drumming we will hear is not from the African Brothers but was performed by a group of youngsters on a Sunday afternoon in a village beside the road to Ho, the capital city of the Volta Region, to Lome, the capital of Togo. The text of the song ‘Yaw Asante’ is about ‘luck in marriage’: in many households, there is witchcraft, disputes, hatred, evilness, jealousy, and other related issues. Some housewives cannot cook well and for that reason, Yaw Asante would not have a harmonious marriage in those households.

“Anomaa Tewa” is the Twi word for a bird that usually lives in forests. It’s the noisiest bird in the forest. “Anomaa Tewa” is also what the Akan people call a braggart.

“Meye Agyanka” means ‘I am an orphan’. A helpless orphan who is despised seeks comfort in the popular Akan proverb ‘God fans the tailless animal’. God is accompanying the orphan.

Nana Kwame Ampadu made over 800 songs. Later on, he played mostly religious highlife. On 13 December 2013, the African Brothers International Band, led by Nana Kwame Ampadu, celebrates its 50th birthday by performing in Accra. There, four new songs will be released.

On 5 November 2020, Nane Kwame Ampadu will speak as a special guest on a radio broadcast. Although he is a well-known member of the political party National Democratic Congress (NDC), he says to be in favour of a second term for President Nana Akufo Addo from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) because this party wants to make secondary school education free of charge. Undoubtedly, he is thinking of his own youth when his father could not afford to pay for his secondary school.

Thanks to Gerrit Kalsbeek.

Playlist:

1. African Brothers Band: Yaw Asante, 4’18, author: Nana Kwame Ampadu I, LP Afrohili Soundz, 1973, HAPPY BIRD AMBASSADOR RECORDS LPJN 05

2. Ramblers Dance Band: Agyanka Dabre, 3’42, author: Patrick Kwame Ampadu, LP The Hit Sound of the Ramblers Dance Band, 1968, Decca WAPS.25

3. African Brothers Band: Ebi Te Yie, 3’26, author: Nana Kwame Ampadu I, LP African Brothers Dance Band (International), 1969, Afribros PAB 001

4. Yamoah’s Band: Asem Sebe, 2’48, author: P.K. Yamoah, CD Yamoah’s Highlife collection, vol. 3, Yamoah production 0244838463/ LP Asem Sebe, 1974, Rainbow (13) LRB 001

5. Yamoah’s Band: Mensuro, 4’57, author: P.K. Yamoah, CD Yamoah’s Highlife collection, vol. 3, Yamoah production 0244838463/ 45 RPM Mensuro, (Highlife), 1967, Decca ‎GWA 4180

6. African Brothers Band: Me Poma, 8’52, auteur: Nana Kwame Ampadu I, LP Me Poma, 1984, Stern’s AFRICA STERN’S 1004

7. African Brothers Band: Gye Mani, 6’40, author: Nana Kwame Ampadu I, LP Me Poma, 1984, Stern’s AFRICA STERN’S 1004

8. Cantata youngsters group from Dzalele, Volta Region, Ghana: Cantata, 2’7, own recording by Kees Schuil, 1978

9. African Brothers Band: Anomaa Tewa, 3’46, author: Nana Kwame Ampadu I, LP Afrohili Soundz, 1973, HAPPY BIRD AMBASSADOR RECORDS LPJN 05

10. African Brothers Band: Meye Agyanka, 4’2, author: Nana Kwame Ampadu I, LP Afrohili Soundz, 1973, HAPPY BIRD AMBASSADOR RECORDS LPJN 05

11. African Brothers Band: Me Bisa, 6’3, author: Nana Kwame Ampadu I, LP Me Poma, 1984, Stern’s AFRICA STERN’S 1004

12. African Brothers Band: Obre Twa Owuo, 7’46, author: Nana Kwame Ampadu I, LP Afrohili Soundz, 1973, HAPPY BIRD AMBASSADOR RECORDS LPJN 05