Ghana Day Of Percussion 2011 Held In Ghana

The Ghana Day of Percussion has been held in Kumasi, Cape Coast Gyankobo and Mankessim respectfully in the months of August and September. The programme codenamed KPANLOGO FOR PEACE featured performances from some absolutely fantastic community performing groups and seminar featuring cultural educators.

This is the 7th annual event that the Ghana chapter of the Percussive Arts Society has sponsored in Ghana. This year's event featured Maame Cynthia and the Kumasi Essereso Adowa group, Yaw Dwene Adowa group from Kumasi Apatrapa, Bantama Ahenfie Kete/Adowa group, Ebow Poku Percussion Group, Obrumakoma Traditionals of Mankessim, Edumadze Asafo Company and the Ajumako Okyiso Brass band. Okyerema Kwaanan, Nana Okoto Okese, Dr. K. Sackey aka Odo Pee and Ms. Ruth Odoom were the facilitators for the seminar.

Days of Percussion (D.O.P) are major percussive arts project by member chapters of the world's famous music service organization, the Percussive Arts Society, with its headquarters in the USA. Through sponsorships, local chapters all over the world host Days of Percussion (DOP) to celebrate percussive music with a theme relevant to local needs. Ghana Percussive Arts Society, which is primarily the local host of this spectacular percussion festival christened the D.O.P, Kpanlogo for Peace Percussion Festival to make the events relevant to our need for peaceful coexistence.

The Ghana Percussive Arts Society (GPAS) is the premier chapter in Africa of this important organization. The GPAS which has an open membership, organises percussive related events in many Ghanaian institutions and communities as well as host annual Days of Percussion in collaborations with a number of local non-profits and community based organisations. Among the collaborative organizations are the International Center for African Culture & Arts, Ghana, the Centre for National Culture, the National Commission for Civic Education, the Centre for Human Development & Social Change, Ghana and a number of District Assemblies in Ghana. These collaborators help mobilize community groups and incorporate the celebration into some of the important community events . The goal of this collaboration is to undertaking research into percussion, document them for archival purposes and to promote percussive arts culture in Ghana. These events bring performers, teachers, cultural instructors and drum enthusiasts from all over Ghana and beyond to share the arts, network, inspire creativity, create awareness about the work of PAS and help to preserve and promote percussion as a valuable tool for national development and social change.

Mr. William Klutse, the Adansi-South District Director of the National Commission on Civic Education who was the main speaker at all the major event venues, commended the Percussive Arts Society for the support it is giving the local percussive arts. He advised the community to learn peaceful coexistence ideas from the drum ensemble since it has a lot to tell everyone. He elaborated that in every drum ensemble, each of the players is individually responsible for their parts, they are also responsible to ensuring that their contribution to the ensemble is good enough to make good melody. He said” the players forget their differences and perform together……so why then can't the community live together in peace?”

Speaking to the media in Kumasi during the Kumasi event, Mr. Harold Akyeampong, the president of the Ghana PAS said he was highly elated and overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the community. He was particularly happy at the enthusiasm among the youth in the preservation of the percussion culture in the region. He once again called on the government to make cultural studies especially the musical arts a priority since it has a lot to offer by preparing the youth how to build communities, increase confidence level, promoting peaceful coexistence and nurturing a better informed youth to become good citizens.

Madam Maame Serwaa Badu, an executive of a Ghanaian non-profit, the Centre for Human Development & Social Change, Ghana ( CHDSCGhana) also lauded the Percussive Arts Society for its continuing support for the festival in Ghana. She continued with a called on all Ghanaians to embrace good cultural values to live fruitful and beneficial lifestyles that would support community development. She appealed to Ghanaians to have to have a hybrid of values to support their personal and community growth. She also commended the sponsors, the District and the Municipal Assemblies, the Traditional Councils, Community leaders, Percussive Arts Society and all the participants for their respective roles in making the year's Days of Percussion very successful.