Revitalizing Ghanaian Palmwine Music for a Sustainable Environment

Josh O. Brew

University of Pittsburgh

Introduction

In the summer of 2022, I left Pittsburgh for Accra to complete a community-engaged project with the Legon Palmwine Band (LPB).[1] On my way, I experienced a poignant revelation that remained with me throughout my stay. As my flight was landing in Accra, I saw from my airplane window deforestation along the banks of River Pra. The water that I remembered being clear was now muddy at the coastline, especially where the river met the sea. I completed my project with LPB, but the dreadful state of the natural environment stayed with me because it was not the same Ghana I knew growing up. My subsequent research revealed that Ghana faces significant environmental problems including flooding, poor waste management, water pollution, and illegal mining. Although my summer project focused on the sustainability of Ghanaian palmwine music, I started questioning how the revitalization of Ghanaian palmwine music both contributes to and impedes ecological sustainability. As I will explain later, the genre’s very name—palmwine—reveals connections between the music tradition and the natural environment.

Ghanaian palmwine music emerged along the coast of West Africa in the early 19th century due to the fusion of guitar traditions and Indigenous Ghanaian music like Ɔdonson (Schmidt 1994). The music is a product of the transculturation that occurred between Kru sailors and local Ghanaian musicians as a result of their commercial activities along the Fanti coastal areas in Ghana.[2] Local Ghanaian musicians were introduced to new musical instruments such as guitars, harmonicas, and concertinas, as well as their related playing techniques. With time, the music tradition spread inland and became associated with Nsadwase, an Akan traditional gathering of elders. These elders would come together under a tree to drink palm wine (an alcoholic beverage made from the sap of palm trees), discuss critical societal issues, and provide solutions to these problems. Palmwine music grew from these important social gatherings to become an independent music tradition. However, since the 1990s, the music tradition has been declining, partly due to the increasing popularity of other music styles such as hiplife, as well as a lack of active palmwine musicians (Sunu Doe 2020).[3]

Today, bands like the LPB and Kwan Pa are actively revitalizing the music tradition through regular public performances.[4] The key component of palmwine music—for discussing societal issues—is still maintained in contemporary performances. However, as Ghana-like the rest of the world—continues to face environmental problems, can the performance of Ghanaian palmwine music contribute to protecting the natural environment? As much as humans continue to protect and make music, we must explore how music-making impacts the Anthropocene.

In this short paper, I focus on one material and one immaterial aspect of Ghanaian palmwine music, specifically, lyrics and the usage of plastic materials during musical performances. I highlight how the revitalization of Ghanaian palmwine music can contribute to addressing ecological problems and how the music tradition, due to economic challenges, potentially exacerbates environmental degradation.  

Palmwine Music and the Natural Environment

Ghanaian palmwine music and the natural environment are deeply and meaningfully interconnected. As previously mentioned, the music tradition started during social gatherings under trees in proximity to nature. Additionally, there is the actual sharing of palm wine during performances, hence its moniker: palmwine music. Third, the creation and performance of palmwine music depends heavily on the natural environment. For example, musical instruments, like drums, are constructed from trees. Likewise, the natural spaces for palmwine music performances are afforded by the shade trees create.

Moreover, palmwine music is performed in a storytelling mode infused with Ghanaian philosophies and values; the style compels its audience to be attentive and contemplative (Coplan 1978). This efficacy makes the music capable of evoking nostalgia, an affective approach to using music to support environmental activist movements (Rehding 2011). The music tradition, therefore, offers a productive lens through which to explore the relationship between music and environmental degradation in Ghana. Thus, in my dissertation, I expand my focus on Ghanaian palmwine music to critically localize a global problem in which humans have utilized, dominated, and manipulated natural resources for economic gain, threatening the future of the Earth. I examine the intersection of musical and ecological sustainability in Ghana. I investigate how sustaining music (music cultures, musicians, and instruments) contribute to sustaining the natural environment.

The Material Culture and Ecological Ramifications

While musical sustainability does not necessarily suggest ossification, I am particularly interested in the causes and effects of the changes within contemporary Ghanaian palmwine music practices (including its performances, musicians, instruments, and lyrics), and, most importantly, the music tradition’s interfaces with the natural environment. As Kyle Devine puts it, modern development, consumption, and waste have strained the environment to the point of crisis—and music is part of the problem (2015, 367, emphasis added). Nevertheless, our everyday musical enjoyment can conceal the complex environmental consequences of the infrastructures that make our musical cultures possible. While the materials necessary for music-making, such as records and guitars, are readily available for purchase and use, we often care little about how they are made or where they end up after use (Devine and Boudreault-Fournier 2021). There is a need to understand the materials that enable our musical cultures and the implications of our actions on the natural environment.

Consider this in Ghanaian palmwine music: during my time in Ghana last summer, I observed the use of plastic cups and bottles to serve palm wine during performances (see Figure 1). Plastics, however, have been identified as a major contributor to waste management problems in Accra. Plastics choke gutters and cause flooding, which destroys properties and causes the death of humans and animals. Ironically, the older generation of palmwine music practitioners served palm wine in half calabash gourds, which are environmentally friendly and reusable. More importantly, calabash usage corroborates the relationship between the music tradition and the natural environment.

The ubiquitous contemporary preference for plastics is due to the inaccessibility of calabash and associated monetary challenges. While plastics are inexpensive, easily disposable, and convenient, calabashes, on the other hand, are not common in urban areas and are relatively expensive. Also, for hygienic reasons, the calabashes require thorough cleaning before and after using them to serve palm wine. My initial suggestion on resorting to calabashes was met with jeremiad from palmwine musicians. “You want us to use calabashes? We are already doing a lot of work to sustain the music. Remember, we also have other jobs besides playing palmwine music.”[5] Due to economic challenges, some palmwine musicians engage in non-musical economic endeavors to attain capital to invest in their music, like securing studio sessions. Thus, using calabashes would add an extra responsibility to these palmwine musicians who are already composing, recording, and performing palmwine music and organizing performances to ensure the sustenance of the music tradition.[6]

However, in the sustainability efforts of Ghanaian palmwine music, it is imperative to prevent the situation in which the environment is degraded at the expense of the music. A symbiotic relationship exists between the music and the natural environment; thus, any bias in favor of either would result in the waning of the other. Accordingly, there is a need to ensure a future where music and the natural environment thrive. Despite the associated challenges, (re)adapting the use of calabashes to serve palm wine during palm wine music performances is a practical gesture towards environmental sustainability in Ghana. 

Lyrics of Palmwine Music: Now and Then

Jeff Todd Titon (2021) suggests that culture bearers and applied ethnomusicologists working towards musical sustainability should alienate music from capitalistic rationality because it does not enhance sustainability. However, the revitalization of Ghanaian palmwine music is influenced by capitalism; the medium for creating and disseminating this music is engulfed in monetary realities. For instance, my project with the LPB last summer coincided with the release of their single, “ɛtoƆ,” which translates as “tax.” The song addresses the Ghana government’s introduction of E-levy, which received massive public criticism at the time.[7]

So, how do economic conditions affect the sustainability of Ghanaian palmwine music and the protection of the natural environment? Could economic concerns be the reason these contemporary palmwine bands are composing songs about taxes and ignoring environmental issues? My effort to identify an original musical composition directed to environmental issues by contemporary Ghanaian palmwine bands proved futile. However, it was easy to find a palmwine song about protecting the natural environment by a musician from the older generation.

A good example is the song “Old Man Plants A Coconut Tree” by Koo Nimo.[8] The song is delivered in a narrative style expressing traditional ethics and principles, compelling listeners to be attentive and reflective. This efficacy of palmwine music makes it capable of addressing environmental issues mainly through the lyrics, which present crucial openings to examine how the music tradition can contribute to environmental sustainability. Singing over beautiful guitar melodies, Koo Nimo draws on Ghanaian Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to provide thoughts on how humans should relate to the natural environment. TEK encompasses a body of Indigenous knowledge, practices, and beliefs that have evolved, adapted, and passed down over generations; through cultural transmission, it emphasizes the relationship of living beings with one another and with their natural environment (Berkes 2012).

The lyrics of the song, translated from Twi to English, read as follows:[9]

Brethren,

A 90-year-old man woke up one early morning to plant a coconut tree.

And his grandchild asked him: Grandpa, why plant a coconut tree you will not live to reap from?

With a smile, the old man answered: You are but a child. I am planting this tree for you and the next generation.

I plant trees thinking about the future of Earth.

Singing from the perspective of trees, Koo Nimo continues:

Hey pedestrian!

Do not burn me!

We are gifts from God, and he deserves praise for that.

Trees provide clean air, water, and protect rivers.

Trees provide food and are used to build our homes.

I will focus on the second part of the lyrics. Here, Koo Nimo sings from the perspective of trees: “Hey pedestrian! Do not burn me.” The singer’s voice and positionality reflect the contemporary ontological turn of post-humanism, implied typically as “arguing against traditional humanism, objecting to any effort of claiming humans to be exceptional or of higher value compared to other—organic or hybrid—life forms... and concerned to correct our anthropocentric worldviews and their untimely expressions” (Wentzer and Mattingly 2018:146). As the song shifts from a human to a non-human viewpoint and, more importantly, addresses humans, listeners are compelled to understand and appreciate the reality of non-humans, trees, and materials. Such an approach reorients the relationship between humans and non-humans and highlights the ramifications of humans on the natural environment. In such an ontological sense, we understand that both humans and non-humans persevere in their individual existence.

Arguing along the same lines, Sarah Politz proposes “relational listening” as “a way of listening that is informed and deeply humbled by an analysis of interdependence, relationality, positionality, and power” (Politz 2022, 200). Through relational listening, Politz offers a way to attune to the relationship between humans and the environment. Relational listening is a helpful way of thinking through what it might mean to understand, analyze, and experience sound and the environment in a relational way that accounts for the different positionalities from which we listen, not just to other beings but with them (ibid).

By listening relationally to environmentally imbued palmwine music like Koo Nimo's song, we hear other beings. We can hear not just the music itself but also the relationships between the musicians, the audience, and the environment in which the music is performed. By paying attention to these relationships, we can gain a deeper understanding of the music and its cultural significance and the broader environmental context in which it exists. This approach can lead to greater appreciation and respect for the music and the environment that affords and sustains it. These approaches can inspire us to act toward promoting cultural preservation and environmental sustainability.

Conclusion

As my discussions on the material and immaterial culture of Ghanaian palmwine music have highlighted, this music tradition contributes to environmental degradation in Ghana, even if only a small part. At the same time, Ghanian palmwine music evokes extensive consideration for ecological efforts. The lyrics and storytelling approach can compel audiences to listen to their environment. Ethically and practically, using calabashes (an intervention I will explore in my dissertation project) to serve palm wine during the performance of palmwine music will help reduce the excessive use of non-recyclable plastics in Accra and reduce waste problems, a step toward a sustainable ecology with palmwine music. Music sustainability should perhaps be about preserving both endangered music cultures and the natural environment from where the music is inspired and acquired.

Eric Usner (2012, 7) has noted that ethical ethnomusicology has an allegiance no longer first and foremost to a field; rather, it is responsive to the real human conditions witnessed in the field of our world, and ethnomusicologists must work to understand how music and performance offer pathways to solve problems. I have examined the exchange between humans making palmwine music and the natural environment to foreground the role of music in the Anthropocene. While music can serve the cause of environmental rehabilitation and draw attention to critical environmental issues, music can also be a root cause of the very ecological degradation it sings against. But, as ethnomusicologists, we are well positioned to engage with communities we work in to protect the natural environment and ensure a future where music and the environment thrive.

Can music contribute to human survival, or is it indifferent to our possible extinction? Jacques Attali (1985:11) has informed us that “the noises of a society are in advance of musics’ images and material conflicts.” So, I say yes, music has the potential to contribute to human survival, especially in the Anthropocene. Let us pay attention to our music-making.

Notes:

References

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Brew, Joshua. n.d. Manuscript in preparation. “Music Career and Sustainability: The Strategies of a Hiplife Musician.”

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