Ghanaian Popular Culture Analysis

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As Ghanaians there are a variety of experiences that define who we are. On various social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the phrase “You know you are Ghanaian when…” trends from time to time, and is used by Ghanaians to express what they think of the experiences the typical Ghanaian goes through. I will use this to highlight experiences of the contemporary Ghanaian, support these experiences with popular media genres. Fabian (1998) mentions that popular culture comprises a complex of distinctive expressions of life experience. Cartoons, music, paintings, photography, fake satire and theatre are prominent examples of popular art forms that have arisen and are used to express the experiences of the contemporary Ghanaian. Popular …show more content…

They take advantage of the average Ghanaian who do all the hard work for the few rich ones to enjoy. In 2015, a Transparency International report ranked Ghana as the 2nd most corrupt country in Africa (Transparency International, 2015). Sadly Ghanaians turn mute on issues of corruption. Now with the emergence of the popular culture art form of Hip life music, we can talk about corruption and what we think about it as a nation. Leading proponents of this art form who have made a lot of songs about corruption are A-Plus, Sarkodie and Barima Sidney. Since the turn of the millennium, A-Plus has made it his life’s work to sing about corruption and political issues. Sarkodie, another Ghanaian hip life musician uses his music to talk about the Ghanaian social issue of dumsor and how the leaders are so corrupt they do not want to do anything about it. Sydney is by far the most pronounced of these who is always singing about corruption. He is well known for his Donkomi song, in which he acts a representative of the people of Ghana who is interviewing the president on social issues and corruption. Barima Sydney’s songs cut across all spheres of public life and is not only limited to politics. He did a song, Sikadie Basaa, Countryman Songo, a controversial sports presenter in Ghana which looked at corruption in the sports sector. Truly, after love and money, corruption is …show more content…

They hide their messages in their forms of art and this brings to the fore another complex nature of Ghanaians. Ghanaians are implicit and do not clearly express themselves. They hardly go straight to the point and opt to play around with words. This is seen in all aspects of Ghanaian art woks but is more prominent in cartoons and high life music. Cartoonists always go through the indirect route to express themselvesThe use of art in a social issue is evident in a Bright Ackwerh cartoon (see appendix A). Recently, Ghana accepted to host two ex-detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison. This was met with a lot of apprehension from Ghanaians condemning the decision of the government to accept these two men. It was even alleged that the president, John Mahama took $300 million from the United States (US) government to accept the two (citifmonline.com, 2016) or that Ghana was just trying to please the US. Bright Ackwerh captured this spot on in this cartoon which shows the US president Barack Obama, with his hands covering his butt and running away from a goat who is chasing him to kiss his on the backside. On looking are two faces drawn on a sign post, evidently the two detainees from Guantanamo Bay prison, judging from their appearance. On face value, this is a picture of a goat chasing a man, but if it is carefully analyzed, the goat represents the

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