Talking drums

The highs and sighs of Ghanaian music in Cairo overawe Gamal Nkrumah

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Botri playing his favourite instrument the Ghanaian flute atentenben; Hewale Sounds posing for the camera

The very notion of drummers as professional historians might sound bizarre to ears not attuned to the colourful cultural traditions of West Africa. There was a seminal moment earlier this year when I was at the Cairo Jazz Club in Mohandessin because Hewale Sounds were in town. The moment they stepped onto the stage, I said goodbye to the country I had fallen in love with, Egypt, and entered the bosom of another -- Ghana.

I tried to keep my breathing slow and steady. The group was assembled purposely for the concerts in Cairo. I knew they would soon be gone, and I was determined to cram in as much time and experience with them as possible. Hewale Sounds are an unforgettable experience. It was utterly magical. It is such vivid and vibrant music.

For me personally, the passage of time has helped me make peace with the land of my birth. Akan culture was the guiding light of my formative years. My father's peoples' perspective was the window from which I viewed the outside world. This was the first culture for me. It never entirely left me.

There are certain things an Egyptian audience expects from a sub-Saharan African musical exposé. This is not music for the hard-drinking, drug-taking, chain- smoking types. It is mellow and soothing. Memories of the 24 February 1966 coup receded. All bad blood has been expunged.

Hitting the highlife, West Africa's traditional hybrid music, was one of the milestones in Cairo's cultural scene this season. Last October, Hewale Sounds performed in Cairo for the first time with a gig at the Al-Sawy Cultural Wheel. Then they were back to play again this year, courtesy of the Ghanaian Embassy, and wowed the Egyptian audiences at both the Al-Sawy Cultural Wheel and the Cairo Jazz Club. They are to perform yet again on Africa Day at the Manial Palace, and they promise to outdo their earlier performances. My nerves strain to pick up the consonance.

This warmth most marked the Ghanaian musicians on stage, matched by an extraordinary bellow of incantation that came from the bottom of their bellies, easily and with spontaneous enthusiasm. These Ghanaian musicians have a way of gathering audiences around them. And in Cairo, the people came in droves.

A peppering of glamorous guests danced to the strains of Ghanaian music late into the night. The highlife number was eclectic. This ancient genre seems to consist in equal parts of metaphysics topped off with a gratuitously happy ending.

It seemed, momentarily, as though someone had dimmed the lights and turned down the volume. They pulled everything around them into their orbit. They pulled the people of Cairo in.

The musical repertoire of the Hewale kind is inspirationally pan-African. It is essentially Ghanaian, but not confined to West Africa. Either it plays to our stereotypes of African music or it offers something other than the idealised version of tribal African sounds.

To enjoy Hewale Sounds you don't have to be drunk and raucous, the music itself is inebriating. You don't have to smoke dope or snort coke to derive joy from this particular kind of African music. You listen to it to relax. Your head would probably have been wobbling, though. Then the dancers were swaying their hips to the deafening rhythms as it climaxed, leaning their heads back and sighing, "Ooooh".

The music truly was intoxicating. To my utter astonishment, the musicians proclaimed that the next number was dedicated to the son of "our first president", and it took me a few seconds to grasp that I was the object of their reverence. It was a most humbling experience and I was truly touched.

I gamely took to the dance floor. Lead singer Yaw Dela Botri bellowed enchanting invocations -- tributes to the ancestors -- in sonorous Twi, the Akan language. Botri's trademark instrument is the redoubtable atentenben, the traditional Ghanaian flute, yet he is equally adept at percussion, rattle and vocals. Incidentally, the atentenben easily plays several scales -- ritonic, hexatonic, pentatonic and heptatonic.

His hands were clenched into half fists. The lyrics were arresting. The words were spoken with veneration. Spirituous, his incantations reverberated throughout the hall. People leaped to their feet and danced to the awesome sounds.

These are dances that help to trim bulging waistlines. The music is dreamlike, but nothing chimerical. It is rooted in history. Although it nods to the past, it is anything but authentically traditional. It's got that shimmering, imperceptible African quality.

Last October brought the overdue debut of the wonderfully gifted Hewale Sounds to Cairo. The April performance was equally enchanting. Next week's promises to be nothing short of eclectic. And in that respect, too, the musicians have found their own place in highlife history.

Aaron Bebe Sukura plays his favourite musical instrument, the gyile or traditional Ghanaian xylophone, as well as the Zimbabwean mbira, the seprewa (traditional Ghanaian lute harp), and, of course, he excels at vocals. He sings mainly in his native Dagaare language, but this multi- talented instrumentalist does not confine his music to that of his own people; he incorporates extensively the traditions of other Ghanaian ethnic groups.

The gyile, the Ghanaian xylophone, is ingeniously constructed by suspending wooden keys on a wooden frame over calabash gourd resonants. The vibrating sounds are hauntingly arresting, resonating with the enchanting spirit of the Dagara people of northern Ghana who have historically resiliently resisted the slavers, reflecting the melancholy yet jocund mindset of a longsuffering people.

In contemporary African music, audiences on the continent are increasingly demanding something Western for their own consumption. Musicians invariably oblige. Hewale Sounds are no exception. They are remarkably unassuming.

Most engaging are the marvellous artistic outpourings of Nii Okine with percussion, bell, rattle, gome (foot drum), as well as vocals, of course. Bernard Quarshie's percussion and foot drum are a phenomenon themselves. Samuel Aziati on guitar and vocals is superb. And Opoku Ayim deftly balances keyboard, bell, rattle and vocals. Dela, Nii Okine, Opoku Ayim and Bernard are members of this neo- traditional Ghanaian group. Just last month Hewale Sounds was voted best traditional group at the Ghana Music Awards -- no insignificant accolade.

Aaron Bebe plays with the Local Dimension Band, a high-life group based at the University of Ghana, Legon. Samuel is a session guitarist.

At the Cairo Jazz Club, Hewale Sounds played with French saxophonist Florian Cornillet and Egyptian percussionist Diaa Badr. The combination was electrifying. It all makes for compelling viewing.

Their charm obviously waylay the racist bigots, I believe.

The band will also play at Mohamed Ali Palace, Manial, 25 May and at the Cairo Jazz Club on 26 May.