Akyode Hymns in Ghana

From SPARK

Brief Summary

Discover how ethnomusicology and non-print media can impact a culture that at one time showed little interest in the Gospel. Offering Scripture songs and readings on cassette written in user-friendly forms, such as their own singing style and drumming, produced fantastic results among all age groups.

Introduction

“How did Jesus walk on the water?" "What is this heavenly town of Jerusalem like?" "How did these Bible stories get turned into our kind of songs?" These are some of the questions we have been hearing as people hear the Good News presented in their heart language and heart music on cassette. For many Akyode, this is the first time they have heard any Scripture. But before I dwell on this success story, first let me introduce the setting.

Key Factors

• The 10,000 Akyode people of eastern Ghana have a thriving form of African traditional religion, based in part around a famous and powerful shrine and its priesthood.

• Another key element in the religious landscape is the women’s cult (Oku-Oku) built around the python snake.

• Though churches and schools have been in the area more than fifty years, the impact of Christianity and education is still tiny—about 3 percent of the people attend church on a semi-regular basis.

• A mother-tongue literacy program has been ongoing for more than ten years.

What was done

In January 1994, a series of Scripture-In-Use workshops were held in the Volta Region of Ghana for five language groups, including the Akyode. One highlight was recording an hour-long cassette of Bible readings and associated Scripture songs, almost all of which were composed in Akyode musical styles. Another method of Scripture-in-use is playing the cassette while mobile. I make frequent emergency ambulance runs in my truck, so I have a “captive audience” of around 20 people a week who hear the tape in this way. We also hope to distribute it to the local clinic and to local eating places that play recorded music. Urban migrants also buy and enjoy the tape.

Results

Response to the cassette was fantastic. We played the tape at a central meeting place in the village. About a dozen shrine priests listened with interest and asked questions raised by the Scripture readings (“What did the dove at Jesus’ baptism symbolize?" "Where is the Jordan River?"). They said it was very good to hear their language and their music on a cassette, and if I bought them drink, we could dance to the songs in the afternoon!

A number of shrine priests who owned tape players actually purchased their own cassettes and played them for their peers. To realize the impact of this, you should know that the shrine priests have strong taboos against church-related things and literacy in any language, and will probably never read any Scripture portion. But give it to them in a user-friendly form—with their own singing and drumming—and they are ready to listen and discuss.

The same interest was shown by the women: co-wives stayed up late in the night to hear the cassette, and new interest in Bible stories was stimulated, giving rise to questions such as: “Are these stories true?" "Where did these stories take place?" "Where is Jesus now?" Previously, Jesus was completely irrelevant to their lives. Now, they wanted to know about Him. The form of the message was so attractive and easy to use that they got absorbed in the message’s content.

At other villages, as soon as the tape player was turned on and a song started, the old women and children would start dancing, and the middle-aged women would learn the response part after a few repetitions and join in. The men would pay for the tapes.

The songs spread like wildfire, even among subgroups which are heavily resistant to the Gospel when presented in other media. Women in the Oku-Oku cult, forbidden to hear church preaching or become literate, have learned the songs with Christian lyrics. During moonlight nights, children sing them with gusto to accompany their jumping and clapping games. Everyone already expects some of the songs to be used at the next big village dance.

Our first duplication order of 100 tapes sold out within a month (the time it took to get to all villages), and more are being prepared. Each one costs more than a day’s minimum wage here. A second recording session is scheduled for November. These results are not restricted to the Akyode project alone; they also apply to the other Volta Region groups initially recorded: they are duplicating more copies of the first tape, and preparing more songs for the second!

Compare this to our long-standing literacy program: it will take us two years to sell 100 books, even when they are subsidized at one-tenth the cost of the cassette! Among the Akyode, offering Scripture songs and readings on cassette gets results like people lining up at a pizza buffet. “Make it good and hot, and they will pay for it, and digest it, and come back for more.”

One point I want to make for fieldworkers is how ethnomusicology and nonprint media worked hand-in-hand to achieve this result. The first indigenous hymn among the Akyode was made over three years ago, but was not a sufficient spark by itself to successfully spread to all communities and create excitement—it really took the cassette to do that. And a cassette full of borrowed songs would not have made the same significant impact as a tape using Akyode song styles—ethnomusicology research and discussions with church leaders were conducted before the microphone was set up. These two disciplines have great potential for partnership through feeding tangible results and enthusiasm into each other.

The Bible says, “Blessed are those who hear and obey.” I cannot tell how many people are being persuaded to obey the Word of God by these cassettes of indigenous hymns. But I do know that in only one month’s time, the vast majority of Akyode people have heard some of the Word of God, even without being literate or sitting in church. It’s a great first step!

By Paul Neeley