Abstract:
This work deals with Dagbamba work songs and themes that depict the philosophical life
of the people. Twenty songs were collected from the field as primary data transcribed and
translated into English. The songs were grouped into categories, that is, songs related to
farm work and house works, both being analyzed descriptively and analyzed within the
context of Richard Bauman’s (1975) theory of performance as the songs were taken as
performed on the field. It became known from the study that the work songs of the
Dagbamba are gradually dying out due to white-collar jobs, civilization and foreign music
like the rap, hip-hop etc. Since the work songs were not composed for nothing but as a way
of shaping and bringing up of the people and as a cultural property, it is important to
document them so that they will not be completely lost to posterity. As Salifu (2014) sees
the African music as a metaphor of life which mirrors the happenings in the society. The
literary devices, themes and the philosophical reflection in the songs are all portrayed just
to indicate the need of our traditional music (especially the work songs) in our life
endeavors.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Gur-Gonja Education (Dagbani),
Faculty of Ghanaian Languages, submitted to the school
of Graduate Studies, in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Masters of Philosophy
(Ghanaian Laguages)
in University of Education, Winneba
JULY, 2019
