Literary study of Dagbamba work songs

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.