Kakatsitsi Master Drummers, bringing Ghanaian drumming to the world

On a hot February morning in Accra, Ghana, I visit the training grounds of the Kakatsitsi Master Drummers at the invitation of Samuel Tetteh Addo, aka Njole, one of Accra’s leading traditional drummers.

The troupe have gathered at the house of one of the senior members, Emmanuel, in Kaneshie, a suburb of Accra known for its bustling market and busy transport interchange.

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Kakatsitsi are different from many other traditional African drumming ensembles. When Westerners think of African drumming, they often think of the djembé, the now ubiquitous drum of the Mandinka people that has spread all over Africa and, increasingly, the world.

I have seen many Accra cultural groups prominently featuring djembés and doun douns, the bass drums that typically back a group of djembé players.

But while he is known as a virtuoso djembé player, Njole tells me he is reluctant to use the drum too much. “We Ghanaians have so many drums. But our problem is that we don’t respect ourselves. We’re always following others.”

Watch Kakatsitsi Master Drummers rehearse 'Fume Fume':

Part of Kakatsitsi’s cultural mission is therefore to internationally showcase the diversity of Ghanaian drums.

Prominent tribes such as the Ashanti, the Ewe, the Dagomba and the Fanti all have their own rhythms, dances, chants and drums, and there are numerous other small tribes.

Members of these societies have migrated to Accra, bringing their drumming and dance traditions with them.

Accra’s local Ga people have absorbed the various instruments, rhythms and dances of their tribal neighbours into their own drumming ensembles, developing a syncretic, neo-traditional style.

Kakatsitsi play Ga drums such as the gome (bass box drum), the kulomashie (hand-held processional drum) and the large fontomfrom drums played at the funerals of eminent people.

The fontomfrom are played in a call-and-response drum language with the atumpani, a talking drum once used to communicate between villages.

They also use drums of the Ewe tribe of eastern Ghana, such as the sogo and kiri, as well as a wide range of bells, shakers and rattles. There’s even the dondo (talking drum) of the Dagomba people of northern Ghana.

The group are keen to respect the traditional religion of the Ga people, led by wulomoi (priests) who were also the political rulers before colonisation.

During the annual Homowo festival, held in August to celebrate the maize harvest, the wulomoi and their female attendants – the woncheme – participate in ceremonies to ward off evil emanations and to honour Kpele and other local nature spirits.

As Kakatsitsi begin to rehearse their more sacred material, the drummer Theofo from Labadi comes to the fore, as a member of the Tigare religious cult.

“So many Ghanaians are now following Christianity or Islam, which were introduced to Ghana through colonisation,” he tells me. “Instead of following others, we should be proud of our indigenous heritage.”

As traditional culture is ignored by much of Ghana’s modernising youth, who prefer instead to follow popstars copying Jamaican dancehall or Western R&B styles, many traditional musicians, like Kakatsitsi, feel they must appeal to Western ‘world music’ audiences to succeed.

Njole has therefore forged a creative partnership with British manager and producer Steve Peake, who was once a promoter on the London trance club scene.

“Most of our audience are blofonyos [the Ga word for ‘white man’]. Steve is blofonyo, so he can advise us how to arrange our rhythms in a way they will like,” Njole says.

The end result is a sound that is noticeably groovier and even trancier than that of most other African drumming groups.

While the group take a break, the veteran drummer Adotey – the only current member who was part of the group’s first UK tour in 1996 – tells me a bit more about the history of Kakatsitsi.

During that first tour of the UK, the youngest member of the group, Nii Boye, rebelled against the harsh leadership of Nii Tettey Tetteh and absconded, reporting the group for alleged mistreatment.

As a result, the visa applications for subsequent tours in 1997 and 1998 were refused. Peake organised a campaign that saw 16 MPs write to the Foreign Office, urging them to let the drummers travel and finally, in 1999, they toured again.

Since then, the group have toured extensively and collaborated with other traditional musicians.

In 2002, they toured with Red Centre Dreaming, an Australian Aboriginal group, before working with the !Gubi Family from the San people of the Namibian Kalahari in 2017, including a main stage performance at WOMAD.

Two years later, they toured with Mbilou, a Bwiti spiritual musician from Gabon.

They have also fused their music with electronic beats, including an appearance alongside ambient electronica producers The Orb on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury in 2013.

“Our sound is not 100% traditional,” Njole admits. “We see tradition as something that needs to evolve if it is to survive. If all you do is play the same thing as the elders, you risk it becoming stale.”

As the rehearsal resumes, considerable time is spent arranging the vocals in five-part harmony.

“We are mainly a music group,” Njole later tells me. “For most other African cultural groups, the dance is the main thing with the music as an accompaniment. For us, it’s the other way round.”

When they do start rehearsing the dance, I can see that it too has been influenced by Western styles.

Njole repeats his drum riffs more than he would for a Ghanian audience. “Blofonyos can’t dance like Africans – they don’t know the moves,” he explains.

“So, we have to repeat the moves more than we would normally, so they can follow us to join in.”

Teaching international audiences about the dance and music is another important dimension to Kakatsitsi’s work.

They have become experts in delivering educational performances and workshops. “Over 70% of our work is educational,” Peake says.

Their educational performances and workshops promote positive images of African people, tackling racism and xenophobia, raising concentration, developing listening and teamwork skills and extolling the well-being benefits of participation in community music and dance.

“A sense of togetherness and belonging is a basic human need that a lot of people in the West lack,” Peake explains.

“In the traditional African setting, the whole village would come out to participate in the music and dance. Everyone would have their role to play, however humble. You wouldn’t have the separation of audience and performers that emerges in modernised societies.”

For these reasons, Kakatsitsi encourage participation in their performances, ideally facilitated by some workshops at the festival, or in local schools prior to the show.

Participants are invited onto the stage at the end of the show to perform with the group, bringing people together to celebrate a shared sense of culture and identity.

UK audiences will get the chance to take part as Kakatsitsi begin an extensive UK tour, which began this May and sees them bring their education performances and workshops to venues and festivals across the country until November, introducing even more audiences to the exciting world of Ghanaian drumming.

“It’s funny,” Njole tells me as I say my farewells. “Here in Accra, most people look down on traditional musicians, and only start to respect us when we travel to the West. In the UK, people love and respect us. Maybe that’s because we still have something that the blofonyos have forgotten and now they’re realising it’s time to remember.”

This article originally appeared in the June 2022 issue of Songlines magazine. Never miss an issue – subscribe today