The synonymy of Ghanaian music and Nigerian music

by Kabura Ng'ang'a

The rest of the world that is not from West Africa almost always mixes up the Ghanaian artists with their Nigerian counterparts. This is because of two main factors, the synonymy of their sound and the synonymy of the artists really.

Ghanaian music sound sounds very similar to the Nigerian music sound. There is the common West African drums (y’all used the tom tom drums to express the heartbeat). These being the underlying instruments to create what is now known as afro-beats. Ghanaians and Nigerians go further to sharing most of their traditional instruments and so with the contemporary music, this plays a role too.

The synonymy of the artists is definitely a flow from the synonymy of the sound. When we get to hear an artist with a particular sound, we automatically just link them to Nigeria without really caring to think about Ghana. This is because Fela Kuti made afro-beats known and this preceded the fame of other Ghanaian sounds and so most West African music with that sound directly links back to Nigeria. Also, because of the collaborations between artists from Ghana and Nigeria we forget who is from where.

It is to a point that some artists are now automatically considered Nigerians because their music is just considered Nigerian. If you mention people like MI and Sarkodie, people automatically assume that they are from Nigeria but they are from Ghana actually.

It is very evident that the relationship between Ghana and Nigeria goes beyond their Jollof rice and extends into their artistry in the context of music.