There is something very interesting about Ghanaian gospel music. Christianity was introduced to Ghana by missionaries prior to the country being colonized. This foreign religion was taken by a lot of Ghanaians and made their own. Music has always been an integral part of Ghanaian culture and when Ghanaians adopted Christianity, they tailored Gospel music to suit our culture. To this very day, one could argue that Gospel music is one of the few genres of Ghanaian music left that actually sounds Ghanaian. The rhythms, percussion, winged and stringed instruments all used have been able to escape the westernization that seems to be plaguing a lot of other forms of Ghanaian music. Ohemaa Mercy's "Nyame Bohye" album provides an exemplary instance of this staying-true-to-roots quality that Ghanaian Gospel possesses.



I won't bore you with a detailed account of every single song on this album, rather we'll do a quick overview and then get down to the music. Below is the video for Aseda, the first track on the album. Aseda is a Twi word that means Thanks. You will notice in the video that all the percussion instruments are local Ghanaian ones. It is not for show. They are exactly what you would hear if you were listening to traditional Ghanaian music:

The second song worthy of note is the hit song from the album that won Ohemaa Mercy numerous awards - Wobeye Kese. Wobeye Kese (also in Twi) directly translates to "You will be big"; what does this mean? Ohemaa Mercy is telling her fellow believers that they will be blessed and reach greater heights because what God has professed in their lives:

Ohemaa Mercy's album won her various accolades at the recently Ghana Music 2010 awards ceremony. The album has many more tracks (13 in all) and each one of them is well worth the listen. If you are a fan of Gospel music then you have no reason to not get a copy. If you aren't but are interested in Ghanaian music, you can't go wrong with this album. Check out Ohemaa Mercy's Facebook Fanpage for more information about her.

Check out our other posts on Gospel music to find out more.

- Credits George Armah.