Bernard Woma playing Dagara Bewaa music
My current header features my friend (and former teacher) Bernard Woma (left, playing the xylophone), rehearsing with his “cultural group” of musicians and dancers at his home in Medie, a suburb of Accra, Ghana. The photo is from January 2004, when I was travelling on Geekcorps business with Berkman colleague Andrew McLaughlin.
Bernard is a Dagara master xylophonist from Nandom, a small village near the Burkina Faso border in northwestern Ghana. He’s now the master drummer of the National Theatre of Ghana and a lecturer at SUNY Fredonia, where he’s both teaching in the music department and studying towards his BA.
April 22nd, 2005 at 10:29 am
It’s nice to see some postiive, yet honest images of Accra.
August 15th, 2005 at 2:50 am
Hello !
Have look at my eritrean pictures :
http://homepage.mac.com/ericlfg/PhotoAlbum4.html
I hope you ‘ll love them!
Best regards from a French guy who loves Eritrea!
December 4th, 2005 at 5:28 pm
I wanna listen to the sounds of that xilophone!!! Looks great and must sound great too!!
Isaac b.
December 5th, 2005 at 4:14 am
Isaac - check out BernardWoma.com - you’ll find some of Bernard’s audio there. I may get around to posting some soon if Bernard will let me.
February 3rd, 2006 at 9:45 am
[...] I’ve finally met Marc Lynch (Abu Aardvark) only two hours before flying back to Dubai. We had coffee with Ethan Zuckerman at the business class waiting lounge. It was very thoughtful of Ethan to bring me and Ahmad special gifts! thanks Ethan [...]
February 5th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
I studied drumming and dancing in Ghana in 1997. I flew into Accra, then traveled to a compound in Dagbe. The teacher that took me there was named Joseph Rasmussen (He suddenly and tragically died of a heart attack this past September). We studied under Godwin Agbeli (deceased later in the fall of 1997). I miss Ghana and want to go back. The xylophone players and dancers bring take my mind to a time of musical joy. Thank you for your blog.
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:13 am
Hey, I am currently doing some research about Ghana.
anyone help, advice?
It’s for a quiz.
Thanx,
July 2nd, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Hey,
well, I am moving to Accra soon and really could use some advise and suggestions. We have a few people there, so we won’t totally be alone.
krissy
July 4th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
would like to move to ghana, i visit there july 17th 2004/
July 28th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
Hi,Hoder has recently started to support Iran’s intentions to get atomic bombs.If interested you can read here. Furthermore he tries to ruin iranian prominent prominent journalist, Akbar Ganji. From his trip to Israel he has a famous text and video.
September 26th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
[...] Ethan Zuckerman shares some of the interests I have, so I’m always interested to read My Heart’s in Accra. [...]
September 28th, 2006 at 6:49 am
Huh! is been nice reading about Ethan and and his good friends from Ghana once again. Ethan, which part of the world can you be found now. We miss you.
September 28th, 2006 at 10:06 am
It’s nice to hear from you, Gladys. I’m home in MA today, but seem to travel every few days - yesterday was Pittsburgh, tomorrow, San Francisco. I’m trying very hard to get back to Ghana soon!
December 8th, 2006 at 12:47 am
OK, the web is now getting close to “small world” for me. Got to your blog via Data Mining blog, via Spatially Adjusted (I’m into GIS), and looked at the picture, thought “that looks like Bernard Woma!?” Super cool for a most A-MA-ZING musician to get some extra face time on the web. I’ve played Ghanaian music, starting at Macalester College in St. Paul nearly twenty years ago now, and Bernard has come through Minnesota a few times. Though I’ve never had the honor to play with him, it was a true joy to see him play. OK, I’ve got to go play my dzil a bit now… Cheers!
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:45 am
I WOULD LOVE TO SEE MORE PICTURES OF ACCRA AS I WILL BE TRAVELING THERE SOON
March 8th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
I want to view pictures of Miss Ghana because Iwant to use her picture as my screen saver
March 15th, 2007 at 4:45 am
thanx for all the work you are doing - makes the world a better place - you might want to look at AC2010 - effort to revive a once great school in Ghana
June 20th, 2007 at 5:16 am
I was in Accra in May and Idrove on a sunday afternoon through the streets of the city. Was so impressed with absence of potholes and the beuty of the city save the new constructions.
Good blog.
September 11th, 2007 at 7:47 am
Hi,
I stumbled upon your site today and was quite impressed. I really liked the design. Did you make it yourself?
I wanted to let you know about ReadPrint.com — a massive non-profit library similar to Bartleby — except its far better organized and user friendly. We’ve been using it extensively in school nowadays — it’s great for doing research since you can search within the books.
September 17th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Ethan, if you don’t FIX the link embedded in the banner graphic on your blog that directs readers to this blog post (Page ID=15) vs. the blog homepage I’m just gonna scream!!! Or do you leave it as is just to piss-off your regular readers? Hoping all is well with you back in Mass.
September 19th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Again, nice to see positive photos of Accra.
Many generations ago it was the jewel of Africa
maybe it will be that away again in the future.
October 27th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
[...] That’s where I met Bernard. He was a few years into his time with the company, and I’d just come to Accra on a fellowship, hoping to study traditional Ghanaian music and its relationship to contemporary Ghanaian music. Unfortunately, most of the teachers that had been recommended to me turned out to be dead, drunk, or dead drunk, and I spent a good bit of time in the fall of 1993 waiting around the National Theatre to see if my teachers would ever arrive. Bernard eventually rescued me and started teaching me the Dagara xylophone, the gyil. [...]
April 11th, 2008 at 8:13 am
[...] ha spiegato Ethan Zuckerman nel corso del suo intervento all’ETech 2008, gli stessi spazi progettati con il preciso scopo [...]