Tag Archives: J. H. Kwabena Nketia

J.H.K. Nketia, Ghanaian ethnomusicologist

Ever since the publication of his African Music in Ghana (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1963), Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia (b.1921) has been reknowned among ethnomusicologists. His distinguished career has included many fine publications on music in Africa and its diaspora. The first volume of his collected papers, Ethnomusicology and African music: Modes of inquiry and interpretation, was issued by Afram Publications in 2005.

Nketia’s extensive background in musicology gave him the tools to revolutionize the analysis of African drumming, and since the 1980s he has produced landmark articles on more general aspects of ethnomusicological theory. He is also a composer—he studied with Henry Cowell in the late 1950s—who has written works for both Western and African instruments.

This post is part of our series celebrating Black History Month. Throughout February we will be posting about resources and landmark writings in Black studies. Click here or on the Black studies category on the right to see a continuously updated page of links to all of our posts in this category.

Below, a performance of Nketia’s Monna n’ase (1942).

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