UNESCO adds Highlife music to Intangible Cultural Heritage

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has officially inscribed Ghana’s indigenous Highlife music on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, a development widely viewed as both a cultural milestone and a reminder of the need to safeguard the genre for future generations.

The Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) list catalogs traditions, knowledge systems, and cultural expressions at risk of fading from collective memory, providing international visibility and protection for communities that sustain them.

Highlife’s inscription reinforces Ghana’s standing as one of Africa’s most active contributors to the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The recognition also aligns with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, both of which emphasize culture as a driver of inclusive growth.

To qualify for inscription, a cultural element must be community-rooted, representative, and reflective of shared identity. Highlife meets all these requirements, earning global acknowledgment for its unifying power in Ghanaian society and its enduring influence on generations of musicians whose creativity has shaped Ghana’s cultural identity.

As of 2023, 678 cultural elements from 140 countries had been added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

Originating in the late 19th century in the then-Gold Coast, Highlife is a multi-layered genre of sub-Saharan music and dance that later spread across West Africa, especially into Nigeria’s western region, flourishing during the 1950s. It draws heavily from Akan musical traditions but intersects with a wide range of modern genres including jazz, rock, hip-hop, and afrobeat.

Highlife evolved from early 20th-century ballroom and ragtime dance orchestras such as the Excelsior Orchestra and Jazz Kings of Accra, the Winneba Orchestra, Rag-a-Jassbo Orchestra, Sugar Babies of Cape Coast, and the Ashanti Nkramo Orchestra.

The term “Highlife” emerged in the mid-1920s, coined by lower-income spectators who gathered outside elite clubs to listen to orchestrated street tunes they couldn’t afford to watch inside, calling it the “high life” enjoyed by the privileged.

Over the decades, the genre was propelled by legendary bands and musicians including E.T. Mensah and the Tempos Band, the Ramblers Dance Band, C.K. Mann and Carousel 7, The Sweet Talks, Konadu’s Band, the All Brothers Band, E.K. Nyame’s Band, City Boys Band, Ashanti Brothers Band, Kakaiku’s Band, The Police and Army Dance Bands, African Brothers Band, Okukuseku’s Band, Akwaboa’s Guitar Band, Onyina Band, Ogyatanaa Show Band, Yamoah’s Band, and K. Gyasi and his Noble Band.

Today, Highlife’s global recognition places renewed responsibility on Ghana to preserve, promote, and modernize the genre, ensuring it continues to evolve while retaining its historical soul and cultural meaning.

Source: Diplomatic Times