LETS SAVE GHANA MUSIC FROM THE WATERS NOW.

The heart rending email below was sent to me by the president of the Ghana Studies Association(an association of scholars from all over the world who focus on Ghana in their work). It relates the effects on Prof. John Collins(and his decades of painstaking work to preserve,research and document Ghana music) of the recent floods in Accra. Though of British ancestry he is now a full Ghanaian citizen and in his very unassuming and inimitable style he has passionately focused on preserving Ghanaian and indeed indigenous African music. I have read some of John's scholarly work and met him a couple of times. For those with connections to the powers that be(who should be directing resources to such   undertakings)  sending the message will be useful. Lets donate our bits and pieces. I love my Ghana music to bits. I just listened this dusk to Kojo Antwi's magical "Hini me" as I drove past the beach on the beach road at Tema ; there was a certain calming surreality as the African sun dipped and as the sea sprayed those gossamer like mists; crushed upon those rocks with both intensity and a caressing tenderness and Kojo Antwi just crooned away. I WANTED TO STOP AND MAKE THE GULF OF GUINEA MY BED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ps: see http://www.discogs.com/artist/John+Collins+(15); 

http://www.ugspalegon.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7%3Aprofessor-e-john..&limitstart=4;
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Ghana-Special-Modern-Highlife-Afro-Sounds-Ghanaian-Blues-1968-81/master/207675

please send notes to John here:

Phone: 233(0)24­3239488 or 233(0)21­421964

Email: jcollins@ug.edu.gh

Dear GSA members,

Many of our members have been affected by the recent floods in Ghana, including John Collins, who sends the following report on damage to his music studio and archives and an appeal for assistance. Please share with your colleagues. I am willing to collect donations from GSA members to forward to John - simply mail a check to us (with a note indicating it is a donation to Bokoor House) or make a donation (again with a note) via paypal.

All the best,

Dennis Laumann
GSA President

FLOOD DISASTER AT JOHN COLLINS BOKOOR HOUSE ACCRA GHANA AND  PARTIAL DESTRUCTION OF ITS BOKOOR AFRICAN POPULAR MUSIC ARCHIVES FOUNDATION  (BAPMAF)

Dear colleagues, supporters, fans, friends, press and well-wishers  – as you may know I am a musician, musicologist and music lecturer at the University of Ghana - and I  have been operating the BAPMAF music archives in Ghana since  1990. This NGO was set up to preserve and promote Ghanaian and other African popular music and was partly opened at my Bokoor House to the public in 1996 and more fully in 2007. However, devastation struck in the middle of the night of 26th Oct 2011 in the form of a flood. This occurred over many parts of Accra due to an unseasonal and massive rainfall compounded by more and more people building in or blocking water ways - so that rivers could no longer easily run into the sea. In our particular Taifa-Ofankor area this was compounded by the construction of a 3 mile section of the Kumasi highway (from Achimota to Ofankor) without adequate storm gutters - and also saw-millers in my immediate neighbourhood - some of whom have been anti socially been dumping sawdust in rivers and wetlands for the last few years

We residents have complained to both the Ghana National Highways Authority and the Ga District Assembly (Council) over the years to no avail. Indeed the National Highways Authority told us residents that they had to build the road first before constructing the drains and that these 2 projects even fell under 2 different Ministries. Furthermore, the MUUS saw-millers  next to us, who are relative newcomers to  the area, did not allow space on their adjacent land to ours for a gutter. Infact by dumping sawdust on the drainage river (Brenyah River) they re-directed part of this river though my house and garden – which broke my wall – they are even now claiming my garden house and BAPMAF premises is their ‘natural’ gutter.

The resulting flooding on the 26 Oct was unprecedented with almost 6 feet of water entering our land and 4.5 feet into the downstairs house and premises where some of the BAPMAF archival holdings are kept. I was in Mali at the time at an African popular music conference organized by the French Institute in conjunction with and the Malian Ministry of Culture. On returning to Ghana on the 29 Oct I met my family perched upstairs in the BAPMAF exhibition space. They had escaped drowning by 2 minutes due to a timely call from a neighbor upstream who noticed the water build up and got them to leave the house and flee upstairs

Some of the losses are as follows

· Approx 10-20% 0f BAPMAF archival holding lost. Some we are still trying to dry and salvage.

· Loss of all electronic equipment including materials donated a few years ago to the BAPMAF archives by the German Goethe Institute for a digitization project.

· Loss of car, backup generator, various pumps, CD players, DVD players, 4 track recording machines, scanners, printers, record players etc . etc .

· Losses of masses of personal property of myself, my wife and son.

The house and area is now too dangerous for human habitation (i.e. residential purposes at ground level ). All this due to the short sightedness of the civic authorities in not insisting the National Highways Authority build storm gutters alongside the highway they have been constructing for seven years (which incidentally also went under water on the  26 Oct ). And also the civic authorities inability to stop individuals or saw-millers etc from building on or blocking natural water flows.

As this is not likely to be resolved in the near future I have no recourse but to remove myself and my family from the downstairs  house that myself and my father before me have been living since the 1970’s – and to temporarily move upstairs to  the BAPMAF exhibition room and unoccupied shop area - and   later maybe find rented property where we will not be drowned like rats

So my immediate plans are as follows :-

· Find temporary storage space for the BAPMAF archives and temporary accommodation until the government enacts policies that will alleviate the flooding in the Ofankor-Taifa area through the construction of storm gutters and the stopping of sawdust and other obstacles being dumped (or even built) in the natural drainage areas

· Build circa 200 feet of reinforced concrete wall with gravel embankment to immediately  protect the Bokoor/BAPMAF proper from  flooding – so I and the BAPMAF archives can at least operate in the upstairs properties. This wall alone will cost around 7000$

· To replace tens of thousand of dollars of lost equipment, computers, car, scanners, cameras, digital record player, stabilizers, chargers and 12 volt battery backup system, slide projector etc etc

· At some point I will write to various individuals and organizations that donated  books, videos and DVD’s and music materials to BAPMAF to send me , if possible, replacement copies.

Now is a critical time and I would greatly appreciate your suggestions on how I could overcome this catastrophe and move forward. If you have any suggestions as how I could proceed – including any agencies, individuals, organizations who could assist financially in this reconstruction as well as  replacing lost books and music this would be most appreciated. Publicising and circulating this appeal on your networks and  blogs would also be most welcome - as would letters of sympathy.

Yours sincerely John Collins (Prof)

Ps Please send money to support the essential work of rebuilding this unique archive to my UK bank account at follows

NATWEST, Tottenham Court Rd Branch

P.O.BOX 2EA 45 Tottenham Court Rd. London WIT 2EA

Reward Reserve Account of E .J. Collins

Account number 265922a58

Sort Code 56-00-31

Swift code NWBK GB 2L IBAN number GB16 NWBK 56003126 5922 58