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Abstract
The song “Yaa Amponsah” is held by Ghanaian musicians as the key to all highlife music. However, Amponsah occupies two spaces: that of a specific song with folkloric and historical origin stories, and that of a compositional form—or “Rhythm”—from which countless variations have evolved over the past century. This thesis seeks to define Amponsah as a style where certain characteristics are not always clear but are continually present and recognizable cross-nationally. Using musical analysis and ethnographic interviews with West African guitarists, I explore the movement of Amponsah across generations and national boundaries, drawing larger conclusions that have implications for understanding the transmission of cultural practice and embedded cultural memory carried within a specific musical expression. The Rhythm makes impactful appearances in the music of neighboring countries, becoming entwined with the Mami Wata myth, further complicating our understanding of ownership and origin, and bringing this song to the center of a debate regarding ownership of folkloric intellectual property and the relationship between developing nations and global capital.
