Ghana Travel Seminar: Singing without words

  1. Ghana Travel Seminar: Seeing the magnificence of God’s love
  2. Ghana Travel Seminar: Time for church!
  3. Ghana Travel Seminar: Elimina Slave Castle
  4. Ghana Travel Seminar: Learning at the Akrofi-Christaller Institute
  5. Ghana Travel Seminar: May Day
  6. Ghana Travel Seminar: The ties that bind
  7. Ghana Travel Seminar: Reuniting with alumni
  8. Ghana Travel Seminar: Singing without words
  9. Ghana Travel Seminar: Handcrafts with personality and stories
  10. Ghana Travel Seminar: Touching the lives of children and teenagers
  11. Ghana Travel Seminar: Hospitality and kindness
  12. Ghana Travel Seminar: Love and anger are the key

BY DR. JAMES TANETI

Music is an integral part of Ghanaian worship; it is inalienable to their life. After a dramatic healing service in the morning, we visited E.P. Seminary which trains catechists and music ministers for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ghana. The department of music in the seminary is celebrating its 25th anniversary. We joined their short (an hour long) but exuberant worship service. Each congregation has at least five or six choirs, each eager to sing on Sundays having practiced the whole week, we were told. Denying worshippers an opportunity to sing and dance meets with vehement opposition and utter disappointment, as it is construed as silencing of one’s voice. Why do Africans sing and dance in worship, the principal of the seminary asked? Africans can do nothing without singing and dancing, he explained. A special department for church musicians is thus crucial for the church in Ghana.

Seminar member Eric Tang, right, showcases some fancy dance moves during worship at E.P. Seminary.

As the worship progressed, we were invited to join their singing and dancing. We gladly obliged. Eric Tang “the Delightful,” one of the seminar members, found himself completely at home. “I cannot sing their songs. I have rhythm and can at least dance,” he said and joined the dance. Singing requires some level of familiarity with the lyric but dance doesn’t. Eric’s steps and movements blended in harmony with those of the hosts. Their dance became ours and ours theirs.

I was drawn to the band and joined the drummers (top photo, center). Surprised and amused at my joining the band, someone asked me if I have got rhythm within. “Everyone with a heartbeat has a rhythm. They just need to find it,” I responded. The drummer gave me a drum, risking potential discord into the band’s well-orchestrated harmony and trusting me with his drum. The spirit of spontaneity took over. It did not take much time for me to become a part of the team. Nor did I need to know the lyrics to drum. We hummed along and their rhythm became as much as theirs became ours. The chapel filled with joyful melody, loud singing, and uninhibited dance. Just as we share heartbeats, so do we share rhythms.

On a slightly different note, our group consisting of faculty and students and drawn from various age groups and theological leanings is beginning to find a rhythm, singing and dancing together and caring for each other.

James Taneti is Director of The Syngman Rhee Global Mission Center for Christian Education and Assistant Professor of World Christianity