Ephraim Amu: the church musician dismissed for wearing African cloth

He preached in African cloth when the church expected a Western suit. In 1933, Ephraim Amu was dismissed from the Presbyterian training college at Akropong-Akuapem. Accounts of the dispute centre on his refusal to dress and worship in the European style expected of a teacher and catechist. The church lost a tutor. Ghana gained one of its greatest composers.

Peki and Akropong

Amu was born in 1899 at Peki in the Volta Region. He trained as a teacher and catechist in the mission schools and became a skilled musician and organist. From his early years, he was drawn to the music of his own people, the rhythms and melodies of Ewe and Akan songs. In 1926 he moved to the Presbyterian seminary at Akropong as a tutor. He was an unconventional teacher. As the tutor in charge of gardening, he asked students to use night soil to manure the college farm, which some found shocking. He also wrote choral music that drew on African rhythm and tonal language.

The dismissal

The conflict that ended his time at Akropong was about identity. Amu wore African cloth, sometimes over a jumper and shorts, rather than the blazer and trousers expected when preaching. He believed African Christians should not have to become European to worship God. The church authorities disagreed, and he was dismissed in 1933.

Church music

Amu’s most famous composition is “Yen Ara Asase Ni” (“This Is Our Own Land”). It became a Ghanaian patriotic song, performed at national functions and sung by schoolchildren across the country. Many Ghanaians regard it as an unofficial second national anthem. Amu wrote many choral works and hymns in Twi and Ewe. His compositions are sung by church choirs, school choirs and choral societies across Ghana. They are known for following the natural rise and fall of the words, so that the music respects how the language is spoken.

His legacy

He promoted the atenteben, a bamboo flute, as an instrument for serious music. He believed African instruments and African inventions were worthy of respect and use, and he encouraged their study in schools. After Akropong, Amu taught at Achimota School and later at the music department of the University of Ghana and other institutions. He trained generations of Ghanaian musicians. He died in 1995.

Today, African dress, drums and local languages are normal in Ghanaian worship. Amu was dismissed for arguing they should be. The church eventually came round to his view.