Steven J Salm
Department of History, Box N
Xavier University of Louisiana
Abstract
The popular culture scene in Accra , Ghana underwent major changes during the 1950s. Most scholars have focused on the growth of Highlife music and its transformation into a more accessible music and dance form found in smaller music clubs and dancehalls. As independence approached, however, groups of Accra youth began to create and utilize other cultural forms for their leisure activities. Utilizing new technology and available media resources, youth began to adopt and adapt outside influences to create new styles of expressive culture that represented a form of resistance to older generations and elite culture. The concept of ³style² is important to the self-presentation of Accra youth during this period. Contrasting styles represented distinctive characteristics that set one group of youth apart from another, as well as those traits used by youth to differentiate themselves from the rest of society. Style included outward images such as hairstyles, dress, and vocabulary; behaviors such as the way one wore fashions or chose to deliver his or her vocabulary; and the types of music, dance, and leisure activities that groups chose to enjoy. Accra youth distinguished themselves by the unique values, beliefs, symbols, and actions that they employed to address and manage their shared experiences. The focus of this paper is on underclass youth cultures and their navigation of the cultural crossroads that existed outside of the dominant forms. Some of the activities of youth in general, and underclass youth in particular, can be recreated using historical document, but images from newspapers and personal collections offer us unique insights into the identities of these youth who formed a dynamic and important aspect of urban culture during the early independence era.