AfroCuration Ghana 2026: Documenting Highlife Across Ghanaian Languages

What happens when a musical tradition begins to fade from everyday life, but finds a new home on Wikipedia?

From 26–27 June 2026, Wikimedia volunteers, academics, and cultural practitioners gathered at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) for AfroCuration Ghana 2026. The event builds on the AfroCuration concept introduced by the Moleskine Foundation. The Twi Wikimedia community together with the Global Open Initiative Foundation (GOIF), welcomed participants from the Ewe, Dagbani, Moore, Dagaare, Kusaal and Gurene Wikimedia communities for AfroCuration Ghana 2026 under the theme: Advancing African Culture through Traditional Ghanaian Music and Symbols. The event highlighted Highlife music and Ghana’s musical heritage across local-language Wikipedia projects.

Why Highlife Music?

In 2025, UNESCO inscribed Ghana’s Highlife music and dance on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Highlife music remains one of Ghana’s most influential musical traditions. It is celebrated across Ghana and parts of West Africa, blending everyday life experiences with storytelling through music and dance, using distinctive rhythms and lyrics that reflect lived experiences. Highlife is performed with guitars, brass instruments, drums, xylophones and other percussion instruments. It continues to be performed at weddings, funerals, and other festive occasions. Over the years, Highlife has evolved from Palmwine Highlife, Brass Band Highlife, Dance Band Highlife, Guitar Band Highlife, Burger Highlife and other contemporary forms.

Highlife’s sound and rhythm have become the foundation of much of modern African music, and many contemporary Hiplife and Afrobeats musicians continue to draw inspiration from the genre. However, many young listeners are less familiar with the musicians, instruments, and histories that shaped it. As this musical heritage becomes less popular, documenting it becomes even more important. As Wikimedia volunteers, we noticed cultural-themed documentation projects encourage building editor capacity, engagement, and participant retention.

Preparing the Campaign

To support the editing campaign in December 2025, we reached out to Retroghana, whose archive helped us to identify notable musicians, songs and albums for documentation. We curated a list of articles and Wikidata items, many of which already existed on English Wikipedia. Later in early 2026, we met with leaders from the participating language communities to plan the campaign. Registered participants were assigned articles, and training workshops refreshed editing skills while introducing new contributors to the project. In total, 94 editors registered to participate, with many beginning their contributions before the event.

AfroCuration in Action: From Listening to Documenting

In partnership with the Department of Communication and Languages, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Education (Adjumako Campus), language lecturers were invited to support the in-person event. More than 100 participants attended over the two days, with some joining online. Professor Opanyin Agyekum of the University of Ghana and Professor Charles Marfo Provost of College of Humanities and Social Sciences, KNUST and other guests delivered keynote presentations and raised discussions on the relationship between language, music, and cultural preservation.

Two Days of Learning Through Culture

The event commenced in a calm and welcoming atmosphere. Participants embraced the cultural dress theme by wearing traditional Ghanaian attire, creating a vibrant visual celebration that complemented the discussions on music, language and heritage. Throughout the event, Highlife music from artists including: Agya Koo Nimo, Nana Ampadu, Awurama Badu, Victor Olaiya (Nigeria), and S. E. Rogie (Sierra Leone) played in the background providing a musical backdrop.

Mr. Korankye, a Highlife musician, educated and entertained guests with demonstration of the Seperewa, a traditional Akan harp-lute with a wooden frame and multiple strings. The Seprewa has long been associated early Highlife music. Through the use of proverbs and stories expressed through rhythm, the instrument became an important part of musical expression and performance.

Community Building and Impact

By the end of the campaign, participants from all communities had created or improved 400 articles and Wikidata items. These contributions expanded coverage of Ghanaian Highlife music, musicians, and African traditional instruments. Beyond the numbers, we found the conversations and connections built during the event equally valuable—a reminder that no editor works in isolation; we are all part of a wider Wikimedia community.

Participants Takeaways

Feedback gathered after the event showed that, for many participants, AfroCuration is more than a thematic article contest. Participants described it as a space to learn more about contributing to local-language Wikipedia projects, network with others, and support the broader goal of improving the representation of African contexts on open knowledge platforms.

Beyond the Event

Not every aspect of Highlife music history could be documented, largely because much of the information exists through personal accounts from musicians and other contributors that could not be verified through reliable published sources. Also, Wikimedia Commons was initially included in the project, copyright considerations meant the team had to focus on creating and translating existing articles. AfroCuration continues to serve as an awareness and advocacy campaign for documenting cultural heritage on open knowledge platforms.