Researcher-Performer Perspectives in Ghanaian Indigenous Musical Expressions

Abstract

This paper addresses the critical tension between preservation and innovation in Ghanaian indigenous music, where current intellectual property frameworks and academic discourses often privilege static conceptions of folklore over the dynamic knowledge of practitioner-researchers. While institutional efforts to safeguard musical heritage proliferate, they frequently marginalise the very performers who sustain these traditions through creative practice. Arguing from the intersection of scholarship and performance, this critique proposes performative scholarship as an alternative paradigm - one that recognises folkloric traditions as living systems requiring active reinvention. Drawing on archival sources, practitioner interviews and the authors’ experiential insights, the discussion reveals how contemporary adaptations in education and technology can revitalise rather than erode musical heritage when guided by performers' embodied knowledge. The paper ultimately calls for epistemic and policy shifts that acknowledge performance as both methodology and custodianship, challenging academic institutions to develop more nuanced approaches to protecting evolving cultural expressions.