A repertoire of tropes: A study of Fante-Akan Asafo songs texts from the Cape Coast area of the Central Region of Ghana

Abstract

This study of Fante Asafo song texts from the Cape Coast area of the Central Region of Ghana was undertaken with the assumption that a close look at the texts would yield a richness of language represented by a profusion of tropes. The areas covered include a general background to Asafo as a social organisation, as well as the form and content of sixty-five randomly selected songs. A conscious effort has been made to isolate key tropes which have been treated as features of discourse that have an almost unlimited propensity to generate various levels of meanings. In so doing, the richness of the language of the song texts has been underscored. The study has also revealed various and varied embedded messages in the songs that point or at least allude to the history, religion, culture as well as the harmonies and tensions within the society from which these songs are drawn. The study concludes by drawing attention to a prominent silence - the absence of references directly or indirectly to the slave trade, which is a well-known fact of the history and life experience of the people of the area where the research was conducted. The study therefore recommends further probing into this apparent missing link.