Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents an excerpt of a 2022 University of South African thesis by Ghanaian student Ernest Nkrumah Addo. The title of the thesis is "Piimpinaa: An Analysis Of Ghanaian Children's Play-Songs As A Genre of African Oral Literature"*.
This excerpt showcases these four examples of children's play songs from that thesis: 1. “Anhwε wakyire” (“Don’t look behind you”), 2. "Mo esiesie won ho? (“Are you ready?”), 3. "Nde dze maame eku me" (“Mother will kill me today”), and 4. Pimpinaa (a word that children made up that comes from the word Minanaa which means grandchildren).
The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Ernest Nkrumah Addo for his research (including play song collection), and his writing. Thanks to the collector of these Ghanaian play songs and thanks to all those Ghanaian children who shared these play songs with that collector.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/04/was-ghanaian-childrens-play-song-maame.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "Was The Ghanaian Children's Play Song "Maame hyε gyaadze (“Mummy in the kitchen”) Inspired By A Widely Found Verse In The African American Originated Hand Clap Rhyme "Rockin Robin" ("Twee-Lee-Lee")?"
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AN EXCERPT Of ERNEST NKRUMAH ADDO'S FEBRUARY 2022 THESIS: FIVE GHANAIAN PLAY SONGS
https://uir.unisa.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/beb0516d-fcfd-4422-b888-1f767ef8a9d3/content
"Thesis submitted for the Degree of Philosophy in the subject of Languages, Linguistics And Literature (English) at the University of South Africa, February 2022 by Ernest Nkrumah Addo
Piimpinaa: An Analysis Of Ghanaian Children's Play -Songs As A Genre of African Oral Literature
[...]
CHAPTER TWO THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
[...]
In line with the purpose of the current research, the primary data constitutes live video-recorded performances of children’s play-songs in their school setting. Collected in direct contact with the children, these songs, have been analysed for their thematic and stylistic contents. Other data sources comprise references to play-songs in books, theses, newspapers, the internet, archived audio and video clips of children’s play-songs, which have provided contextual background for the historical evolution of Ghanaian children’s play-songs.
[...]
page 27
Given Ghana’s official primary school going age of six years, the participants under study, as earlier indicated, fall between the ages of six and twelve years (covering a period within which pupils complete the 6-year primary school cycle).
[…]
page 29
Seeking to analyse African knowledge in a text, parts of which are cast in English, may cause a sense of wonder and doubt in some critics, as to the authenticity of the said African lore embodied in a non-African language. However, as much as the vehicle of the communication may be English, the content of the play-song is Ghanaian. It was therefore this crafted play-songs content that the research focused on.
Since children played on their own, and in some cases as a group, the project considered for analysis the number of “play situations” that involved children’s singing in the field. The research was therefore not concerned about the actual number of children at play, even though the number of children involved in each play situation that the children were commissioned to enact was noted, in each play situation between five (5) and twenty (20) eager participants.
According to the children, they composed some of the songs, and also learnt some from the older children at home and in school, confirming the role of oral tradition in passing the oral songs down from one generation to another (Ntšihlele, 2003). It was noticed that as the performance took place some of the children quickly overcame their initial shyness and participated freely despite the gaze of the researcher’s camera. Presenting myself as a learner, the children were happy, upon asking, to enunciate words that initially appeared to be unintelligible and explain dramatic situations. Agreeing with Nketia (1974) who affirms the view that the children as creators of “song texts” internalise the values of the culture in which they live and reproduce them in their songs, the research unearthed a number of themes that reflected the worldview of the society.
The oral performances and recordings lasted between one hour, thirty minutes and two hours each session. This took place once in September, twice in October and once in November of
page 30
2019. The four (4) play situations or ‘meetings’, two for each school, provided fifty-nine (59) songs which constituted the data for the study. There was however no opportunity for follow-up personal meetings with the participants due to the closure of schools in March 2020, a situation occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic. Telephone conversations with the teachers who also lived in the communities as the children, and contacted the participants when required, provided useful explanations to questions arising from the data.
[…]
4.3.1 Transgressions, Obedience and Socially Appropriate
Behaviour
Traditional African societies place premium on the inculcation of moral values in the children as part of their socialisation. Some of the children’s songs stress the importance of socially conforming behaviour and also, of rules and obedience to people in authority. An indication of the attribute of obedience required of children is frequently found in their ‘call and response'
page 76
songs. Sometimes the authority figure is missing altogether,
even though the command is unmistakeable. An example is the song “Anhwε wakyire”
(“Don’t look behind you”) below.
Anhwε wakyire
[Don’t look behind you]
yee
[yee yee]
obi ne ba
[someone’s child]
yee
[yee yee]
se ehwε wa’kyire a
[if you look behind]
yee
[yee yee]
ade bε yε wo
[you’re in trouble]
Yee
[yee yee]
kutuku!
[blows!]
gɔngɔngɔngɔngɔ!
[gongongongongo!] (Author Unknown; collected and transcribed
by Addo: 15-
10-2020)
In the enactment of the song above, a group of players kneels in a circular formation, while one child stands outside the human circle, holding an object, a prop – what Kress (2015) categorises as “cultural technologies” – that they can hide at their backs, so none of the kneeling players can see it. This object is often a cloth material or footwear, indeed any item that the children can
page 77
easily get access to and appropriate as a prop to aid their play performance. Explaining the reason for the choice of stones, sticks, cloth and footwear as cultural technologies, the children pointed out that these are the materials readily available that can aid their oral production. The concept of “circle” in its many representations holds enormous significance in African traditional societies. Just as the circle holds substantial meaning and importance in African societies, so does it have prevalent use as trope in the play-songs of children, occurring in various forms in several of the songs to be analysed. According to Motsa, the reason the “circle” is so predominantly used in African societies is that Africans believe “life is a circular and neverending entity” (Motsa: 2010: 295). Phalafala explains that “to symbolise communal unity everybody arranged themselves in a circle, including during the judicial meetings under the trees, to rites of passage ceremonies, and dance” (Phalafala, 2020: 202). According to her, vital objects such as shapes of compounds and huts were all round in imitation of the cosmos and the cycles of nature, with which people tried to have a symbiotic relationship. Importantly she explains the role of the circle in performances thus: “… the body, voice, movement, ritual and performance were also a site of expressing this principle, and in turn expressing solidarity with other humans.
The circular figure is a central shape to an indigenous societal order” (ibid), and this fact permeates many of the songs analysed.
As the song is sung, the child carrying the object runs
around the circle making sure that the
object is out of the sight of the kneeling players. The
objective is to slip the object behind one of kneeling players without them realising this. Anyone who
flouts the rule cautioning them “not to
[....]
page 79
look back” receives a knock on the head. If the lead player successfully places the object behind an intended victim; goes around completing the full circle and back to the person without the kneeling would-be victim realising, he is given some blows to his body with the other players joining in until he escapes their attack. Noting that they are not supposed to look behind them, through this song, children learn to use their intuition to discern their environment. Thus, as much as possible, the children through their play demonstrate the importance of rules and endeavour to follow them.
Another example that shows the importance of rules is the
song mo esiesie won ho? (“Are you
ready?”)
Mo esiesie won ho?
[Are you ready?]
εhε, masta
[yes, master]
mo esiesie won ho?
[are you ready?]
εhε, masta
[yes, master]
won numba no’ε?
[with your numbers?]
εhε, masta
[yes, master.] (Author Unknown; collected and transcribed by
Addo: 04-11-2020)
Here, children acknowledge formal authority and depict this
in their role play. Just as it happens in their experiences, children recollect that they are
sometimes required to listen and obey without question. Their lived experience becomes a source
material that they use for composing
page 80
their songs. Here, in the example above, by the children monotonously responding εhε, masta, meaning “yes, master” – in acquiescence to an imaginary authority figure – to each enquiry, we realise that the song reflects what is familiar to them in power relations, especially in their relationship with their parents at home and with their teachers and headmaster at school.
Another song on the theme of obedience is Nde dze maame
eku me (“Mother will kill me today”). Here, the child is aware of not just his committing
of a transgression but also the
punishment that comes with it.
Maame ama me dama
[mother gave me money]
Gongo gongo 18
[gongo gongo]
ɔse me nkoto dokon
[asking that I buy kenkey] 19
gongo gongo gongo
gongo gongo gongo
medzi akoto dondo 20
[I went and bought a drum]
gongo gongo gongo
gongo gongo gongo
nde dze maame eku me
[mother will kill me today]
gongo gongo gongo
[gongo gongo gongo]
(note 18) Gongo gongo gongo is an onomatopoeic imitation of the sound made by the drum, referred also as “gongo”. In the context of the song, the sound serves as refrain that is sung at the end of line or sequence of narration.
(note 19) Kenkey is a maize staple dish that is similar to pap. It
is usually combined with pepper sauce, okro stew or soup
(note 20) Dondo is a “talking drum” that is shaped in the form of an hourglass. Aside from making music, it can be regulated to imitate human speech. Dondo is widely used among different tribes in West Africa.
page 81
nde dze paapa eku me
[father will kill me today]
gongo gongo gongo
[gongo gongo gongo]
(Author Unknown; collected and transcribed by Addo:
15-10-2020)
[…]
page 82
Although the persona is being hyperbolic when he says he
will be “killed” for the wrong he had
committed, we are left in no doubt that the offense of
buying a drum instead of the food he was asked to purchase is serious enough to receive some
sanctions from his parents. Children are therefore cautioned not to get too carried away by their own
desires to the point of being disobedient.
But there are also times when children even when they are being obedient are cognisant of the fact that adults are not always right. Clothed in humour, this portrayal of the theme of obedience is also present in the play-song, Pimpinaa. As earlier elaborated in the introduction, the song Pimpinaa which can be categorised under what Okpe who refers to as ‘nonsense rhymes’ is essentially a re-enactment of a dialogue between a grandparent figure (Nanaa) and the grandchildren (Minanaa). Semantically, the term ‘Pimpinaa” does not have an actual linguistic denotation other than appearing to be a childlike corruption of the word Minanaa which means grandchildren). The song is structured in two parts: first, a brief call of “Pimpinaa” by the lead player imitating a grandparent, followed by the response “Nanaa,” intoned by the children acting as “grandchildren”; and in the second part, there is a long, partly meaningless string of words whose purpose seem to be the achievement of musicality and rhyme rather than meaning.
Lead player imitating grandparent: Pimpinaa…
Children/players responding: Nanaa
Lead player: See see see
see nana koo
kataa bokuto
bonkuto oo bonkuto oo …
(Author Unknown; collected and transcribed by Addo:
15-10-2020)
Page 83
Notably, in the imitation of the dialogue between the
grandparent and the grandchildren, we find that the children only respond to the ‘call’ after which
they are duty bound to keep silent and obediently listen as the grandparent figure engages in an
endless monologue that makes little meaning to the children. It should be noted that in this
instance, the obedience is not in an obvious request for action but is found in the structure of
the song itself – a reflection of the
culture – in which the children are expected to listen.
While the children’s depiction of the pointless tirade by
the adult makes the song humorous,
more importantly, it reflects the perception of the children
that adults can and do engage in
meaningless talk; but in order to keep the order, the
children keep quiet and listen. It is therefore a criticism through song."...
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*Page 78 in this thesis consists of a photo of children seated on the ground in a circle with arms extended toward the person seated on either side (*like in the standing American game "Stella Ella Ola".
A portion of page 81 consists of a photo of boys punishing a boy who violated the rules of the game by jumping on him and hitting him.
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