Preserving the arts of Africa for its children and the world!

Maputo Mensah has dedicated his life to keeping traditional Ghanaian music and dance alive and to sharing it with others. His early years were spent studying, performing, and teaching in Ghana, and since 1999 he has lived in the U.S., teaching and performing in the States and internationally.

When Maputo was a child, in a family of highly skilled musicians, there were many cultural centers in Ghana where young people could study the traditional arts under master teachers. Maputo himself studied for 14 years at the Academy of African Music and Arts in Kokrobite, with the renowned Mustapha Tettey Addy, one of Ghana’s leading traditional artists in music and dance. AAMA attracted artists, musicians, and teachers from elsewhere in Africa and around the world, and in its day was responsible for nurturing new generations of artists at the highest levels.

Today, however, funding for the traditional arts in Ghana has dwindled, and AAMA and many institutions like it have disappeared. Maputo is devoted to building a new cultural center in the beautiful coastal village of Kokrobite. He and other world-class artists will provide instruction, including guest artists such as Mustapha Tettey Addy. This center will be a venue for teaching and preserving Ghana’s traditional arts, and give local young people a place to learn and practice those arts. It will also attract artists and students to this center from the rest of the world, and it will enhance the economy of the entire Kokrobite area.

The new Akpe Cultural Center is more than halfway complete; it is now a three-story building with a beautiful new roof. Masonry, electrical, and plumbing work continue, and the day is nearing when the resilient, suspended dance floor can be installed. It will be the only one in the region.

Much has been done, and much work remains to make the center ready to welcome students. The current need is for approximately $100,000 for windows and doors; plumbing, kitchen, and electrical fixtures; the dance floor; site improvements; and guest room furnishings. Please help if you can, and check back often to follow the cultural center from dream to reality!

In the meantime, here are a few of the local professionals and students enjoying the under-construction performance space at the Akpe Cultural Center, even without the dance floor in place!