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. To remedy that, Maputo has recently opened a new cultural center in the beautiful coastal village of Kokrobite. He and and the artists of the world-class Akrowa Drum and Dance Ensemble provide instruction to visitors from around the world and to local students as well. The center includes a high-end hotel, which helps to support tuition and meals for these local kids, who are offered instruction for free. This center is a venue for teaching and preserving Ghana’s traditional arts, and for giving local young people a place to learn and practice those arts. It also attracts artists and students from the rest of the world, and it enhances the economy of the entire Kokrobite area.