@article{8716331,
  abstract     = {{In this paper we present the theoretical model of the Sahelian factor in the music and dance of Northern Ghana. The Sahelian factor is a research model and contains  key components that we extracted from our audio-visual field data. The concept of the Sahelian factor disconnects the phenomenon of musical cultures from the phenomenon of local languages and local ethnicities in this part of Africa. The model shows that the prevailing ethno-linguistic anthropological classification of languages in the Northern parts of Ghana  cannot be fully applied to the classification and division of music and dance cultures in the area. The division of musical cultures according to tribal groups, tribalism and local ethnicities is an outmoded model that no longer fully applies to the current dynamics of music-making in this area.  The production, reproduction and distribution of music in the Sudanic Savannah Belt has become mobile, digital and transforms from the traditional idioms of music making into a hybrid form of  neo-traditional and contemporary idioms of music making. According to the data and metadata that we collected and analysed,  the linguistic paradigm of classifying musical cultural in the Northern parts of Ghana within the ethno-linguistic model acts as a historical remnant from the colonial period and functions as a mental colonial force indorsed and still thought at Universities and institutes of learning. The Sudan Savannah Belt is an immense geographical area that accommodates a great diversity of music traditions and cultures. The Northern Region of Ghana is part of this rich cultural dynamic belt and therefore has a wide variety of cultural forms of musical expression, including traditional, neo traditional  and contemporary idioms of music-making. These forms of expression express themselves in the cultural dynamics that influences both the socio - economic and geopolitical life. These various forms of musical expressions,  take place in a cultural time- space zone which is not totally bound by the geopolitical territories and does not entirely follow the political division of the African States by the colonial Masters. The Sahelian factor in the music and dance of Northern Ghana is a key component that contributes to  the dynamics of music-making in the Sudanic Savannah Belt showing a clear distinction between cultural key components and structural key components in music-making. On the one hand, the concept of the Sahelian factor shows that on the semantic level there is an intimate close relationship between music and the local languages e.g. the lyrical use of probers and narratives is the drum rhythms , the use of tone language in the Akarima drum messages when playing in the speech mode of drumming. On the other  hand the concept of the Sahelian factor shows that on the level of the  structural key components, which are the which are the mathematically measurable components from which music is built that a disconnection of language and ethnicity must occur. On the semantic level,  the language-related components, are the different relationships between tone language and music, is a very important factor in the traditional and the contemporary idioms of music making in the Sudan Savannah Belt of Northern Ghana. By the hand of structural analysis the paper shows how music traditions and music  and dance cultures in the Sudanic Savannah Belt of Northern Ghana interact with each other and that these idioms of music making have more similarities than differences. By the hand of cultural analysis we show the distribution of the Bamaaya, Takai, Tora simpa and tindana dances. Our audio analysis shows that the distribution of a nasal timbre, the concept of the movable one, musical texture, modal structures in the harmony and the intensity factor are structural key components that contributes to the Sahelian factor in this area. Cultural components that contributes to the Sahelian factor are the lyrical use of proverbs, the intimate relationship between language and drum language,  the phenomenon of chieftaincy in the promotion and sponsoring  of the local traditions by the local chiefs. the spread of the Islam, the organization of oral education, the organization of the informal market and the mobility of these musical cultures in combination with factors of globalization in the Sudanic Savannah Belt. The Sahelian factor in the music of Northern Ghana is linked to the phenomenon of cultural co-resonance and the local star cults, the discourse of globalization of music as a mobile digital form of art, the online streaming and the distribution of music through social media and the entertainment industries, a booming local Bollywoodish inspired film industry. These unique combinations of transforming and blending endogenous musical and cultural elements in combinations with foreigner (western cultural) digital techniques and elements makes Northern Ghana and the Dagbon Hiplife Zone in Tamale a vibrating entertainment scene, an intangible liminal place of cultural production, reproduction and distribution or digital arts. The division of music-making in the contemporary digital idioms according to the established generally accepted ethno-linguistic anthropological classification model of classifying music according to languages and ethnicities seems somewhat outmoded. It is a historical remnant and echo from a colonial past. Tribalism and ethnicities are cultural components and has little  to see with the contemporary idioms of music-making. The ethno-linguistic anthropological classification model of classifying these contemporary idioms of music-making according to languages and ethnicities functions for the new upcoming generation of musicians in that part of Africa as a mental colonial force. Meaning that it is one of the major jammers that blocks the local Afro-techno pop musicians from breaking through internationally.}},
  author       = {{Phyfferoen, Dominik}},
  issn         = {{2612-2146}},
  journal      = {{INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MUSIC SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND ART}},
  keywords     = {{The Sahelian factor,African studies,ethnomusicology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{The Sahelian Factor in the music of Dagbon, Northern Ghana}},
  url          = {{https://www.ijmsta.com/}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}