Shellacs

The collection includes about 960 shellacs (78rpm), mostly from Ghana, Tanzania and Kenya, recorded mainly in the 1950s and 60s. Records from Ghana include the Broadway Dance Band, EK's Band, the Aces High Life, others from Sierra Leone feature Ebenezer Calendar and His Band Maringar, those from Kenya include the East Coast Social Orchestra or Long Obiero and many others. A variety of musical styles and dances, like High Life, as well as American styles like the blues, calypso, cha cha cha, mambo, merengue, jazz and samba are represented. The tunes are sung in many languages such as Efik, English, Ewe, Fante, Ga, Hausa, Igbo (Ibo), Kikuyo (Gikuyu), Kiswahili (Swahili), Luo, Nyamwezi, "pidgin English", Twi, Yoruba. The presence of Caribbean calypso and American jazz records in the collections bought in Africa document the transatlantic cultural exchange.
Please find a download with a full list of AMA's shellacs to the right.