On a humid Tuesday night in Accra, Zen Garden is alive with sound and movement as Highlife melodies spill into the open air, drawing families, friends and office workers who sway long past midnight as if the weekend has come early.
Under soft lights, the four young men of the Kwan Pa band strike layered guitar lines and lilting rhythms, prompting cheers as white handkerchiefs twirl above dancing heads. Couples glide across the floor, strangers move together and glasses clink between bites of food.
“It’s like therapy”, one patron laughed, as a sound that has shaped Ghanaian life for generations fills the space.
The charged atmosphere has taken on fresh meaning after Ghana’s famed Highlife music was recently inscribed on Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The agency announced the decision on December 10, calling Highlife a “monumental expression of Ghana’s musical genius, culture and global influence”.
For Asah Nkansah, leader of Kwan Pa — meaning “the right path” — the timing is symbolic.
“If you trace the origin of Highlife, it goes back to September 1925”, he said. “So in 2025, we are celebrating 100 years of Ghanaian Highlife music”.
At Zen Garden, the century-old tradition feels anything but distant. Palm-wine-infused sets trigger spontaneous dancing, with patrons singing lyrics from memory deep into the night.
“Highlife talks about everything — love, passion, social life”, Nkansah said. “It has content. It’s not music for music’s sake”.
Unesco’s listing places Highlife among the world’s protected cultural treasures, highlighting a genre that has influenced hiplife and Afrobeats; and shaped Ghana’s identity for more than a century.
Back at Zen Garden, as midnight nears, the crowd shows no sign of leaving. Handkerchiefs rise again, laughter swells and Highlife carries on — rooted in the past, dancing into the future. — AFP
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