Kelly Haydon, Summer 2012

Kelly Haydon, International Center of Music and Dance (ICAMD) - University of Ghana, Summer 2012

The archive database internship at the Institute of African Studies department archive, known as the International Center of Music and Dance (ICAMD), was developed as an extension of the recommendations outlined in a collection assessment prepared by Mona Jimenez and Kara Van Malssen, under the APEX and AVPS banner respectively. Over a ten week period, a Filemaker database was installed and customized to fit the archives needs. During this process, cataloging efforts began on a collection of audio reel-to-reels recorded by Emeritus Professor J. H. Kwabena Nketia. These items - music, dance and storytelling traditions performed all over Ghana - are the basis of several groundbreaking publications on African music and drumming language written by Nketia and others and extremely rare, having captured the early traditions of many different ethnic groups before the country achieved independence from colonial rule in 1957.