Highlife was one of the first popular styles to emerge in post World War II sub-Saharan Africa. It came out of Ghana’s clubs and bars in the 1950s, where big swing bands, pioneered by the “King of Highlife” ET Mensah, whipped up one of West Africa’s best loved urban dance genres.
For almost two decades, highlife dominated the clubs of Ghana and Nigeria, while also exerting great influence on the dance band cultures of Senegal, Mali and the Ivory Coast.
Highlife declined with the collapse of the Ghanian economy during the 1970s and 1980s; it also developed sub-genres like disco highlife, sometimes called burgher highlife, and later a rap form called hiplife.
But there is one form of highlife that is little known outside of West Africa — Muslim highlife –from southern central Nigeria. Record label Luaka Bop recently released an album that plugs that gap: World…
