Second-hand clothing and colonialist-inspired fashion criticisms through highlife music in post-independence Ghana

The study examined the lyrical texts of four Ghanaian highlife music in the 1960s and 1970s to decipher their communicative role in giving exposure to post-independence Ghanaian fashion history. Four classical Ghanaian Highlife music of the 1960s and 1970s were purposively selected since they centre on a common subject matter – second-hand clothing and colonialist-inspired fashion artifice critiques. The selected songs were Obroni Woewu, released in 1962, by Ramblers International Band; Ewuraba Artificial, composed by Joe Eyison and recorded by Ramblers International Band in 1963; Wobe tumi No, by Kwadwo Donkoh, and recorded by Uhuru Dance Band in 1966; and Rokpokpo by Joe Mensah in 1977. The selected songs were analysed using textual analysis to unravel their social and historical contents and contexts to fashion practice during the post-independence (republican status change) of Ghana. The four classical Ghanaian Highlife music of the 1960s and 1970s drew attention to the growth of second-hand clothing and colonialist-inspired fashion practice at the time, which the colonialists portrayed as superior to indigenous Ghanaian dress fashion culture. The musicians raised the red flag for the colonialists’ undermining of the indigenous Ghanaian dress and fashion culture for policy direction. The musical compositions of the highlife musicians served as Ghanaian dress cultural and beauty standards gatekeepers and ambassadors through their repulsion against colonialists’ fashion ideological imposition. It is envisaged that further studies on governmental policy efforts to ban and or minimise second-hand clothing in Ghana from the post-independence period to the present would benefit the study of Ghana’s fashion history