John Collins

John Collins first came to Ghana in 1952 as a child, when his father set up the philosophy department at the University of Ghana. He came back in 1969 and stayed, playing in highlife bands, running a recording studio and becoming the leading scholar of Ghanaian popular music.

Early life and education

Edmund John Collins was born in Britain in 1944. After his parents divorced, his mother took him back to England, where he was educated in Bristol, Manchester and London and earned a science degree. He returned to Ghana in 1969, and in 1972 Legon awarded him a degree in sociology and archaeology; a PhD in ethnomusicology from SUNY Buffalo followed. He is a naturalised Ghanaian.

Musician and producer

In the 1970s he led the Bokoor highlife guitar band, and since 1982 he has run Bokoor Recording Studio. In 1978 he wrote and presented In the African Groove, a five-part BBC radio series. In 2000 he toured the US east coast with Koo Nimo. His releases and compilations include Electric Highlife (2002), Vintage Palmwine (2003) and The Guitar and the Gun (2003).

Academic and archive work

He joined the University of Ghana's music department in 1995 and became a full professor. In 1990 he set up BAPMAF, an archive foundation dedicated to African popular music, and in the 1990s he was technical director of a University of Ghana and Mainz project to re-document African music. He has also served on the National Folklore Board, as PRO of the Ghana Old Musicians Welfare Association and as a consultant to MUSIGA. In 1987 IASPM, the international body of popular-music scholars, made him an honorary life member, alongside J. H. Kwabena Nketia and Koo Nimo.