The Bokoor African Popular Music Archives Foundation - BAPMAF

Prof. John Collins giving a talk on highlife at BAPMAF eventEleonor Sylla of the Goethe Institut entering the BAPMAF compoundPanji Anoff with Wanlov at BAPMAF eventNii Noi Nortey & Valerie Lesbros at BAPMAF eventJigga Morfy and another performer dance agbadzaEdmund Mensah with trumpetAudience at BAPMAF eventPeople watching a film at BAPMAF premisesAlbum coversJohnson Kemeh and his drummers in front of BAPMAF premises

Welcome to bapmaf.com

BAPMAF AIMS:  Preserve, promote and disseminate Ghanaian/African popular and traditional performance & act as facilitator, consultant and resource centre for various African arts projects in Ghana and the international community.

Picture gallery

Updates

Deluge - 26 OCT  2011
A devastating flood struck BAPMAF/Bokoor House on the 26th October 2011. This occurred over many parts of Accra due to a massive rainfall compounded by people blocking water ways. Almost 6ft of flood water entered the BAPMAF land with 4.5ft entering the downstairs  premises where some of the BAPMAF archival holdings are kept. About 10% of the BAPMAF archives was damaged or lost as well as thousands of dollars of  technical equipment. As a result the BAPMAF premises is being re-organised so that that all valuable holdings, library and equipment are kept upstairs where the BAPMAF Highlife Institute Exhibition was located. As a result the public exhibition component of BAPMAF has been temporarily closed down until further notice. However, all the other research, preservation and promotion work of BAPMAF will continue.

Brief history

The Bokoor African Popular Music Archives Foundation (BAPMAF) is a Ghanaian NGO established in 1990 by Professor John Collins, encouraged and assisted by a group of leading Ghanaian popular musicians (King Bruce, E.T. Mensah, Beattie Casely-Hayford, Koo Nimo & Kwaa Mensah) who were concerned with the lack of research and information on local Ghanaian highlife music and the demise of the 'classical' styles of this genre. Since then the archives has expanded into other areas of African music; both popular and traditional.

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