Old boys recover historic school songs and highlife classics in a project that grew from a single competition entry

For 150 years, Mfantsipim School has built a legacy that extends beyond its classrooms. Its songs and hymns have accompanied generations of students, marked institutional milestones and preserved memories of people who helped shape its history.

Now, the Mfantsipim Old Boys Association (MOBA) has brought many of those compositions together in a 14-track collection, the Mfantsipim Sesquicentennial Anthology, launched as part of the school’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

The project, recorded and produced by lawyer Ace Anan Ankomah (MOBA ’84) and sound engineer Herbert Ebenezer Crassie, combines new recordings with the reconstruction of historic works, some of which required painstaking research and recollection.

Its origins were modest.

Mr Ankomah disclosed at the launch that Alfred Prince Gyan (MOBA ’13) had sent him a text about a competition for an anniversary jama song. The two developed a medley, recruited a group of Mfantsipim old boys from Joyful Way Inc. to record a demonstration, and won the competition.

What followed was an exercise in recovering the school’s musical history.

The Anniversary Planning Committee submitted a winning choral composition by Flora Adokoh, which was developed into the official Sesquicentennial Anthem. Dr Ernest Addison (MOBA ’79) then suggested recreating the Mfantsipim Ode, the school’s Centenary Anthem from 1976.

The recovery of other compositions required contributions from alumni who had retained materials or memories that might otherwise have been lost. Kakra Essamuah (MOBA ’77) preserved handwritten texts, while Timothy Andoh (MOBA ’77) helped reconstruct the Mfantsipim Mfeha Ndwom from memory.

These contributions highlight an important dimension of the project: preserving institutional history often depends on individuals who recognise the value of seemingly ordinary documents, recordings and recollections.

The anthology also revisits the school’s relationship with Ghanaian popular music. Two compositions by the late Kwadwo Donkoh (MOBA ’53), a celebrated highlife musician, were written for the school’s centenary celebrations in 1976. The Mfantsipim Centenary Highlife and Kwabotwe Highlife were originally performed by the Uhuru Dance Band, led by George Amissah.

Their inclusion alongside hymns, anthems and the anniversary jama offers a broader account of how school identity is expressed through different musical traditions.

The collection’s historical narrative reaches back to 1910, when For All the Saints was adopted as Mfantsipim’s official hymn in honour of Reverend Alfred Thomas Robert Bartrop. Bartrop, working alongside Reverend William Turnbull Balmer and John Mensah Sarbah, played a critical role in rescuing the school from collapse in the early twentieth century.

Another landmark composition, Dwin Hwɛ Kan, was composed around 1910 by Reverend Gaddiel Robert Acquaah and Charles Emmanuel Graves before being formally adopted as the school’s official anthem in 1963.

For the new recordings, the production team made two visits to the school to capture performances by the School Choir and Regimental Band. Professor Alfred Patrick Addaquay of the University of Ghana contributed an organ rendition of For All the Saints, while old boy and videographer Jonas Anterkyi documented the sessions.

The project also benefited from alumni who provided historical research, recordings and production support. Anselm Ransford Sowah supplied lyrics and voice notes on melodies; Poku Donkoh provided recordings of his late father’s highlife compositions; Dr Nana Dadzie Ghansah researched the figures behind some of the songs; and Albert Ocran produced the accompanying booklet without charge. George Pabi designed the booklets and vinyl sleeves.

The final collection includes Ahotsewfo, the Fante version of For All the Saints, added after Emmanuel Dadson (MOBA ’84) supplied the lyrics.

Mr Ankomah served as executive producer, with arrangements and production shared with Mr Crassie. The project is dedicated to the MOBA ’84 year group and to the memory of the MOBA ’57 year group, which includes Mr Ankomah’s late father.

To extend the reach of the anthology and support the School, Mr Ankomah presented 1,000 pen drives containing the music, together with booklets detailing the lyrics and history of each song. He also announced the production of 100 limited-edition red vinyl records for sale to old boys, with the proceeds intended to raise funds for the School. Several music videos from the project have already been published on MOBA’s YouTube channels.

The anthology is a reminder that preserving heritage is not simply a matter of commemorating anniversaries. It also requires the recovery of neglected material, the transmission of knowledge between generations and the creation of new ways for historical works to remain accessible.

For Mfantsipim, a single jama song has become a 14-track record of the school’s musical journey.