Dr. Oral Moses (l) in the Ghanaian home of fellow visiting professor Dr. Nancy Tolson (center) of the University of Northern Illinois. Moses spent three months at the University of Cape Coast, in Ghana, West Africa, in the spring, teaching voice lessons and a survey of African-American music course.

Music professor learns history lesson: Early African-American music finds its roots in West Africa

by Karen Kennedy

Imagine students so excited about learning they tiptoe into the back of a classroom during a class they aren’t registered for, and students who hang on a professor’s every word to the extent that they walk him home from class — while carrying his books; and all of this on a fairytale-like campus perched on the edge of the Atlantic. The made-up dreams of frustrated professors? No, according to Kennesaw State music professor Dr. Oral Moses. The students are reality at the University of Cape Coast, in Ghana, West Africa.

Moses, who has taught at KSU for 19 years, spent three months at UCC in the spring, teaching voice lessons and a survey of African-American music course. “All my lessons were communal,” Moses said of teaching “private” voice lessons in classrooms with windows open to both the outside and the interior hallways. “People would walk in on the lessons just to observe.”

But if the people in the music department expected openness from Moses, they were more than willing to reciprocate. “What do you want to do while you’re here?” they asked him upon his arrival. That simple question led to a performance at the Cape Coast Slave Castle — one of five sacred sites in Cape Coast where Africans were held before being sold as slaves. “It was the most incredible setting I’ve ever sung in,” Moses said.

Moses has been singing all his life, and his stirring base-baritone voice can often be heard in performances on campus and in the community. He credits his first voice teacher at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn. for inspiring his teaching career. “I was inspired by her success and the way she worked with students. I knew I wanted to do that. She’s still my mentor and friend today.”

Moses’ visit to UCC was just one of a number of connections KSU has established with Ghana, including faculty exchanges, study abroad programs, faculty development seminars, technology training for Ghanaian faculty, assistance in curriculum development and joint research.

Moses said he learned as much from his trip as his UCC students learned from him — and his KSU students will reap the benefits. “My students [in Ghana] recognized the way some American spirituals are put together. It’s the same format as many Ghanaian songs. And they knew the rhythms of children’s play songs.”

The identification by the UCC students of similarities in other styles of music and in traditional musical instruments led to a new way of thinking about his survey of African-American music class for American students. Previously, the class focused on U.S. music from the time Africans were brought to this country through the 1990s.

“I can now connect early African-American music back to Ghana. It was a continuation of making music the way they always did,” Moses said.

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