Christian and Muslim Students’ Perspective of Music in Nusrat Jahan Ahmadiyya College of Education, Wa, Ghana

Abstract

One of the academic disciplines in the Colleges of Education Curriculum in Ghana that are structured to equip a trained teacher to fit properly at the Early Childhood Education Centers and the Basic Schools is Music and Dance. Due to its nature, it plays a dual role as a course of study and also serves as a form of entertainment during other school programmes where student music groups perform to grace the occasion. However, the study of music seems to be a bane among the students of Nusrat Jahan Ahmadiyya College of Education, Wa. They are ambivalent about receiving music instructions, probably, as a result of their religious and cultural inclination. Based on the theory of the perception and emotion of music, the author puts forward how Muslim and Christian students respond to music. Data were collected through interviews and participant observation. It is realized that Christian students embrace all forms of music but Muslim students frown on art music and the playing of Western musical instruments. They however welcome and join Christian students in the performance of traditional music and also enjoy recorded Ghanaian contemporary music. The discourse concludes that due to Muslim students’ perspectives of music, the formation and organization of music groups on campus has become burdensome.