Guy Warren

Guy Warren of Ghana, also known as Kofi Ghanaba (4 May 1923 – 22 December 2008), was a Ghanaian musician, most notable as the inventor of Afro-jazz — "the reuniting of African-American jazz with its African roots" — and as a member of The Tempos, alongside E. T. Mensah.

He also inspired musicians such as Fela Kuti.

Warren's virtuosity on the African drums earned him the appellation "The Divine Drummer".

At different stages of his life, he additionally worked as a journalist, DJ and broadcaster.

He was born Warren Gamaliel Kpakpo Akwei in Accra in the then Gold Coast on 4 May 1923, to Richard Mabuo Akwei, founder of the Ghana National School, and Susana Awula Abla Moore.

He was educated at the Government Boys' School, Accra, from 1928 to 1939.

During this time, he developed his interest in music by playing for the school band.

After passing with distinction, he enrolled at Odorgonno Secondary School in 1940.

During the same year, he joined the Accra Rhythmic Orchestra under Yeboah Mensah as a drummer.

He won a government teacher training scholarship to Achimota College, Accra, in 1941 with the intention of becoming a teacher at his father's school.

While at Achimota, he participated in sports.

He dropped out of the college in 1942 because, as he later said, "I was bored stiff with my studies and the stern discipline of the college, which attempted to change me into an Englishman."

Named by his parents after Warren Gamaliel Harding, the 29th president of the United States, he changed his name in 1943 to Guy Warren.

When he was in the U.S. he became "Guy Warren of Ghana".

In 1943, Warren Akwei enlisted in the Office of Strategic Services, a branch of the United States Army that dealt with overt and covert operations in World War II.

He returned to Accra in the same year and joined the Spectator Daily as a reporter under the editor Robert Wuta-Ofei.

In 1944, he began broadcasting jazz programmes while working at the Gold Coast Broadcasting Service under the name Guy Warren, which he continued using for the next three decades.

He was editor of the Daily Echo, Gold Coast Independent, and Star of West Africa between 1950 and 1952.

In 1951, he did a series of jazz programmes for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), becoming the first African to host programmes with the service.

He also acted in the 1951 film The Boy Kumasenu, playing the role of Yeboah.

He joined E. T. Mensah and others to form the jazz band The Tempos but left the band in 1951.

He worked at Station ELBC, the National Broadcasting Service of Liberia, as assistant director and disc jockey between 1953 and 1955.

In 1955 Warren left for Chicago and joined the Gene Esposito Band as co-leader, percussionist, and arranger.

With them he recorded his first album, Africa Speaks, America Answers (Decca, 1956).

African music was popular, but it had not been integrated with world music until Warren.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Osibisa popularized Ghanaba's music.

During his stay in America, he worked with Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Charlie Parker, and Louis Armstrong.

He changed his name to "Ghanaba" on 1 July 1974, Ghana's Republic Day.

By 1974 he had returned to Ghana, where on 1 July 1974, Republic Day, he changed his name to "Ghanaba".

He later said: "After the United States disillusioned me, I wanted to resurrect the African component of jazz. African interpretations of jazz were different than African American version I heard in the U.S. I discovered Africanness in the U.S. ... I wanted to do African music."

His second child, Glenn Gillespie Warren, also called "Ghanababa" (the son of Ghanaba), is a jazz drummer who played on the album That Happy Feeling (Safari, 1979).

In the 1990s, he played a role in the film Sankofa (1993), written and directed by Haile Gerima, who was working in the United States.

It was filmed also in Ghana and Burkina Faso.

Ghanaba continued to make music until his death aged 85 on 22 December 2008 at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra.

He was buried in a coffin designed as a drum by Eric Adjetey Anang of Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop.

Ghanaba's parents were Susana Awula Abla Moor and Richard Mabuo Akwei, founder and first headmaster of Ghana National School in Accra.

As a child Ghanaba was a boisterous free spirit who found little peace and comfort with the strictness of his father.

Richard Akwei, a disciplinarian, was an educationist and founder of the Akwei Memorial School in central Accra; also a sports administrator, he is credited with being the first Ghanaian Chief Executive of the Central Organization of Sports (COS), later known as the Sports Council.

Ghanaba was married twice and had six children.

His first son, Guy Warren Jr., also known as "Odinga Oginga", is an artist specialising in sculpting, painting and carving.