Music while you work - Ghana post office

Throughout the world, but especially in Africa, people make boring work creative by turning it into music. Here are postal workers in Ghana, where post office workers have turned tedium into an art form. Musically, there's a much better version below, but this clip shows how their actions turn into sounds.

This first clip comes from a film made by John Collins, of the University of Ghana in Legon, Accra. He's a musician who has been playing in African bands. for years. He's just published a new book about Fela Kuti, the great star of African hi-life and Afro beat, whom he knew well and played with. Buy direct from the publisher, the Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, or here. Fela Kuti was a character, and the book is filled with personal observations and photos never seen before.

I've just discovered a goldmine of West African music and culture, some of the recordings from the 1920's and 30's. So keep reading, there will be more to come.