Under the heading "West African Pop Roots" a one week program of lectures, workshops and concerts on Ghana's palm wine will take place at the Centre for African Studies of the University of Basel. The program is open to students in the fields of African Studies and Music and to the interested public in general. In three music workshops for accordion, guitar and percussion students will be introduced to Ghana's palm wine music, which is at the roots of the Highlife dance music. They will be taught by John Collins and Aaron Bebe Sukura of the School of Performing Arts of the University of Ghana, Legon and by Kwabena Nyama a veteran palm wine musician from New Asonomaso, Ashanti.

Five lectures will be held by Prof. Dr. John Collins at various departments of the universities of Basel and Zürich and on the 8th of December a symposium with international guests will discuss the relevance of historical recordings of popular music as a source for the study of African history and cultures. It will focuss on the recordings made by the Union Trade Company of Basel in Ghana during the 30s and 50s which are presently the object of a digitisation project. Closing this week a concert performance by Kwabena Nyama and Local Dimension will feature palm wine music from Ghana.

This theme week was organised by the association 'Ghana Popular Music 1931-1957' in cooperation with the Centre of African Studies Basel, the Studio für Aussereuropäische Musik of the Academy of Music Basel, the Swiss Ethnomusicological Society and the bildungszentrum mission 21 with support from the Deutscher Musik Rat.