President John Dramani Mahama has asked the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Abla Dzifa Gomashie, to organise a special event to celebrate veteran highlife musician Agya Koo Nimo.

He made the call during the launch of the Blackstar Experience held on Thursday, May 1, 2025, at the Blackstar Square in Accra.

After enjoying a performance by the Legon Palmwine Band at the event, the President used the opportunity to acknowledge Agya Koo Nimo, who is known as one of the pioneers of palmwine music in Ghana.

"We watched the palmwine music and I asked if the King of Palmwine music was still alive - Agya Koo Nimo, and I hear he is alive. This is a man we must honour before he passes. Because that was a genre of music that has become a part of our musical archive and our folklore. For people like this, we should not wait till they die and we go and cry at their funerals," he said.

The President, therefore, proposed that a ceremony be held to celebrate the music legend.

"So wherever Agya Koo Nimo is, Dzifa, you and your team [should] organise some ceremony, let's honour him. I know he has been honoured in the past. Let's honour him again vefore God calls him," he said.

Agya Koo Nimo has been celebrated many times over the years for his role in promoting Ghanaian music.

In 2007, he was honoured with the prestigious Order of the Volta by then-President John Agyekum Kufuor for his remarkable contribution to Ghana's music heritage.

He's also received several other awards, including the Asanteman Award from the Asantehene, the Konkoma Award, and Lifetime Achievement honours from events like the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards and the Entertainment Achievement Awards, among many others.

Palmwine music

Palmwine music is a genre that originated among Ghana’s working-class people, who would gather at local bars to enjoy drinks and live music. The style blends traditional string and percussion instruments with portable ones, giving it a distinct local feel.

One of its unique features is the way musicians pluck the guitar using two fingers, mimicking the way traditional instruments like the lute or harp are played. The rhythm is usually syncopated in a 4/4 time signature, though it’s sometimes performed in 6/8 as well.

In Ghana, some of the early pioneers of palmwine music included Jacob Sam and the Kumasi Trio, Kwesi Pepera, Appianing, Kwame, Mireku, Osei Bonsu, Kwesi Menu, Kamkan, and Appiah Adjekum. By the 1950s, Agya Koo Nimo had risen to fame with his mastery of the genre, even though he was also familiar with Western music from a young age.

About Agya Koo Nimo

Born on October 3, 1934, Agya Koo Nimo was named Kwabena Boa-Amponsem. His father was a trumpeter and his mother was a singer in the local Methodist church where he was christened, ‘Daniel’. His official name is Daniel Amponsah (Ph.D).

He attended Adisadel College at Cape Coast from 1947-1952, inspired by his relationship with Otumfoͻ Opoku Ware II, who was an old student. He took a technician’s course at the Medical Research Institute, Korle Bu, for one year and worked at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for five years from 1955 to 1960 as a technician.

Despite not working directly in the music related industry, his interest in music was intact. When he began performing, he took the professional name Koo Nimo.

The Addadam Agofomma ensemble is one of the traditional musical groups that upholds palm wine music and the original Ghanaian highlife music. The ensemble was formed by Agya Koo Nimo. Some of the major instruments for palm wine music include, apentemma, the dondo, the frikyiwa (metallic castanet), the prempensua (rhumba box), nnawuta (consisting of two iron bells that provide the key rhythmic pattern) and the ntͻwa (hollow gourd rattle with beads or seeds woven around it on a net) or dawuro (banana-shaped bell). He fuses storytelling with guitar and vocals, including spoken word poetry in his compositions.

In 1979, in recognition of his services to Ghanaian music as performer, teacher and administrator, Agya Koo Nimo was elected President of the Musicians’ Union of Ghana (MUSIGA). In 1985, he was appointed interim chairman of the Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA). He is an honorary life member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, along with such distinguished names as Professor J. H. K. Nketia of blessed memory and Professor John Collins.

His eight-track album, titled ‘Osabarima’ was released as a compact disc (CD) in 1990, making it the first work by a Ghanaian artist to be put on CD. In recognition of his dedication to music and his country, Agya Koo Nimo received the prestigious Asanteman award from the Asantehene in February, 1991. In the following month of the same year, he received the Flagstar Award from ECRAG (Entertainment Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana). The year 1991 ended with an honourable invitation to serve on the National Folklore Board of Trustees.

Dr. Andrew L. Kaye, an ethnomusicologist who has published on topics in African music, the history of stringed instruments, and film music presented his dissertation entitled "Koo Nimo and his circle: A Ghanaian Musician in Ethnomusicological Perspective" and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree for his work at Columbia University, New York in January, 1992. In 1998, the University of Washington in Seattle, U.S.A employed Agya Koo Nimo as a Professor of Ethnomusicology for two years. From there he joined the University of Michigan.

Some of his popular compositions include, ‘Ͻdͻnson’ (Let love prevail), ‘Akuafo Monno Mfuo’ (Farmers cultivate the land), ‘Abrokyire Abrabo’ (Life overseas), ‘Mewu Na Agoro Agu’ (My death would spell the doom for my group), ‘Ohia Ne Yareɛ Yɛ Ya’ (How painful it is to be poor and sickly) and ‘Adampa/Wo Wu a Na Wadane Saman’ (The dead becomes a ghost). He returned to Ghana in 2006 after his international exploits, and resides in Kumasi till date.

He is a leading folk musician of palm wine music or highlife music from Ghana who is internationally revered and appreciated not only for his music, but his love and respect for tradition and indigenous culture.