Akayaa first came to California in 1983, bringing with her the music and dance traditions of the Fra Fra Tribe. As a teacher and performer, Akayaa has shared these traditions with people of all ages throughout California. She is currently a dance instructor at San Diego State University and Southwestern College. When she is not teaching, she is playing Highlife music with Bolga Zohdoomah, an outgrowth of other performing groups-including Aba Koma, Ngoma, Bosole, and the Konga Society -previously founded by Akayaa. She is joined in her new group by a dedicated crew of local veteran musicians who share a love for what may be the happiest music on earth.
The very danceable Highlife music took root in the 1930s in West Africa as a fusion of African and Western instruments. Bolga Zohdoomah is influenced by the forefathers of this genre, such as King Sunny Ade and Prince Nico, as well as by those who continue to expand the definition of Highlife, like Roadmaster and Agyemang. With Akayaa at the helm, the group infuses contagious energy into every performance.
Drenched in the sun-bright rhythms of Africa, lead singer and drummer Akayaa Atule brings her own flavor of Ghanaian Highlife music to San Diego. Akayaa is a native of the Fra Fra Tribe in the upper eastern region of Ghana. The daughter of a master drummer, she learned how to dance and drum almost as soon as she learned how to walk. As a young woman in 1980, Akayaa attended the Bolgatanga Performing Arts School of Ghana, where she furthered her study of the talking drum and traditional dances. The music from Bolga so inspired her that more than twenty years later she formed a group in San Diego called Bolga Zohdoomah - the "friends of Bolga".
