18/10/2026
Some rhythms cross a border and, somewhere along the way, become home.
Tonight on World Grooves, we're spending a moment with Gahu, the joyful Ewe dance-drum tradition of Ghana's Volta Region. Ewe workers and traders who spent time in Nigeria returned with Yoruba songs and rhythms in their ears. Their communities didn't simply copy what they heard: they gave it new words, new steps and their own unmistakable swing, and Gahu was born. The name is often linked to “money” or “wealth”, a nod to the social drum clubs where people gathered, contributed and celebrated together.
It's music made for circles: a bell lays down the pattern, rattles shimmer, barrel drums answer, and dancers move with a rolling shoulder that seems to laugh along. Call and response, everyone welcome, just presence.
A rhythm arrives from somewhere else, is folded into a community's own way of speaking, and generations later it's simply theirs. That's how so much music has travelled: by people moving, working, sharing and listening.
Chris Nsiah is live from Ghana tonight with a hand-picked journey through grooves connecting West Africa to the UK and beyond.
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