New Hampshire Artist Laureate

Theo Martey

West African culture ‘teaches us how to be together. How to live as one people. How to connect and be united,’ says Theo Martey, a native of Ghana who now serves as the state’s artist laureate. (Courtesy photo)

Manchester’s Theo Martey started drumming in Ghana when he was six or seven years old and hasn’t stopped since. He performed with the National Theatre of Ghana at 17, and moved to New Hampshire in 2001 after a short stay in New York City.

For Martey, who received the Governor’s Arts Award for Arts Education in 2019 and has worked with schools across the state, drumming is a healer and connector for all of us.

He is the founder and director of the Akwaaba Ensemble, which showcases energetic and celebratory West African drumming and dancing.

Q. What are the duties of the artist laureate?

A. For me, I believe the work that you do, the distinction of your work, is reaching more people and it gives you a lot of responsibility as well — to create more projects and cooperate with other artists. People know who you are now. They get to know about your work more. They invite you to different places. It’s been a great honor.

Q. What does Akwaaba mean?

A. Akwaaba means “welcome” in the Twi language of the Ashanti tribe of Ghana. I’m not a Twi though; I’m a Ga. I use “Akwaaba” because it’s easier for people to pronounce, and when you go to Ghana that’s the first thing you see when you’re leaving the airport.

Q. How did you come to be in New Hampshire?

A. I came here to visit, and during the visit I fell in love with the nature part of New Hampshire — the greener pasture and all that. I started in New York City where it was too busy and loud. I wanted a place where, after a tour or after a performance, I could have a calm mind.

Q. What do children get out of drumming?

A. Drumming helps in all different ways. It helps with the emotional. It helps with the physical. It helps to make you calm. There’s so many kids — so many special needs kids I work with — it brings them to a place where it helps them to meditate, to relax. Also, someone who has a lot of energy, playing a drum can get the energy out. You can also do it together as a team, use cooperation — a way of connecting with other people. It helps the kids in all different ways. If I’m feeling peace, I can bring that connection to someone else. The drum is a healer.

Q. When did you start drumming?

A. I believe I was 5 or 6 when I watched drummers and dancers in the community where I grew up. Either you picked up boxing or you picked up football, which is soccer, or you picked up music and dancing.

Growing up, I saw music and dancing every day. One leader started a youth group, and he saw the vision or something in me. He started a young folks’ group and asked me to be part of it. I didn’t go to school to study. It was all in the community where I grew up. I was practicing and performing from a very young age. From there, I joined the older groups, the Shidaa Cultural Troupe, and from there the National Theatre of Ghana, which is the highest you can go.

Q. Is a third CD in the works for Akwaaba?

A. Akwaaba has other songs, but they’re not released yet. After the two CDs, I decided to go with the Afro Beat, to go solo while I’m still maintaining Akwaaba. For my solo songs, I use the name Emperor T-Jiga.

Q. What can West African or Ghanian culture teach us here in New Hampshire?

A. It teaches us how to be together. How to live as one people. How to connect and be united. That’s what the drumming message is all about: how to be together and work in unity.

Q. Ghanian dance and drumming interpret traditional stories. Do you have a personal favorite?

A. The stories are often about the world coming together and having peace in our hearts. We have a broom. If you take one broomstick, you can break it. But then we have plenty of brooms. If you try to break two or three together, you cannot break them.