Every culture has iconic figures. Today in our society we look up to firefighters, police and rescue workers to help us in our time of need. The Ghanaian culture looks to its musicians for their way of life.

Bernard Woma, master of the Ghanaian xylophone or gyil, was born in Northwest Ghana in the town Hiineteng and is a part of the Gbanne Clan of the Dagara people. According to Woma, he was destined to be a master musician.

“I was told my hands were born in clenched fists which is actually how you hold the sticks of the gyil,” Woma said.”When I was born with my hands clenched my people took that as a sign that I would be a musician. My father was told to get me the instrument right away and by the time I was two I could play the instrument really very good.”

Woma and his father took the advice of the townspeople and at age five he started studying under Ziem Tibo.These sessions with Tibo gave Woma the complete knowledge of the art of playing the gyil and as well as crafting them himself.

Woma eventually went to school and by 1982 he was playing his music for traditional ceremonies for the Dagara people and became very well known. Soon after, he was hired as the solo xylophonist in Ghana’s National Dance Company. This experience and many more led Woma to realize that he wanted to be a teacher.

“I love teaching and knew I had always wanted to do it,” he said. “You learn from teaching, to be a good teacher you have to learn from your students. It’s like language. You learn from hearing it and you want to try and copy it. Every mistake you make in music is a new style.”

In 1999 Woma opened up the Dagara Music Center in Medie, Ghana. The center is just like a college, people live there, study there, and create new ideas. In the summer of 2000, 23 individuals from the University traveled to Ghana and were the inaugural class at the center. Woma said that it was a great time. Woma continues to compose his own music and at the same time builds the very instrument he plays.

“Making a gyil is a long process,” he said.”Because you have to dry some supplies and they are seasonal, the process can take up to two weeks to three months just to make one.”

This process of making the gyil may be a long one, but Woma says that because of how beautiful the music is, it is worth it. “When people are listening to my music they get the vibration of the sound,” he said. “When you hear the music it can send you into sleep, it can send you into trance and it can excite you too. It’s a natural feeling that brings your inner feelings outside.”

The Dagara people use music as a healing device and with traditions.Woma said that when the children enter into puberty, they send them in with music. Woma also said that this music is used in weddings and funerals, it is sort of a transcending into a new life or a new tradition.

“I want people on this Earth to realize that as people we are all one,” he said.”I use my music to educate, entertain and to inform. If you hear music that you don’t understand you will either enjoy it or ignore it. Music is very pleasant, joyful and language of every group.”