Jama reunites people! A case of two videos

I know the Old Schools Reunion happened a while ago in Accra recently but it's never late to blog about it. I like the idea of bringing old students of many schools together in one place. There is the nostalgia felt like the old times of Interco n Superzo, reuniting with friends and the sheer entertainment provided as well. I attended the 2004 edition at the Aviation Social Center and it was so much fun. I met a number of friends from Presec and KNUST JSS I hadn't seen in ages. I heard the event was extended to Kumasi a few years' back and that is great too. I had so much fun at the sole event I went to and I was singing jama songs all day, In fact I recorded a video.

I recorded a video of Presec colleagues singing 'All my sins shall be taken away'. I had a few other videos that I lost. Bummer. We never said 'Bummer' in Presec. Neither did we say the 'F' word. I say the 'F' word so many times these days, I don't even know how that happened. In fact, I am looking for a way to stop so everytime I have to say it, I will say 'Jollof'. I was gonna use Waakye but that's a bit of a mouthful. Or like a friend suggested, I could just pay someone a gentleman's buck everytime I used this ungentlemanly word. :-) Nah, not gonna use that. If I tried that, in a week, I'll be effed. I mean jollofed. !@₵#@#!&%₵#!

Here is the video I was talking about. Jama is so much fun. It makes the cheerleading we see in the US colleges and schools look like ballet compared with break-dancing. Or something similar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiKsoLnPmfA


I've also attended the Ghanaian New York Picnic, which is normally the first Saturday in August. I went for the first time in 2005, and it was a lot of fun. Not as much fun as the Joy 99.7FM Old Skuuls Reunion, but it offered the same things - reuniting with friends, some entertainment, making new friends, meeting Facebook & Hi5 friends for the first time, and some small jama. Some Augusco boys wanted to show they were present so they shiied some jama, which I recorded here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbIA_kl1JEM


These Augusco boys could draw more Augusco students to their midst. It's like if you are from Augusco, come meet some more Augusco boys. Different schools had their particular jama songs though some jams are the same across the board.

I miss shiing jama. In high school, the specious/respectful/disciplined/neat students didn't want to get involved with singing at the top of their voices. Granted, some of the songs were pretty profane so it was understandable for some people to desist from joining the chorus. The spirit of jama goes all the way to the national level where the Black Stars are urged on by the supporters' unions. Jama must not die. The songs are being passed on from class to class and some have entered the private domain of commercial music. Kontihene used one for his hit Aketesea song. I hear Nkasei's Yefri Tuabodom is from a Jama song as well. Many Ghanaian parties have this Jama song by 4x4 on their playlist as well.

Long live Jama!
Long live reunions!
Long live school spirit!