The different expressions by which culture has significance for people have been under the scope of Anthropology. By studying different ethnic groups and societies, anthropologists have been able to assert that such expressions have the power to fill and enrich the lives of an entire population but also they give an insight into the different aspects of the social, cultural and moral condition of a nation.

The present article “Music-making Children of Africa” by John Miller Chernoff, refers to the Dagomba people of northern Ghana and their passion for music and dance as expressions of their cultural and social life and the set of ideas that compose their beliefs and behaviour. I will intend to summarize the main arguments of the author in this text and reflect his view on the study of this ethnic group.

Chernoff argue that through music there is a transmission of knowledge and personal values to the children in the Dagomba group. Furthermore he indicates that there is a cooperation between the different age groups in the activities that makes possible to sustain a household, allowing them to have moments of leisure after work and for the children the opportunity to play but also to engage with the traditions of their culture.

Chernoff’s concept that “wealth” is relative to the perspective of what is important in life for different people, lead up to his main argument of what culture can provide in this context and how culture can be regulated in order to motivate the respect to ancestry, tradition and hierarchy. According to Chernoff among the Dagombas there are rules and practices in their cultural tradition that instruct them about what is good or bad and the recognition of authority as represented in the dance called Nanto Nimdi. He also says that by the practice of the drumming the children are hardly committed to the process of learning that shape