Osei playing a piece he calls Fa Papa Ye Nipa. It is in the Akan dialect. Man will always pay good with evil. God deserves our praises

Born on 24th of October, 1968 at Sefwi Surno, in the Western Region of Ghana. Osei showed interest in music quite early and so he approached his grandfather to teach him how to play the Seperewa. By the age of 12 he started playing the Seperewa. Osei is a very good player of the instrument and is currently the demonstrator of the Seperewa at the International Centre for African Musie and Dance. He is a composer as well, and has composed some songs for Hewale. He is the assistant leader of the group.
SEPEREWA
In his article entitled "Generative Processes in Seprewa music", J.H.Kwabena Nkettia refers to seprewa as the manner in which the sounds of the harp lute are generted and the utterances it make. It is made up of three morphones: se-pere-wa. Literally se means to speak or say, while pere means to touch. The morphone wa is a dimiutive suffix and has a similar emotional connotation to "little." Seperewa is, therefore, an instrument that "speaks" in the manner of a speech surrogate and communicates feelings as its strings are plucked in particular sequences.

Seperewa is a harp lute and it belong to the class of chordophones. (Chordophones are stringed instruments. They are either played with the hand or with a bow and sound is produced on them by setting the strings into vibration. There are many varieties of chordophones, ranging from one-stringed fiddle to 8 or more strings. These include varieties of lutes, harps zithers, lyre and musical bows). The seperewa instrument originated in the Ashanti region between the 17th and 18th centuries. King Osei Tutu, an Asante King was said to have loved the instrument so much that his successor King Opoku Ware caused a replica of it to be made in his memory. The instrument was wrapped in gold leaf, and placed among the paraphenalia of the Goden Stool, which Osei Tutu established as "the soul" of the Asante nation with the help of his councellor, the great priest Okomfo Anokye.

Seperewa which was used to entertain kings and also at palmwine bars, and funeral, has now found its way into the church, weddings and conferences.

Seperewa can be played in different positions. The player can play while sitting down with the instrumnt resting on his lap, with the neck of the instrument standing upright. He may also play while standing, the instrument I held firmly in he groin to gain enough support, the neck facing perpendicular in the same direction. Strumming and plucking are the two basic techniques applied and these are done by the thums and forefingers with some occasional assiiance from the middle fingers. The Sperewa player can even dance while he is playing or make some dramatic movements.

The Sperewa has fourmain parts. These are:

I. A long stick which forms both the neck and the tail piece.
ii. A rectangular sound-box with two small holes bored in the side of the sound box.
iii. A bridge
iv. A set of strings which may range from 6, 8, 10 and twelve strings because he can play any song he likes because of the wide tonal range.