NYANSAPO TVAug 30, 2019
Little Girl Dancing Adowa in Asantehemaa Funeral
-snip-
Notice that a blue & yellow kente cloth is among the fabrics that are hanging down from the waist of the little girl dancer.
"Asantehemaa" is the main Queen mother of the Asante (Ashanti) kingdom in Ghana, West Africa. The "Asantehemaa choses the Asantehene (the King).
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part IV of a four part pancocojams post on Adowa dances and kete dances.
This post showcases seven YouTube videos of children performing these Akan dances and Kete dances. These videos are only a small sample of YouTube videos on Adowa and Kete dances that include children dancing.
Selected comments from the discussion thread for one of these videos are included in this post.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/excerpt-of-2020-journal-article-about.html for a pancocojams post entitled "Excerpt Of A 2020 Journal Article About Ghana's Akan Adowa Dances And Kete Dances". The links to the other pancocojams posts in this series are given in that post.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
Adowa and Kete are traditional dances among the Akan people of Ghana, West Africa and the Ivory Coast, West Africa.
In addition to this post showcasing this music and dance movements, I want to call attention to the dancers' attire ("costumes", including the black covering and gold banners on the females' heads, the jewlery that the girls wear, and the padding on their butts which might imitate the body of an antelope that sources say that this dance originated from.
I also want to call attention to the fact that many of the female dancers wear kente cloth and some of them may have different designs of kente cloth among other types of cloths that are hanging from their waist.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/how-color-combinations-for-kente-cloth.html for a related pancocojams post about kente cloth. Also, click the tags below for more pancocojams posts on these subjects.
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ADDITIONAL SHOWCASE VIDEOS
These videos are given in chronological order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
Frank Agyare,
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #3: Ghana Adowa Dance
Mark Tetteh, Sept. 9, 2015
-snip-
Adowa originated as a funeral dance. Black and red are the Akan colors for funeral clothes, tents at the funeral etc.
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #4: WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS GIRL?
Khemical TV, Sep 14, 2016
-snip-
Notice at 2:30 in this video that a kente cloth is one of the pieces of materials that is hanging
down from the "belt" that is tied to this dancer's waist. The design for that kente cloth is the same as or very similar to the kente color combination/design that I believe was the most popular design among African Americans who wore kente cloth stoles (before the popularity of the green, gold, red, and black kente graduation stoles. The kente cloth that is shown in this video appears to be the same as the kente cloth stoles that were worn by Democrats who were member of the United States Congress who knelt for a moment of silence in 2020 in honor of George
Floyd.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/how-color-combinations-for-kente-cloth.html for videos of these types of kente cloth designs.
SHOWCASE VIDEO #5: Little Girl Dance "Adowa" at Manhyia Palace on Friday
DailyPostGH Dec 9, 2017
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Selected comments from this video's discussion thread:
1.Lusi Myer, 2019
"Cute girl. Nice dancer. I wish I understood the moves and
the meaning. Plus the interview at the end.
Im assuming the couple are her parents?"
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Reply
2. ASMR CLAY GENIUS, 2019
"The moves are antelope mimicking moves. The rest are flying
stuff"
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I think flying stuff means "movements that she just made uo "on the fly" (at that moment).
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Reply
3. Lusi Myer, 2019
"A. B. Thanks for the answer."
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Reply
4. Hi Efia, 2020
"The interviewer asked her age. She said she's 6 yrs old.
Then he asked how she learnt to dance and
she said she Wasn't taught by anyone. She only saw others dance while
she was carried on her mum's back and she started to dance too. Her parents
said its her talent."
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #6: WOW, This Boy Is Really Good At His 'Adowa Dance' Moves 😍
YourBoyDotty TV, Mar
12, 2020
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #7
ADAM SARFO, Feb. 13, 2021
How this young boy performs this kente dance will amaze you.
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Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
I ask this question with all due respect.
ReplyDeleteI haven't come across any explanation of why the Akan Adowa and Kete dancers who wear shortened wraps have a padded butt as part of their "costumes". And I only recall reading one commenter in a YouTube discussion thread ask why that was. (There were no responses to that question.)
If my theory is correct that that "big butt" look is supposed to represent the backside of an antelope (since I've read that the Adowa dance originated from the killing of an antelope and the Kete dance came from the Adowa dance), are the males that do this dance supposed to represent the men and boys hunting the antelope?