Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest revision: March 12, 2022
This is Part I of a three part pancocojams series about Akan Adowa dances and Kete dances.
This post provides an excerpt from a 2020 journal article by Adu David Tuffour entitled "The Effests Of Guestures Used In Adowa And Kete Performances With Particular Reference To Akans In Ghana".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/five-videos-of-ghanaian-akan-adowa.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II showcases five YouTube videos of Ghana's (Akan) Adowa dances.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/five-youtube-videos-of-ghanas-akan-kete.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part III showcases five YouTube videos of Ghana's (Akan) Kete dances.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/seven-videos-of-young-girls-and-young.html for Part IV of this pancocojams series. Part IV showcases seven videos of young girls and young boys performing Ghana's Adowa Dances and Kete Dances.
The content of this post is presented for cultural and educational purposes.
All copy rights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Adu David Tuffour for his research and writing. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to all Akan Adowa and Kete dancers, past and present.
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JOURNAL EXCERPT : THE EFFECTS OF GESTURES USED IN ADOWA AND KETE PERFORMANCE WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO AKANS IN GHANA
[This journal article is given "as is", including bold font, without the bibliography that is included in that publication.]
"International Journal of African Society, Cultures and
Traditions
Vol.8, No.3, pp.32-46, September 2020
Published by ECRTD-UK
Print ISSN: ISSN 2056-5771(Print)
Online ISSN: ISSN
2056-578X (Online)
Adu David Tuffour
Department of Languages
Atebubu College of Education
[…]
[page] 34
Literature Review
A lot have been said about dances, (Opoku 1964; Duodu 1994;
Nketia 1965; Agyekum, 2010) every area has its own dance that they use according to the
location and the historical background of the people in that area. The dance portray the historical
and cultural lifestyle of the people and as such a dance performed by people from the north can only
be entertained and not understood
[page] 35
by the people from the south and vice versa. Adowa and Kete
among the various dances performed in the Asante, Bono and Eastern region of Ghana and those
dances have gestures as a tool for communication. Those gestures serve as non- verbal
communication that gives information about the cultural and historical background of the people in the
area. The meaning to those gestures has now become endangered and that system of communication is
dying off and this has negative influence on the culture.
People observe and enjoy the aesthetic beauty of the
gestures but have no idea the meaning that they carried especially the youth.Duodu (1994) music and
dance has been an integral part of the life of the Akan family. Like all the Akan states every
aspect of their life has its own music accompaniment. The Akan sing and dance when they are happy,
they sing and dance when they are sad or in sorrows. They sing ‘aho’ songs when they are
at war to spur their warriors to fight.
During the time of peace, they sing and dance to praise the
kings and the chief. The sing songs of abuse when they are at loggerhead with one another to abuse
their opponents. When they are at the shrine worshipping, they sing, drum and dance to arouse
their spirit to possess the priest.
[…]
Adowa dancer almost always begins and ends his/ her movement
with the right foot. Moreover, each step must correspond to the rhythm pattern of
the dawuro (gong). Adowa is a funeral dance, it is comprised of symbolic gestures, facial
expressions, body movements, body language and general communications of the body and face
that will tell the audience or mourners that this is a sorrowful dance.
Adowa being a traditional funeral music and dance of the
Akan people of Ghana was originally associated with funerals but it is now performed in many
different contexts and functions. It is counted among the frequently performed dances at traditional
ceremonies such as puberty rites, marriage, funerals naming ceremonies, and traditional
festivals etc where it serves as a means of communication and entertainment. (Nketia, 1973; Green, 2012;
Anku, 2009). Adowa has long been adopted by Ga women albeit as a complement to the
warriors with which its music is sung by men. The main texts of these songs are retained in the
original Twi or Fante Akan dialects. The coastal Adangme people also perform Adowa as recreational
music (Nketia, 1963).
[…]
[page] 36
Kete came from the Volta Region even though it agrees and
identifies as an Asante court dance, Akans do not have a specific root of the name. Kete happened
to be hunters drumming and this is because the original Kete is Ab]fogor]. So the Asantes
conquered the Kete dance during war at Kete Krachie. This is evident of the symbolic cloth used to
cover the Kete drums known as sumne mogya, Meaning darkness and blood. Everything our
ancestors did had a meaning. Sum ne mogya further explains that if one goes to war and there is
no death, they should still be blood.
There are varied accounts of the origins of the Kete dance.
Kete orchestra, unlike that of Adowa, is restricted to the
king’s outfit. It is only the king who has the Kete orchestra. It is the king who allows his paramount
chiefs and his nobles to have Kete orchestra. Kete is usually played when the king is in grief
like when a royal passes away. It is also played during festivals. Always a song is sang to precede
the drumming and immediately the drums come in, singing stops. The king, his paramount and the
royal can dance the Kete archestra with handkerchiefs in the hand and sandals. Any other person who
wants to dance should lower his cloth to the waist and remove his sandals. (Osei, 2002).
The Kete dance has gone through many changes since its break
away from the older Adowa from. Joseph Kaminski (2012) states that, the music of Kete is
reputed to possess the power of attracting good spirits… Nketia (1963). Explains that, the surrogated
texts extol high moral values through the telling of heroic ideals and Kete. Contemporary Kete
dancers may not necessarily be indigenous. Akans miss out on the symbolic meanings and
philosophies of the Kete dance movements they articulate. For example dancing with the
Ahenema, which is not permitted to commoners is very prevalent at certain observed performances
during varied social occasions.
Opoku (1966), states that, for the ordinary citizen the
situation fan be more taxing; when dancing he must remember to show respect for the royal drums by
baring his shoulders and wearing his Ntama, or toga between his armpit and his waist. He must be
more circumspect in his use of gestures than he would be in freer, informal, recreational
dances.
Both the Adowa and Kete dances are distinguished by their
charming walking movements and complex footwork; as well as gestures of the hand and
delicate bending and twisting of the body.
At the heart of the dance is the communication skills
between the master drummer and the dancer.
There is an unspoken language between the dancer and the
drummer. The symbolic dance gestures of these two dances. Adowa and Kete have specific meanings
and hence the communication is not only between the master drummer and the dancer but also
between the master drummer, the dancer, the audience and spectators.
[page] 37
The performance of Adowa begins with a chain Adowa songs
without instrumental
accompaniment. The lead singer introduces songs as a warm up
before drumming sets in. The master drummer then calls the ensemble to attention
beginning with the first bell. The master drummer’s text signal to the bell in Akan language is
Adawuraa Kofi, ma wo ho mene so [[!! (Adawuraa Kofi let your presence be felt). The first bell
player responds by striking the bell to show his readiness to perform. The master drummer then
invites the instruments immediately one after the other starting with the first bell then to the
second bell until all the instruments are ready to start the performance ( Anku, 2009; Arthur, 2015). The
elements which make up the aesthetics, the semiotics and certain contain contexts of the Kete dance
form. This is imperative because to understand the socio-politico-cultural role of kinesthetic
communication in Akan societies, one must understand through analysis, the sociolinguistic
structure of dances like Kete. Firenzi (2012) opines that, one of the more useful analytic approaches to
investigating dance practices in precolonial, Colonial, and post-colonial contexts is to look
at the role of tradition in different dances, and how this connection to the past has not played a
role in the manipulation of these dance practices for political or social purposes.
Kete, formally a court dance, raises discussions on the
concepts of power and identity due to its changing role from being a royal dance for in the past to a
ceremonial. Functional and open- to all performance form nowadays. The shift from Adowa to Kete
ushered new aesthetic, meaning and contexts through the expression of movement disparities
in faster paces. Some Kete performers in their pursuit to grace a given cultural
activities like funerals, festivals and the like, with their aesthetic beautiful dancing, employ Kete
movements in the wrong context much to the dissatisfaction of some early dance practitioners of the dance
form. Kete dancers who may not necessarily be native of Akans miss out on the symbolic
meanings and philosophies of the Kete dance movements they articulate. For example, dancing with
the Ahenema, which is not permitted to commoners is very prevalent in Akan set up nowadays.
According to Duodu (1972) “philosophical utterances and
ideas which are difficult to express or risky to proclaim verbally are embodied in symbolic dance
movement” It is contend here that kinesthetic engagement of movements into dance context
brings meanings and create aesthetics beautiful within the Akan society. As such, the context
meaning and aesthetics movement in the dance become relevant to the theme of the performance and
remain paramount in the dancing.
Therefore, context, aesthetics, meaning and movement must
intertwine to support social values upon which they draw their inspiration.
[…]
[page] 40
[…]
Some Gestures and their Meaning in Adowa and Kete Dance
i In Adowa dance when a dancer places both hands on top of
the head it signifies the behavior of crying, it means that: she is in trouble / she is in
crisis
ii Clasping the hands behind the back also expresses
loneliness: she is now lonely, she has lost a loved one;, may be a mother or a father, a husband or a
wife.
iii Clenching the fists over the stomach with the arms
crossed indicates; Now when she is hungry, who is going to give her food?. She is now an orphan,
Nobody is going to care for me. She don’t have anybody to turn to.
[Page] 41
iv Tapping or swinging the hands signifies: pain – you
are hurt.
In fact, just as Asante’s funerals do not totally involve an
expression of sadness, there are various Adowa movements to express joy, love, peace, and so on;
i. The movement to express joy involves; throwing up the
arms and clasping the hands in jubilation.
ii. Love and peace is expressed by: crossing both hands
and fingers in a clasped position.
iii. For example, at the loftiness of a dance, if the Asante
or Bono dancer suddenly falls with his / her back into the arms or lap of another community
member, particularly a prominent state official, he/she wishes to convey that she/ he
depend on him.
iv. The theme of unity is always presents in Adowa dance and
is conveyed by crossing the arms and hands with palms opened, or by placing the two
palms against one another vertically, as if the dancer has his/ her hands clasped
in prayer.
On the whole, Adowa and Kete movements, with their gestures,
affirm critical values and beliefs of the Akan community. In this way, with each successive
performance the role of the Akan traditional dances as a vehicle for expressing Akan’s ethnic
identity is not only ensured, but also liven up with both individual spirit and the collective
enthusiasm of the people of Akan.
[…]
[page] 44
[…]
CONCLUSION
Non- verbal communication is one of the most important way
of transmitting messages to people and its response in social context is very crucial and
effective. Gestures in our traditional dances performance are among the non- verbal way of sending
messages across to individual in a special way. Adowa and Kete among others are some of the ways of
communicating through gestures.
Various gestures have been found which give different
meanings to the society but understanding those gestures is a little bit difficult to both the youth
and the adults. Even though the contemporary chiefs have little ideas about these gestures, it is only
the trained dancers in the king’s court that have in-depth knowledge about those gestures Reaching to them
is a little bit a challenge or difficult and if care is no taken, they will die with their
knowledge leaving the rich non- verbal or these sign language to accommodate non- existence in the
nearby future. The interview interaction with the social groups it was found out that the youth and
the middle age citizens don’t know anything about Adowa and Kete performance gestures, if the
aged sixty and above years are only group of people who understand these gestures in these
performance than this study can affirm that, the future is not bright in terms of Adowa and Kete
performance.”…
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This concludes Part I of this pancocojams series.
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