African Dance: An Artistic, Historical and Philosophical Inquiry

Abstract

It is widely held that religion in Africa cannot be separated from other aspects of life. One cannot read this book without reaching a similar conclusion. Kariamu Welsh Asante has skilfully organised the contributions into a multi-faceted analysis of African culture by focusing specifically on the medium of dance, which the con tributors to the volume link in various ways with religious expressions. This is accomplished under four headings all dealing with tradition. The first examines tradition itself followed by sections on tradition and continuity, tradition transformed and tradition contextualised. The pervasiveness of religion in African culture is made particularly clear in the first article by the late Pearl Primus, to whom the book is dedicated. Primus provides the reader with a vivid sense of what it feels like to experience African dance, which she describes as being so ‘hypnotic’ that it draws the dancer ‘nearer and nearer to the centre of ‘All-Being”’. This is why, Primus argues, those who wish to understand African dance should learn also about African religions. This theme of a holistic world-view in traditional Africa is supported in a subsequent article by Doris Green who describes African dance as imitating all aspects of life including eating, pounding corn, hunting, fishing, self-defence and sexual activity. She also draws attention to the importance of dancing in con nection with life cycle rituals, particularly those surrounding puberty. Esilokun Kinni-Olusanyin follows this theme by demonstrating how the central feature of the drum in African ritual dances contributes to a holistic experience by forming a complete expression of ‘symmetrical, consonant concert of sound and animated movement, colour and form’. Robert Nicholls of the University of the Virgin Islands intro duces the section on ‘Tradition and Continuity’ by arguing that indigenous cultures are ‘functional social instruments’ that over dance research