Dangerous crossroads: liminality and contested meaning in Krobo (Ghana) dipo girls’ initiation*

Abstract

Every spring, groups of Krobo young girls are taken through initiation rites known as dipo. The perpetuation of dipo rests on the conviction that it transforms girls into women. Therefore, the rituals resonate with a powerful voice. But whose voice is it? Is it that of the leaders or the society's? Is there a disparity between the official and unofficial voices? Is the official version real or imagined? And is it shared by the initiands? Contending that dipo girls’ initiation rites exemplify van Gennep's concept of liminality, as reformulated and expanded by Turner, that is, marginality, statuslessness, and ambiguity, the essay details the ordered sequence of activities that progressively effect ritual transformation. Each media‐defined action, with its spatial and symbolic resonances, constitutes a specific moment both in itself and in the complex, processual orchestration toward ritual efficacy. However, the essay concludes by questioning cultural assumptions about dipo's transformative capacity and posits that the rituals both affirm and reject, legitimize and undermine, accept and question cultural understandings. It argues that inherent in dipo ritual action is contested meaning between official and personal versions of reality. Indeed, far from terminating feelings of youthhood, it is contended that dipo initiates find themselves at a dangerous crossroad, an intersection laden with anxiety, uncertainty and ambivalence, with adulthood yet to be attained.