Abstract
Contemporary Ghanaians seem to have turned away from expressing or otherwise patronising their cultural eroticism or integrating it successfully in modern dynamic lifestyles. This research focuses on erotic expressions in the Adowa dance of the Asante by examining the sensual characteristics of the dance, a resurrection of awareness hopefully will be highlighted for possible integration into contemporary forms of cultural education and entertainment. The interviewees’ accounts on their knowledge on Asante’s cultural eroticism will buttress my own experiences in living with and observing them. As culture and practice, the study throws light on arm gestures in a descriptive call and response between a male and a female performer accompanying twists and turns of the body, the costumes and adornment for either dancers accentuating the erogenous zones, song lyrics of mildly sensual ones to highly erotic ones and drum messages which are equally titillating. These findings will support documentations such as “Black Eros: Sexual customs of Africa from prehistory to the present day” (Rachiwiltz, 1967), “Symbolic movements in Ghanaian dances” (Ampofo-Duodo, 1980), and “The Ghana dance ensemble” (Seavoy n. d.) which focused one way or the other on Ghanaian dances and Africans sexuality.These aspects are closely related to the ethical and aesthetic principles that are common to most cultural performances, rooted in the Asante cultural tradition. Key words: Cultural eroticism, adowa dance, sexuality, asante, and Ghana.
Highlights
Music and dance form an integral part of the Akan social life and permeates all events in the society with high degrees of communal involvement (Ampem 1999).Dance is a language and a mode of expressing one’s feelings and thoughts which radiates through the body and reflects in arm gestures and facial expressions
This research focus on the aspects of the cultural eroticism of the Asante that are at par, if not more sensual, to that of the West and other
Traditional leaders, Queen mothers, older folks in the communities, dancers and cultural analysts gave their impressions and interpretations of the various signs and symbols in the culture, the meanings associated with the erotic in Asante twi language and its placement in the culture
Summary
Plot 12 Block E, Ayigya Extension, Ayigya, Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana, West Africa. The study throws light on arm gestures in a descriptive call and response between a male and a female performer accompanying twists and turns of the body, the costumes and adornment for either dancers accentuating the erogenous zones, song lyrics of mildly sensual ones to highly erotic ones and drum messages which are titillating. These findings will support documentations such as “Black Eros: Sexual customs of Africa from prehistory to the present day”.
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