CeCASt Research Seminar 2 | 28th March, 2024

BRIDGING THE GAP WITH INDIGENOUS DANCE: PERFORMATIVE CULTURES AND EPISTEMIC TRADITIONS

Presenter: Mrs. Joann Thompson

ABSTRACT

Oral cultures make up for the deficit in literary culture by performance which becomes the channel for communicating epistemic traditions. African knowledge is inseparable from the African non-binary worldview about the ontological reality of both the material and the metaphysical (world). Because the line between the physical and spiritual is very thin and inter-penetrable, knowledge about the spirit realm enables Africans to straddle the two in knowledge production. This makes knowledge production in Africa both liberal and limited. Against this background, we deploy music and dance to advance our argument that Ghanaian cultures are highly performative and metaphysical, gesturing towards epistemic aspirations of the Ghanaian people. Dance performance of all sorts in Africa is knowledge-oriented. Dance, in many traditional African societies, was (and continues to be) a part of significant occasions in an individual's life cycles which fell within the jurisdiction of indigenous religions. Gesticulations in performance are structured to communicate knowledge, power, history, values, and more and must be preserved as heritage.

Keywords: Knowledge Systems, Oral History, Culture, Dance, Heritage