1.4: African Dances

There are several types of dances from Africa, including dances of welcome, healing dances, dances of love and courtship, warrior dances, as well as dances of divination, summoning and possession. Rooted in deep spirituality, religious dances from Africa aim to please both spirit beings, as much as human audiences. It is important to understand that many African dances serve not only one cultural function but blend a variety of cultural purposes such as maintaining the status of a chief in tribal society while commemorating a wedding, for example. Wedding ceremonies and rites of passage, such as circumcision from boy to man or girl to woman, include ceremonial dance as part of the life transition.

Across the African continent, courtship dances aid in the formalized interaction between the sexes before, during, and even after marriage. For example, dance provides an occasion for couples to have the opportunity to flirt through the Sikya dance performed by the Akan tribe of Ghana (Britannica, 2022). Men and women tend not to dance together as the dance reinforces traditional mores and codes of conduct. Men and women rarely perform the same style of dance, such as the Bororo of western Cameroon. The approaching of the dry season is celebratemen to meet. Though differences between their movements are distinguished in movement, music, and adornment, culturally agreed upon gender definition is illustrated through African courtship dances, underscored by modesty.

Definition: Gender Definition

Biological sex is a different phenomenon than gender. The sexual assignation of a human is determined at birth, while gender is defined based on a set of culturally agreed upon behavioral and aesthetic expectations. Gender constitutes the role that a person learns and performs, consciously or unconsciously in a culture (Brown et al., 2023).

Many times, African dances tell a story and have an impactful narrative meaning. These are known as griotic dances, named after traditional storytellers in West Africa, called griots. Further, dances from Africa demonstrate a polyrhythmic time signature where two or more rhythms are played concurrently. The voice, drum, body, and The colonial era and subsequent 20th century globalization resulted in disappearance of certain styles of African dance due to colonial suppression or postcolonial cultural hybridization.

Definition: Polyrhythmic

The musical use of simultaneous contrasting rhythms is to engage a polyrhythmic time signature, where two or more rhythms are played concurrently in total body articulation (Welsch-Asante, 2009).

Dances of Welcome

One example of a hydridic dance believed to have originated in Liberia, parts of Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, the West African is the Fanga Alafia dance is rooted in a blending of different dance traditions and cannot be traced to one specific ethnic tradition in any African country (Damm, 2015). The spirit of the Creator is invoked during the Fanga Alafia welcome dance to unite guests and hosts. It is a call and response welcome song and dance. The call is: “Fanga Alafia!” in Yoruba, which means “Hello, Peace!” The response is “Áṣhẹ, áṣhẹ” which means “Let it be so, let it be so”. The Nigerian Yoruba consider the term Áshe to be a vocalization invoking a spiritual force that emanates from the ultimate Creator, uniting all living and non-living entities (Yannucci, 2021).

Figure 1.5. Welcome dance in Lagos, Nigeria. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Cameron Edy. (28 January 2023). 230129-N-DK722-1001 (Jan. 29, 2023) LAGOS, Nigeria – A Nigerian artist performs a traditional Nigerian dance during a U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa band visit to the Nike Art Foundation in Lagos, Nigeria, Jan. 28, 2023, during Obangame Express 2023. Obangame Express 2023, conducted by U.S. Naval Forces Africa, is a maritime exercise designed to improve cooperation, and increase maritime safety and security among participating nations in the Gulf of Guinea and Southern Atlantic Ocean. U.S. Sixth Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa. This photo has been digitally altered to black and white. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st class Cameron C. Edy). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:230129-N-DK722-1001_-_Nike-Davies_Okundaye_welcomes_U.S._Naval_Forces_Europe_and_Africa_Band_during_exercise_Obangame_Express_23.jpg )

Today this welcome dance is recognized as an Afro-American form. The reason for this is dancer Asadata Dafora (1890–1965). Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone then migrating to New York in 1929, Dafora began teaching traditional West African song and dance based on the folklore of his childhood. He staged well-received public performances and by the 1940s, his dance company was invited to perform at the African Dance Festival at Carnegie Hall. Because of this immigrant story, perseverance, and cultural resilience, the Fanga Alafia enacted multiculturalism in North America through the traditional Yoruba welcoming hospitality.

Definition: Multiculturalism

Multi-culturalism is a public policy philosophy that recognizes the worth, value, legitimacy, and equality of all cultures represented in a society (Ferraro & Andreatta, 2008).

Throughout the United States, K-12 school children may have exposure to African music and dance education because of the accessibility of Fanga Alafia. Some have criticized this expansion of this dance of welcome as a tokenistic “traditional African dance from Liberia, perfect for a Black History Month program” (Damm, 2015). However, Fanga has achieved wide recognition, encouraging the value, legitimacy, and equality of differing African cultures represented in American society. Learning about different cultures through dance, like the Fanga Alafia dance of welcome, multiculturalism enhances global perspectives through awareness, tolerance, and hopefully celebration of diversity!

Healing Dances

Illness manifests in the body, and in Africa, ailments can be treated by intense dances that are believed to heal physical, psychological, or spiritual suffering. An afflicted person can gain a sense of control and release from pain through healing dances, which also promote community support. The Vimbuza healing dance from northern Malawi is said to have very real personal experiential curative outcomes. Popular among the Tumbuka people, Vimbuza is an important manifestation of a healing tradition that is sometimes performed with fabrics or metal belts to accentuate the lower body hip gyrations. Despite colonial attempts to suppress the percussive dance movement, the Malawian Vimbuza continued to be an essential part of indigenous healthcare systems throughout Bantu-speaking Africa.

Figure 1.6. Traditional Vimbuza dance of healing for the Tumbuka people of Malawi. (UNESCO. (208, June 23). Vimbuza Dance traditional Tumbuka healing dance common among Tumbuka people. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vimbuza_Dance_04.jpg )

The majority of patients are women who suffer from varying forms of mental illness. After receiving a diagnosis, patients undergo a healing ritual where the women and children of the village form a circle formation around the afflicted woman. She then is expected to enter a trance state, singing songs and moving in a dancelike motion to call upon the ancestral spirits for assistance. “The only men taking part are those who beat spirit-specific drum rhythms and, in some cases, a male healer” (UNESCO, 2008). Hence, ng’oma translated as “drums of affliction” is accompanied by a collective village effort where singing and drumming create demarcated space for patients to “dance their disease”.

Women might be treated for an extended period by traditional healers through a repertoire of songs with increasingly complicated drumming rhythms to further express the affliction in a way that is understood and acknowledged by the community. Though the ritual dance was forbidden by Christian missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Vimbuza healing dance was intended overcome traumatic experiences related to colonial oppression under British occupation. Today, the therapeutic function of the Vimbuza is still a rich part of Malawian life, especially in rural areas, working in concert with modern medical treatments.

Dances of Love and Courtship

A strict code of social behavior governs the Wodaabe people of Niger. Desirable attributes are modesty and reserve, fortitude and patience, beauty and charm (Beckwith & Fisher, 1999). For these nomadic cattle herding people, the Yaake dance performed at the Geerewol festival serves a cultural function for the public flirtation between the sexes, as well as socially acceptable divorce proceedings. In a culture where men are allowed to have several wives, the Yaake is a blending of indigenous and Islamic traditions (Malone, 1992).

It is a competition format in some ways, where male contestants dance in a line, and sing harmonized repeated phrases to impress marriageable females. The dance line of marriageable young men adorn themselves in ornate heavy make-up and headdress. If a woman is unhappy in her marriage, it is socially allowable for her to choose a new husband based on mutual attraction. Cultural markers for a long, fertile, and enduring marriage are the exhibition of health, hygiene and strength. The buoyant dance line exemplifies the whiteness of their eyes and teeth in this dance of love.

Figure 1.7. Wodaabe dancers at the Geerewol are men adorned to demonstrate flirtation, courtship, and marriageability. (Dan Lundberg. (1997). Gerewol contestants sing and dance while flaunting the whiteness of their eyes and teeth. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_Dan_Lundberg_-_1997_%5E273-2A_Gerewol.jpg )

Warrior Dances

One example of a warrior dance was originally a danced military battle exercise. During the war between the British colonials and the Zulus in 1879, the dance was intended to inspire young male warriors as they embarked on the long march into Anglo-Zulu War. Indlamu was inherited from the traditions of the Nguni people, closely related to the Zulu ethnic group in Southern Africa. The Zulu word dlamu means “to stomp” or “stamp the feet”.

Teaching discipline to young Zulu males as they prepared for war, Indlamu was traditionally danced by an individual or as a team. In a line, warriors perform, with precision timing, large stomping motions with their bare feet to demonstrate their meticulous technical control of weaponry with stabbing motions towards imaginary enemies. The men’s dramatic feathered dress consisting of headgear, loin cloth, ceremonial belts, shields, ankle rattles, and weaponry of spears.

Divination, Summoning and Possession

A ritual dance of summoning Kakilambe is from the coastal area of Guinea is performed annually by the Baga-people. A deity being that presides over the rain, water sources, as well as fire, and wind, Kakilambe serves to assure the Baga community about fruitful crops, fertility, and overall societal protection. Incarnating as a fearsome masculine spirit, he protects against evil and invasion from nearby tribes. Kakilambe emerges from the nearby forest following the priests to make vital declarations to the Baga people about their present and their future (Nas, 2002).

In a watercolor from 1930, Figure 1.4 shows the portable bird headed Kakilambe emerge with up to twenty male Baga tribe members supporting it from underneath. The constructed deity is a massive cage, approximately twenty meters high, covered with straw-like raffia (Lamp, 1986). The large bird-head represents a phallus and is attended to by the male elders of the village. The dance itself begins slowly and it is at that time that villagers approach to ask questions about the year ahead. The polyrhythmic percussion escalates toward the chaotic. As Kakilambe continues the rapid dance, he increases in size through a twirling action manipulated by strings. As the size of Kakilambe grows, the Baga are excited to receive answers to their questions about their future. In addition to this cultural function, Kakilambe is also used as an intimidation tactic to maintain control over their coastal territory, frightening outsiders who threaten the sovereignty of the Baga people.

Figure 1.8. Kakilambe is a fearsome male spirit who protects the Baga people and ensures fertility. (Guinee Francaise. (2011, Nov 28). Kakilambe. https://www.mandebala.net/references/kakilambe.php )

In Guinea today Kakilambe continues to assure the Baga people as it has done for generations. It is believed that if Kakilambe is disobeyed or fails to make his annual appearance, the people will receive collective and individual punishments. Therefore, the ritual dance continues year after year even in the twenty-first century. The villagers continue in their required day-to-day work in service of their community to secure food and housing, safety, and village life. In looking at the cultural function of this dance, when trying to avoid being ethnocentric we must make the attempt to view the cultural traits of the Kakilambe from within the context of the Baga people. This is the practice of cultural relativism.

Definition: Cultural Relativism

The objective analysis and understanding of another culture’s traits, beliefs, dances, and practices, viewing them from that culture’s point of view.

Deep Dive: Cultural Relativism

Franz Boas (1858-1942) was an empirical anthropologist who presented the notion of cultural relativism. He wrote that "civilization is not something absolute, but...is relative, and... our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes" (Boas, 1877). Hence, the analysis of another cultural set of beliefs or dance practices would be to engage an objective attempt to understand from that culture's point of view. Rather than wondering how the overtly sexualized Kakilambe ritual dance fits into your world, aim to perceive and understand the dance as a part of the Baga people's cultural system.