Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T15:25:31.394Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“The Clave Comes Home”: Salsa Dance and Pan-African Identity in Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2017

Christey Carwile
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

While salsa dance is popularly, and now globally, understood to be a symbol and expression of Latin identity, its adoption in non-Latin contexts has produced new meanings and cultural configurations. This is particularly the case in West Africa, where salsa is not only catching on among urban youth, but is becoming understood and approached from an African perspective. This article explores the ways in which salsa dance in Ghana serves as an innovative, embodied expression of a contemporary, pan-African identity. This is seen in Ghanaian dancers’ ideological reinvigoration of salsa’s African history and in the physical incorporation of local styles and presentations. Salsa in Ghana is recast through global networks, which in turn contributes to its global character while refashioning it to better suit local motives and desires. Thus, rather than emphasizing salsa’s African roots alone, dancers in Ghana equally engage with the complex routes of the dance.

Résumé:

Alors que la danse salsa est populairement et globalement comprise comme un symbole et une expression de l’identité latine, son adoption dans des contextes non latins a produit de nouvelles significations et configurations culturelles. C’est particulièrement le cas en Afrique de l’Ouest, où la salsa ne se contente pas seulement de gagner la jeunesse urbaine, mais elle est également devenue comprise et approchée d’un point de vue africain. Cet article explore les manières dont la danse salsa au Ghana sert en tant qu’expression innovante et personnifiée d’une identité panafricaine contemporaine. Ceci est évident non seulement dans la revitalisation idéologique des danseurs ghanéens de l’histoire africaine de la salsa, mais aussi dans leur incorporation physique des styles et des présentations locales. Simultanément, les danseurs de salsa au Ghana remanient le genre, contribuant à son caractère global tout en le remodelant pour mieux correspondre aux significations et désirs locaux. Ainsi, les danseurs du Ghana, plutôt que de mettre l’accent sur les racines africaines salsa seules, s’engagent également avec les nuances complexes de la danse.

Keywords

Salsa danceyouth culturecosmopolitanismpan-African identityGhana
Type
ARTICLES
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , September 2017 , pp. 183 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adenjunmobi, Moradewun. 2004. “Polyglots, Vernaculars and Global Markets: Variable Trends in West Africa.” Language and Intercultural Communication 4 (3): 159–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Angeloro, Al. 1992. “Back to Africa: The ‘Reverse’ Transculturation of Salsa/Cuban Popular Music.” In Salsiology: Afro-Cuban Music and the Evolution of Salsa in New York City, edited by Boggs, Vernon W., 299–306. New York: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Aparicio, Frances. 1998. Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music and Puerto Rican Cultures. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Barber, Karin, and Waterman, Christopher. 1995. “Traversing the Global and the Local: Fuji Music and Praise Poetry in the Production of Contemporary Yoruba Popular Culture.” In Worlds Apart: Modernity through the Prism of the Local, edited by Miller, Daniel, 241–62. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Berrios-Miranda, Marisol. 2004. “Salsa Music as Expressive Liberation.” Centro Journal 16 (2): 159–73.Google Scholar
Blum, Joseph. 1978. “Problems of Salsa Research.” Ethnomusicology 22 (1): 137–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boggs, Vernon. 1992. Salsiology: Afro-Cuban Music and the Evolution of Salsa in New York City. New York: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Bosse, Joanne. 2008. “Salsa Dance and the Transformation of Style: An Ethnographic Study of Movement and Meaning in a Cross-Cultural Context.” Dance Research Journal 40 (1): 45–64.Google Scholar
Burrell, Jenna, and Anderson, Ken. 2008. “‘I Have Great Desires to Look Beyond My World’: Trajectories of Information and Communication Technology Use Among Ghanaians Living Abroad.” New Media and Society 10 (2): 203–24.Google Scholar
Carwile, Christey. 2016. “From Salsa to Salzonto: Rhythmic Identities and Inventive Dance Tradition in Ghana.” In The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Ethnicity, edited by Shay, Anthony and Sellers-Young, Barbara, 501–27. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chasteen, Charles John. 2004. National Rhythms, African Roots: The Deep History of Latin American Popular Music. Albequerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Clifford, James. 1997. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Collins, John. 1987. “Jazz Feedback to Africa.” American Music 5 (2): 176–93.Google Scholar
Collins, John. 1992. West African Pop Roots. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Collins, John. 2002. “The Generational Factor in Ghanaian Music: Concert Parties, Highlife, Simpa, Kpanlogo, and Local Techno-Pop.” In Playing with Identities in Contemporary Music in Africa, edited by Palmberg, Mai and Kirkegaard, Annemette, 60–74. Stockholm: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Collins, John. 2007. “Pan African Goombay Drum Dance Music: Its Ramifications and Development in Ghana.” Legon Journal of Humanities 18: 179–200.Google Scholar
Condry, Ian. 2006. Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Daniel, Yvonne. 1995. Rumba: Dance and Social Change in Contemporary Cuba. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Daniel, Yvonne. 2002. “Cuban Dance: An Orchard of Caribbean Creativity.” In Caribbean Dance from Abakua to Zouk: How Movement Shapes Identity, edited by Sloat, Susanna, 23–55. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.Google Scholar
Desmond, Jane. 1997. “Embodying Difference: Issues in Dance and Cultural Studies.” In Everynight Life: Culture and Dance in Latin/o America, edited by Delgado, Celeste Fraser and Muñoz, José Esteban, 33–64. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Duany, Jorge. 1984. “Popular Music in Puerto Rico: Toward an Anthropology of Salsa.” Latin American Music Review 5 (2): 186–216.Google Scholar
The Economist . 2008. “The Americas: Selling Rhythm to the World.” March 29.Google Scholar
Garcia, Cindy 2008. “‘Don’t Leave Me Celia!’: Salsera Homosociality and Pan-Latina Corporealities.” Women and Performance 18 (3): 199–213.Google Scholar
Gerard, Charley, and Sheller, Marty. 1989. Salsa! The Rhythm of Latin Music. Crown Point, Ind.: White Cliffs Media.Google Scholar
Gilroy, Paul. 1993. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. 1998. Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.Google Scholar
Hannerz, Ulf. 1987 “The World in Creolisation.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 57 (4): 546–59.Google Scholar
Hannerz, Ulf. 1990. “Cosmopolitans and Locals in World Culture.” In Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity, edited by Featherstone, Mike, 237–51. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Hannerz, Ulf. 1996. Transnational Connections: Culture, People, Places. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Heath, Carla. 1997. “Children’s Television in Ghana: A Discourse about Modernity.” African Affairs 96 (383): 262–75.Google Scholar
Lemvo, Ricardo. 1998. Mambo Yo Yo. Putumayo Records, compact disk. Liner notes.Google Scholar
McCall, John C. 2007. “The Pan Africanism We Have: Nollywood’s Invention of Africa.” Film International 5 (4): 92–97.Google Scholar
Moore, Robin. 1997. Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920–1940. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Nettleford, Rex. 1998. Foreword to African Dance: An Artistic, Historical, and Philosophical Inquiry, edited by Welsh-Asante, Kariamu, xiii–xviii. Trenton, N.J.: African World Press.Google Scholar
Oduro-Frimpong, Joseph. 2009. “Glocalization Trends: The Case of Hiplife in Contemporary Ghana.” International Journal of Communication 3: 1085–1106.Google Scholar
Padilla, Felix. 1990. “Salsa: Puerto Rican and Latino Music.” Journal of Popular Culture 24 (1): 87–104.Google Scholar
Pietrobruno, Sheenagh. 2006. Salsa and Its Transnational Moves. New York: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Primus, Pearl. 1998. “African Dance.” In African Dance: An Artistic, Historical, and Philosophical Inquiry, edited by Welsh-Asante, Kariamu, 3–11. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.Google Scholar
RandBSalsa (blog). 2007. “Africa’s First Salsa Congress: A Wasted Opportunity?” October 17. www.centralslavedance.com.Google Scholar
Roberts, John Storm. 1998. Black Music of Two Worlds: African, Caribbean, Latin and African-American Traditions. 2nd edition. New York: Schirmer.Google Scholar
Roberts, John Storm. 1999. The Latin Tinge: The Impact of Latin American Music on the United States. 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Robertson, Roland. 1995. “Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity.” In Global Modernities , edited by Featherstone, Mike, Lash, Scott, and Robertson, Roland, 25–44. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Sánchez-González, Lisa. 1999. “Reclaiming Salsa.” Cultural Studies 13 (2): 237–50.Google Scholar
Shain, Richard. 2002. “Roots in Reverse: Cubanismo in Twentieth-Century Senegalese Music.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 35 (1): 83–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shain, Richard. 2009. “The Re(Public) of Salsa: Afro-Cuban Music in Fin-De-Siecle Dakar.” Africa 79 (2): 186–206.Google Scholar
Sheppard, Nathaniel Jr. 2007. “The Salsa Explosion: African-Americans Find Roots and Rhythm in Salsa Dancing.” Ebony 62 (8): 182–88.Google Scholar
Shipley, Jesse Weaver. 2012. “The Birth of Ghanaian Hiplife: From Black Styles to Proverbial Speech in African Hip Hop.” In Hip Hop Africa: New African Music in a Globalizing World, edited by Charry, Eric S., 29–56. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Skinner, Jonathan. 2007. “The Salsa Class: A Complexity of Globalization, Cosmopolitans and Emotions.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 14: 1–22.Google Scholar
Thompson, Robert Farris. 2002. “Teaching the People to Triumph over Time: Notes from the World of Mambo.” In Caribbean Dance from Abakuá to Zouk: How Movement Shapes Identity , edited by Sloat, Susanna, 336–44. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.Google Scholar
Valdivia, Angharad. 2003. “Salsa as Popular Culture: Ethnic Audiences Constructing an Identity.” In Companion to Media Studies, edited by Valdivia, Angharad, 399–418. Boston: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Washburne, Christopher. 1995. “Clave: The African Roots of Salsa.” Kalinda! Newsletter for the Center for Black Music Research. Fall.Google Scholar
Waxer, Lise. 2002. Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meaning in Latin American Popular Music. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
White, Bob. 2002. “Congolese Rumba and Other Cosmopolitanisms.” Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 42 (168): 663–86.Google Scholar