Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T14:36:07.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Power and Responsibility: Royalty and the Performing Arts in Asante-Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2021

Kwasi Ampene Open the ORCID record for Kwasi Ampene [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In all Akan polities, ancestral Black Stools, which belong to the matriclan, are the source of political power and legitimize kingship. Due to the sacred and exclusive nature of stool rituals, Ampene argues that it is the performing arts which define and enhance the power of rulers in the public domain. This ethnographic narrative of the 2014 Grand Worship provides a rare opportunity for the performing arts to project the power and responsibility of the Asantehene when he participates in musical performances and dances.

Résumé

Résumé

Dans tous les régimes politiques Akan, les tabourets noirs ancestraux qui appartiennent au matriclan sont la source du pouvoir politique et légitiment de la royauté. En raison de la nature sacrée et exclusive des rites de tabourets, Ampene soutient que ce sont les arts du spectacle qui définissent et renforcent le pouvoir des dirigeants dans le domaine public. Ce récit ethnographique du Grand Culte de 2014, offre une rare occasion aux arts du spectacle de projeter le pouvoir et la responsabilité de l’Asantehene lorsqu’il participe à des performances musicales et de danses.

Resumo

Resumo

Em todos os regimes Akan, os Tamboretes Negros ancestrais, que pertencem aos clãs matriarcais, são a fonte de poder político e legitimam a realeza. Devido à natureza sagrada e exclusiva dos rituais relacionados com os tamboretes, Ampene defende que as artes performativas são o meio através do qual o poder dos governantes é definido e enaltecido na arena pública. Esta narrativa etnográfica da Grande Veneração de 2014 demonstra que se trata de uma rara oportunidade para que as artes performativas projetem o poder e a responsabilidade do Asantehene, quando ele participa em performances musicais e em danças.

Keywords

performing arts and powermusic and danceAkanAsanteAsanteheneGhanaAfrican musicologyethnomusicology
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 64 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 523 - 546
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association

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

Agawu, Kofi. 2003. Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, and Positions . London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Agawu, Kofi. 2016. The African Imagination in Music . New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190263201.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ampene, Kwasi. 2005. Female Song Tradition and the Akan of Ghana: The Creative Process in Nnwonkorɔ . Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Ampene, Kwasi. 2020. Asante Court Music and Verbal Arts in Ghana: The Porcupine and the Gold Stool . London: Routledge.10.4324/9780429340628CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ampene, Kwasi, and IIINyantakyi, Nana Kwadwo 2016. Engaging Modernity: Asante in the Twenty-First Century . Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing.10.3998/maize.14689915.0001.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arhin, Kwame. 1983. “Rank and Class Among the Asante and Fante in the Nineteenth Century.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 53 (1): 2–22.10.2307/1159771CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Askew, Kelly M. 2002. Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Averill, Gage. 1997. A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey: Popular Music and Power in Haiti . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226032931.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berliner, Paul F. 1978. The Soul of Mbira: Music and Traditions of the Shona People of Zimbabwe . Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bowdich, T.E. 1819. Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee . London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Charry, Eric, ed. 2012. Hip Hop Africa: New African Music in a Globalizing World . Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Msia Kibona. 2018. Hip-Hop in Africa: Prophets of the City and Dustyfoot Philosophers . Athens: Ohio University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, Peter. 1996. “Music in a Uganda Court.” Early Music 24 (3): 439–52.10.1093/em/24.3.439CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dave, Nomi. 2014. “The Politics of Silence: Music, Violence and Protest in Guinea.” Ethnomusicology 58 (1): 1–29.10.5406/ethnomusicology.58.1.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djedje, Jacqueline C. 2008. Fiddling in West Africa: Touching the Spirit in Fulbe, Hausa, and Dagbamba Cultures . Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison . New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Fynn, John Kofi. 1982. “Introduction.” Tarikh 7 (2): 1–7.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Michelle. 1987. “The Person of the King: Ritual and Power in a Ghanaian State.” In Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies,” edited by Canadine, David and Price, S., 298–330. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Michelle. 1989. “Sources of Power in Akuropon-Akuapem: Ambiguity in Classification.” In Creativity of Power: Cosmology and Action in African Societies , edited by Arens, W. and Karp, Ivan, 59–90. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Michelle. 1994. “Aesthetic Strategies: The Politics of a Royal Ritual.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 64 (1): 99–125.10.2307/1161096CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilman, Lisa. 2009. The Dance of Politics: Gender, Performance, and Democratization in Malawi . Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Guilbaut, Jocelyne. 1993. Zouk: World Music in the West Indies . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Barbara G. 2017. “The Roles of the Griot in the Future of Mali: A Twenty-First-Century Institutionalization of a Thirteenth-Century Traditional Institution.” African Studies Review 60 (1): 101–22.10.1017/asr.2017.8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaji, Tsitsi Ella. 2014. Africa in Stereo: Modernism, Music, and Pan-African Solidarity . Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199936373.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kafumbe, Damascus. 2018. Tuning the Kingdom: Kawuugulu Musical Performance, Politics, and Storytelling in Buganda . Rochester: University of Rochester Press.Google Scholar
Kyerematen, A.A.Y. 1964. Panoply of Ghana: Ornamental Art in Ghanaian Tradition and Culture . New York: Frederick A. Praeger.Google Scholar
Kyerematen, A.A.Y.. 1966. Ashanti Royal Regalia: Their History and Functions .” PhD dissertation, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Maultsby, Portia K. 1990. “Africanisms in African American Music.” In Africanisms in American Culture , edited by Holloway, Joseph E.. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T.C. 1980. “Time and the Calendar in Nineteenth-Century Asante: An Exploratory Essay.” History in Africa (7): 179–200.10.2307/3171661CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskie, T.C.. 1989. “Death and the Asantehene: A Historical Meditation.” The Journal of African History 30 (3): 417–44.10.1017/S0021853700024464CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskie, T.C.. 2007. “Denkyira in the Making of Asante c. 1660–1720.” Journal of African History (48): 1–25.10.1017/S0021853706002507CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLeod, M. D. 1981. The Asante . London: British Museum Publications.Google Scholar
Monts, Lester P. 1984. “Dance in the Vai Sande Society.” African Arts 17 (4): 53–95.10.2307/3336158CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nketia, J.H. Kwabena. 1963. Drumming in Akan Communities of Ghana . New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons.Google Scholar
Nketia, J.H. Kwabena. 1974. Ayan . Accra-Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
Nketia, J.H. Kwabena. 1987. “Asante Court Music.” In The Golden Stool: Studies of the Asante Center and the Periphery , edited by Schildkrout, Enid, Vol. 65, 200–208. New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History.Google Scholar
Nooshin, Laudan. 2009. “Prelude: Power and the Play of Music.” In Music and the Play of Power in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia , edited by Nooshin, Laudan, 1–31. Surrey, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Ntarangwi, Mwenda. 2016. The Street is My Pulpit: Hip Hop and Christianity in Kenya . Urbana: University of Illinois Press.10.5406/illinois/9780252040061.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Omojola, Bode. 2012. Yorùbá Music in the Twentieth Century: Identity, Agency, and Performance Practice . Rochester: University of Rochester Press.Google Scholar
Osei, Osafo K. 1997. Discourse on Akan Perpetual Calendar. Accra, Ghana: Domak Press Ltd.Google Scholar
Owusu, Portia. 2020. Spectres From the Past: Slavery and the Politics of History in West African and African-American Literature . New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Patton, Sharon F. 1979. “The Stool and Asante Chieftaincy.” African Arts 13 (1): 74–99.10.2307/3335615CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Randall, Annie J. ed. 2005. Music, Power, and Politics. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ross, Doran H. 2002. Gold of the Akan from the Glassell Collection . Houston, Texas: The Museum of Fine Arts.Google Scholar
Sarpong, Peter. 1971. The Sacred Stools of the Akan . Ghana: Ghana Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
Turino, Thomas. 2000. Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226816968.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veal, Michael. 2000. Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon . Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Wilks, Ivor. 1979. “The Golden Stool and the Elephant Tail: An Essay on Wealth in Asante.” In Research in Economic Anthropology (2) 1–36.Google Scholar