Onua Kwabena:
Your assertion about the place of African History and African Studies brings to mind the handling of African History and African Studies on the African continent as well as on Black (or HBCU) campuses in the USA. Back in Africa, many of us, as youngsters, knew more about European and other non-African history topics than about our own African history. When the ubiquitous West African Examinations Council (WAEC) introduced "picture description" and general paper" as part of some final exams in the 1960s, most of the photos and topical issues, on which examination questions were based, were drawn from European, North American and Asian sources; I very well remember silk worm being one of the photos!
In fact, when I completed my studies at NYU in order to start my first teaching job in the early 1980s in history and also to direct an honors program (which is now a college) on an HBCU campus in Louisiana, I found out, to my dismay, that we had several topical history classes to teach in the areas of World Civilization, European history, Caribbean history and even Mexican history. I asked the Academic Affairs office why our Black campus did not have a single course in African history. I was immediately summoned to a high-level academic meeting, at which the Academic Affairs Vice-President informed me that major U.S. granting institutions and organizations (serving as funding sources with respect to major grants and fellowships for educational institutions) often frowned on academic programs, which have Black or African History listings on their course syllabuses (or syllabi). Although I insisted and, with support of a few radical Black colleagues, I was able to establish African history courses (including Cross-Atlantic Slavery and Comparative Slavery), I as well bid my time and later left that campus for a larger institution on the West Coast, where I could teach a variety of history courses, including African history and Black Studies courses. That was in the 1980s! Interesting, isn't it?
A.B. Assensoh.
Sent: Friday, August 3, 2018 12:27 PM
To: Assensoh, Akwasi B.; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: rigodan@yahoo.com; Godwin Ohiwerei; doyinck@gmail.com; Nana Amoah; nana lamptey; Dawn; hiddrisu@uoregon.edu; ampene@umich.edu; andohs1@southernct.edu; Kanko, Cynthia; Obeng, Samuel Gyasi; Obeng, Cecilia Sem; Ford, T Michael; afaugustine@yahoo.com; noahkankam@gmail.com; Nana Bema KUMI; adomako@gmail.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African drumming and dancing
Sent: August 3, 2018 10:02 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: kaparry@hotmail.com; rigodan@yahoo.com; Godwin Ohiwerei; doyinck@gmail.com; Nana Amoah; nana lamptey; Dawn; hiddrisu@uoregon.edu; ampene@umich.edu; andohs1@southernct.edu; Kanko, Cynthia; Obeng, Samuel Gyasi; Obeng, Cecilia Sem; Ford, T Michael; afaugustine@yahoo.com; noahkankam@gmail.com; Nana Bema KUMI; adomako@gmail.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African drumming and dancing
Onua Kwabena:
Thank you very much for your thought! In fact, your brief mention of the very useful "tome of works" by University of Ghana/UCLA Emeritus Professor Joseph Hanson (J.H.) Kwabena Nketia -- largely ethno-musicological in content -- reminds me of a very timely book, which confirms your assertion about Emeritus Professor Nketia. In my foreword to Indiana University Visiting Assistant Professor Nana Abena Amoah-Ramey's book, Female Highlife Performers in Ghana: Expression, Resistance, and Advocacy (Lexington Books, 2018), I did recall my trip from the U.S. to Ghana mainly to interview Dr. Nketia at his Accra home in order to learn, first hand, several aspects of his musical output and genius that I was expected to comment on, to an extent, as I endeavored to complete my foreword to the new book.
I am happy to note that, upon its examination, a reader will find out that Dr. Amoah-Ramey's treatise most certainly gives more than adequate epistemological nuance (or sites) to African musical voices, which have been dovetailed by/with extensive Pan-African bibliographic musical/dance and historical sources. I very highly recommend this fine book, which is expertly praised, in blurbs, by two very well-known dance-cum-music (musicology) scholars from Africa, Professors Kwasi Ampene of University of Michigan (author of Female Song Tradition and the Akan of Ghana: The Creative Process in Nnwonkoro, Routledge 2005) and Habib Iddrisu of University of Oregon, who is a traditionally-trained dancer and historian from the famous Bizing Family of court historians and musicians of Ghana's Dagamba/Dagomba ethnic group.
Coincidentally, Drs. Ampene, Iddrisu and Amoah-Ramey have had very substantive intellectual relationships, on different occasions, with Emeritus Professor Nketia, whose seminal published works include, The Music of Africa (Norton, 1974) and African Music in Ghana (Northwestern University Press, 1963).
A.B. Assensoh.
Sent: Thursday, August 2, 2018 4:57 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African drumming and dancing
Sent: August 1, 2018 1:25 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - African drumming and dancing
Abstract -
African drumming and dancing (ADD) improves self-consciousness, reflexivity and heightens attentiveness.
Dance and rhythm are composed of multiple steps in time and space. Learning each beat/dance step
separately focuses attention on specific body parts like the arms, neck, feet and spinal column.
This increases self-consciousness and by extension improves the quality of life.
The meta-theory of the study is Richard Shusterman's somaeastics -
understanding of the body as formable and a place of "sensory aesthetic appreciation".
Body, mind and culture constitute the basis of both conscious/unconscious, actions/reactions.
Therefore, to maximize human potential requires increased consciousness of body and feeling.
The basic empirical material is interviews with practitioners of ADD in Sweden.
The study found ADD-exercises engage physically, mentally and emotionally.
Experiences like the feeling of strong commitment or responsiveness cultivated through these drills are
transferable to other areas of daily life such as to improve relationship with family and friends,
coworkers and other social contexts.
Keywords: Self-consciousness, body, soul, culture, drums, dance, experience, mindfulness
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