Rescuing African Dances from Citadels of Annihilation: a Pentagonal Paradigm

The colonial era opened a new phase for deterioration of African dances by compelling (and in some cases coercing local people to lose trust and confidence in these cultural practices). This absurd trend has extended through the postcolonial period. The fears that African dance practices are enmeshed in palisades of profligacy are not a hyperbole. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that some dances have been condemned to the chasm of extinction.  For example, kifuule dance among the Baganda people is no longer performed.  ones that are have managed to survive are struggling to find sanctuary in the ever evolving local and global convolution. This is not want to create an impression that attempts have not been made to preserve and revive some of these art forms. Various efforts have been made by arts organisations, academic institutions, artists, and museums to keep the spirit of these dances alive.  But in most cases, these endeavors have done all but shambled.

The detachment of these art forms from the people (that are supposed to preserve them) has gravely hastened their entombment. The architects of these artistic practices knew that the best library is the people. They entrusted communities to create, preserve and disseminate these practices through performances that organically existed within these communities. Wo/man coexisted with dance and music. The principle was that wherever there is a wo/man there is music and dance; wherever there is dance there is life. Every woman has two beings, her own and the creative being. Every man has two minds, his own and the artistic mind. Every society has two souls, the souls of the community and the soul of art. Every woman carries two wombs, the baby’s womb and the womb of music and dance.

A group of women performing dance in rural Africa. African dances are caught between revisiting their roots or taking unknown new directions. Photo by Holly Mann

The African society has gradually digressed away from this principle. What went wrong? Should we just keep singing requiem songs as this artistic richness is being condemned to mass burial? Can these dance forms be pulled out of the maxillae of degeneration and tendered back to humanity? Or, to paraphrase the African adage, does the calabash on the water even know where the river is heading?

All is not lost. Hope is still looming large. Mother African can still reclaim her womb - dance. This hope borrows legitimacy from a pentagonical model proposed by Mazrui and Ostegard (2002) to address Africa’s challenges in a global age. This model covers five key processes: ‘indigenization, domestication, diversification, horizontal interpenetration, and vertical counter penetration.’ which, if applied to African dance practices, can frontally expedite the revival, survival, and relevance of these dances within globalized contexts. It is to the applicability of these five processes to the revival and survival of African dances that I now turn.

African dances are in search for their indigenous soul. The road to this search is painted with tears of the lost glory. And I say to African dances: ‘Relax, African dances. Relax! For you cannot put on the bones of your former self. But you can gather some flesh for a shadow of your earlier persona.” For African dances to reclaim their earlier persona, indigenization process of dance practices has to be set in motion. Indigenization process for this case will “include greater utilization of indigenous techniques, personnel, and approaches to purposeful change” (Mazrui and Ostegard, 2002, p. 2002). As I noted earlier, communities have left dances to waste away. The process of resurrecting dances should take place in communities where these people live with a people as active players. The different needs these dances once served still exist. Festivals, ceremonies, competitions, and other home-based and community-based occasions need to be rejuvenated. For as long as dance is part of Africa’s histories, stories and heritage it can be indigenized. For as long as communities have histories and heritage they can still indigenize their artistic practices.

Westernization and globalization have tended to overlap in Africa. Be it in social, political, cultural and economic spheres, the two influences have taken foot on the African soil. Should African dances be hostage to westernization and globalization? Domestication of artistic practices can free African dances from this inimicalness. Domestication entails using/applying foreign ideas, paradigms, institutions, and approaches for the benefit of the local communities. University, school, church, dance company, government ministry are all foreign ideas and institutions in Africa. But these institutions can play a pivotal role in stimulating the centrality of African dances in social, cultural, economic and political development. What does a university, school, church, government ministry, Dance Company, tourism center lose by integrating native dances into its core activities? Is it intellectually sacrilegious for an African scholar to study, research about, and teach and wribe about native African dance? Domestication of imported knowledge, concepts and ideas has been done, albeit remotely.  In a number of cases it has played to the gallery of where it is imported from than where it is applied.

Relatedly, we cannot talk of African being part of the global cobweb and ignore diversification as a global process. Diversification involves embracing foreign ideas, knowledge, concepts and institutions and allowing them to exist along side the native ones. African dance scene needs to open up its echelons to other dance forms and artistic experiences. Most importantly, the African dance artist, scholar, learner, educator must learn from these fronts of exposure, with aim to deepen their artistic base. New dance forms have made inroads in Africa, but these dance forms have either been thoughtlessly embraced at the expense of the native ones, or they have been ascetically snubbed in protection of the native ones. Obviously, other dance forms are different in philosophy, structure, purpose, and assumptions underpinning their artistry, but this should not be perceived as a threat to local artistic orientations. Strength is when two forces pull in opposite directions. Global discrepancies whether in favour of ‘Westphilia’ or against Africa can be addressed through co-existence of diverse dance forms and artistic experiences.

The area that should concern all Africans – dance artists and non-dance artists alike is the lack connectivity and artistic corresponded between different African communities. This is a sign that horizontal interpenetration is yet to appear on the African horizon. Even in case of neighbouring countries, there is little or no understanding, exchange and appreciation of dance forms from cultures in these countries. Scanty crossovers exist at the border, and that’s it! Individuals have cross-crossed borders but dance forms have not. The spirit of pan-Africanism has not reverberated in African dance artistry. There is no East Africanisation of West African dance artistry and vice versa. In dance terms, central Central Africa, which lies between East Africa and West Africa, is not even aware that these two neighbors artistically exist. Dance artistry has so far failed to connect Alexandria with the Cape of Good Hope. Is regionalization and continentalization of African dance artistry under siege from globalization and Westernization? Have we drunk too deep of the Western malt and tested too little of African spring?  Arts organisations, academic and research institutions, government ministries, and civil society organizations can stimulate horizontal interpenetration through dance. A university in Malawi can introduce a course in Zambian dances. A South African dance researcher can conduct research and write about dances from the Congos; A Ghanaian national television can host a program about Ethiopian dances; an Egyptian dance company can have Cameroonian dances as part of its repertory.  Dances can be traded in spite of the demographic differences. This will open new frontiers of intra-continental artistic re-organization and new cultural conformations.

Since the colonial period, Africa has been on the receiving end of Eurocentric and Anglo-centric hegemony. It is not farfetched to say that the process of globalization has so far showed signs of one sidedness. The West has penetrated Africa, with very little offered in return. It is not disputable that Africa has experienced some form of modernization. Mazrui and Ostegard (2002) define modernization to “mean change which is consistent with the present stage of human knowledge, which seeks to comprehend the legacy of the past, which is sensitive to the needs of future generations, and which is responsive to its global context” (p. 214). Has African modernization sought to comprehend the legacy or the past? Has it been sensitive to the needs of future generations? Has it responded proportionately to the global context? The dance practices do not seem to suggest so. An analysis of the dance sector reveals that African is still limping in as far as using dance to globalize African experiences is concerned. There is urgent need for vertical counter-penetration. 

African dance practices have to stamp their presence at the courtyards of western and Eastern artistic bastion. The route to globalization should be littered with African dance artistry in areas such as dane research, education, performance, and scholarship. The shadowiness of African dance artistry in the Western and Eastern worlds is a challenge that needs to be urgently and frontally confronted. Where efforts have been made to support, encourage and promote African dance artistry, they need to be buttressed. But mostly importantly, Africa needs to be understood for what it really is. African dances need to be appreciated as dance forms that are deeply grounded in human philosophy and science. These dances firmly rest on a well systematic platform whose pillars are deeply held in human thought and human conscience. African dance stretch beyond just having hunters gather and jump around a dead elephant in the middle of the forest or tribesmen and women just moving and shouting around a very big heap of food harvest.

African dances have been part of African cultures. If culture is a “lens of perception, means of communication, basis of stratification, spring of motivation, standard of judgment, pattern of production and consumption and foundation of identity” (Mazrui and Ostegard, 2002, p.214), then the dilemma of African dances is indubitably a predicament for African cultures. A polygonal approach to salvaging African dances from chains of debauchery is possible for Africa – provided the calabash on the  water gets to know where the river is heading.

How HIV/AIDS and War gave some Legs to the Dance Industry in Uganda

A very good friend of mine in Kampala called me asking about the things that have transformed the dance industry in Uganda. He was left gasping in shock when I mentioned HIV/AIDS and War as the key factors that have altered the dance landscape in Uganda. At first, he thought that I had smoked or sniffed something strong. But as our discussion progressed, he realized that there was some meat in my bizarre response.

Yes, HIV/AIDS has had far reaching consequences on the people of Uganda. It always leaves bitter test in our mouth. Since it was first detected in early 1980s, HIV/AIDS has claimed lives, wiped away villages, and condemned masses to orphanage.  Sadly, it has defiantly refused to vacate center stage. My friend and I had elected not to talk about these things. Both of us have lost our beloved ones to this scourge, and memories of this loss precipitate indignation and despondency. In our good old days, worms would spread into our bottles of beer and glasses of wine each time we chose to open this HIV/AIDS can.

And for this pain, HIV/AIDS should be condemned and cursed. But this should not blindfold us not to recognize the changes it has had on the social and cultural milieu. One can argue that, possibly, the dance industry would not be what it is now had it not been for HIV/AID. HIV/AIDS paved way for emergence of a recognizable number of dance troupes in Uganda. But the most significant contribution is that it marked beginning of orphanage-troupe model of running dance business.

Most traditional dance troupes started as orphanages, offering services to children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. AIDS created a certain category of labour for dance.  These children were willing to learn and stage dance and music performances in exchange of accommodation, education, healthcare and other services. The Chinese saying tells us that a wise wo/man sees an opportunity in a crisis, while a foolish one sees problems in an opportunity. The directors and proprietors of traditional dance troupes heeded the first part of this Chinese apothegm: they poked a hole of opportunities in the HIV/AIDS cobweb.

HIV/AIDS scourge and the agony that comes with it changed people’s thinking about traditional dances. People stopped viewing traditional dances as something that hunters perform somewhere in the forest around a carcass of a speared elephant. They stopped seeing ethnic dances as an activity that is only performed to appease gods, deities, spirits, and traditional leaders and elders. A new philosophy emerged – a philosophy that considered dance as a service that can be offered to support, rehabilitate and transform those in need. And the end users/beneficiaries/clients (orphans) were floating around in abundance seeking out for this support.

This simplified recruitment for orphanage-troupes. A person would just walk into a village and pick orphans, get them together into an orphanage, and train them as performers. But these recruits needed to eat, to be accommodated, and to be educated. This required money – a lot of it. The idea then was to make the recruits perform on different occasions – weddings, seminars, conferences, and international festivals to raise money. An internal interplay between an orphanage and a commercial troupe slowly took shape to take care of the economic demands of this arrangement.

This orphanage-troupe interplay is also visible on the international scene when troupes go for tours in Europe and America. The exportation of traditional dances is more colored in a humanitarian and charity agenda than artistic mission. Often times, the dances that are performed are accompanied by the sad and touching stories of how the performers have been pounded by the HIV/AIDS scourge, and more dollars euros and pounds are thrown into the envelope.

Like HIV/AIDS, the footsteps of war can be traced in the dance industry. We can excuse HIV/AID for whatever it has visited on humanity, but we cannot excuse war. Yes, we can excuse HIV/AIDS because it is a natural consequence. You cannot refuse wo/man from having sex. If you did, s/he would throw everything, including the kitchen utensils, at you. But war is borne out of wo/man’s madness. As Nelson Mandela noted, war is one of man-made problems. The demons of war have been making rounds in the great lakes region and squarely competing with HIV/AIDS in claiming millions of lives.

Because wars have caused forced migration, dances and music traditions have crossed tribal and geographic boarder as a result. For the case of Uganda, the northern insurgency and other armed conflicts in the entire great lakes region that have lasted for more than 20 years led to exodus of dance and music traditions to different parts of the country. Some dancers in  troupes migrated with their cultural music and dance, joined and performed with and for troupes to access education, accommodation and other forms of welfare.

Dancers performing Larakaraka courtship dance from Acholi people of Northern Uganda at Ndere center, Kampala. Courtesy photo.

This trend flouted the idea that traditional dances belonged to regional tribes and sub-tribes; cultures became open and got exposed to new artistic experiences. The advent of inter-tribal and inter-regional artistic and cultural dynamic, with orphanage-troupes as centers of this exchange, appeared on the horizon. There are people in central Uganda who had never seen dances from the greater north who started interacting with these new cultural experiences. Within dance troupes, performers from different tribes started learning different music and dance forms from one another.

Migration of music and dance traditions as a result of war spilled beyond national border. It is after the Rwandan genocide and Burundian war in 1990s that Uganda witnessed the influx of dancers and drummers from Rwanda and Burundi, respectively. Some of these immigrant performers have made a fortune in Uganda that they forgot all about home.

The traditional dance orphanage-troupe model owes some of its legs to HIV/AIDS and war. But this model has posed a challenge. A number of dance troupes are stuck with this standard and have failed move on. Over-reliance on funding and charity has thwarted possibilities of elevating these dance troupes into fully-fledged and self-sustaining economic ventures.

This does not take away the fact that HIV/AID and war have pushed the dance industry this far. We can say whatever we want about the HIV/AIDS and War, but when the sun goes to rest the dance practitioners will sit down and say that HIV/AIDS and war taught them how to turn on different lights. 

Alfdaniels Mabingo is a Fulbright Fellow at New York University