At a day-long celebration of the Banda area's rich cultural heritage at the Banda Cultural Centre in Banda-Ahenkro, people from Ahenkro share Nafana songs and dances associated with with girls' puberty rites (Manaa Ndiom) and wedding celebrations (Bijam). The film opens with photos of girls dressed in Manaa Ndiom attire during the 1995 inauguration of the Banda Cultural Centre. A series of songs and dances performed at the 2019 event follows, accompanied by the rhythms of calabash drums, calabash rattles and, in some cases, a wooden drum. The group is joined in the first song by District Chief Executive Mary Konneh who plays calabash rattles and dances. Seated under the shade of the canopy, Afua Donkor demonstrates how to spin cotton while others sing and dance. Young people can be seen using their cell phones to record the action. Many of the Elder women who perform wear locally made strip-woven blue-and-white textiles as skirt wraps. Ahenkro, 28 June, 2019. Length: 00:15:57 minutes.
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
Publisher:
University of Victoria Libraries
Date:
2019-06-28
Subjects:
Performance; Cell phones
Subjects Facet:
Nafana (African people); Dance; Songs; Music; Rites and Ceremonies; Marriage customs and rites; Gourd, Calabash; West African strip weaving; Drums (musical instrument); Rattles; Heritage
Gathered around a table in the Banda Cultural Centre's exhibit hall during a workshop to gauge student interest in learning from heritage resources, University of Ghana Education PhD student Esther Attiogbe talks with a group of Junior High School girls about how women in the area made pottery from locally available clays. The photos of local pottery-making laid out on the table are ones included in the Banda Through Time repository. On shelves behind them are examples of pottery excavated from archaeological sites around the area. Banda Cultural Centre, Ahenkro, 25 June, 2019.
A group of Junior High School boys gather in front of posters on local archaeology in the courtyard of the Banda Cultural Centre as part of a week-long workshop exploring the potential of heritage resources to enrich school learning. Samuel Acquah of the Ghana National Museum's Education Division leads the boys in a conversation what archaeology reveals about local life during the 13th through 15th centuries. Banda Cultural Centre, Ahenkro, 26 June, 2019.
Gathered around a table in the Banda Cultural Centre's exhibit hall during a workshop to gauge interest in using local heritage resources to support classroom learning, several Banda area Junior High School teachers look at images included in the Banda Through Time digital repository. On shelves behind them are examples of pottery excavated from archaeological sites around the area. Banda Cultural Centre, Ahenkro, 26 June, 2019.
Banda Queen Mother Lelԑԑ Akosua Kepefu (blue head scarf) arrives at the Banda Cultural Centre together with members of the royal family on the day of a heritage celebration organized by the Banda Heritage Initiative. Ahenkro, 28 June, 2019.
Men associated with the Kralɔngɔ Royal Palace perform a Nafana version of Kete during a heritage celebration organized by the Banda Heritage Initiative. Several men play flutes and brass rattles that oral histories say were captured from Kulango people. They are accompanied by men playing drums and (left) an iron gong. Ahenkro, 28 June, 2019.
Nafana women play calabash rattles as they sing songs associated with customary puberty and marriage celebrations at a heritage celebration organized by the Banda Heritage Initiative. Two women from Ahenkro are joined (left) by District Chief Executive Mary Komeh (white blouse). Ahenkro, 28 June, 2019.
A Nafana hunter from Fawoman performs a hunter's dance at a heritage celebration organized by the Banda Heritage Initiative. Crouched in front of a pot that was smashed in an earlier dance, he clenches a bundle of leaves in his teeth as he assumes an animal's posture. Ahenkro, 28 June, 2019.
Nafana men from Fawoman perform a hunter's dance at a heritage celebration organized by the Banda Heritage Initiative. Crouched on the ground, the men enact the process of tracking an animal as women sing and men drum in the background. The man in the front holds a gun. Ahenkro, 28 June, 2019.
Nafana potters from Dorbour sit behind a display of their wares during a heritage celebration organized by the Banda Heritage Initiative. Arrayed in front of them are pottery jars of varying size and a single small bowl. Ahenkro, 28 June, 2019.