Self-Decoration and Religious Power in Dangme Culture u

I find it extremely painful to write of Arnold Rubin, who was a friend, a father figure, and a teacher. When I first met Arnold in 1979 at the start of my graduate studies, I knezv immediately that I had reached a turning point in my career. From a modest beginning, I have grown academically (and am still growing) not only because of self-improvement but because of Arnold's untiring guidance and, at times, chastisement. The memory of Arnold still challenges me to pltrslte the academic ideals he stood for. His was an inexorable pursuit of knowledge and a constant search for excellence. His rich imagination and his constant probing into the most obscure art forms has made African art studies fuller and more mature. For him, no aspect of Africa11 art was too insignificant. It is from this standpoint that I dedicate this study of the little-known art of the Dangme to him.

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n The Decorated Body, Robert Brain writes: "The decorated body may become a shrine, a canvas with religious and moral meaning. For us, for whom the physical body has always been a source of fears and sin, the flesh a weakness rather than a strength, it is difficult to comprehend the idea of a skin painted, tattooed or scarified in praise of a god" (1979:166). For the Dangme of southern Ghana, human encounters with the spirit world entail a variety of bodily ornamentation of which skin painting is only an aspect. Among the Dangme, dress and ornamentation of the human body for religious purposes (he dra mo) encompasses clothing, beads, and patterns applied to the skin. These elements are perceived as ensembles, and their symbolisms ultimately derive from how they are combined in use. Here I examine the forms and meanings of these modes of bodily enhancement in Dangme social organization and their relationship to Dangme cosmology.

Arnold was an artist, but as a molder of minds. For him, to teach zvas to nurture, and to nurture was to subject students to a regimen that challenged the intellect. I am indebted to him, as many of his other students are, for this experience. As the only African student to train under him, it behooves me to train other Africans with the same rigor. I have expressed my gratitude to him by keeping a promise I made when he was on his deathbed: to name my first son Rubin Odartey Quarcoopome.

The Dangme people live in the eastern Accra plain of southern Ghana in West Africa. Fishing is the dominant occupation among the coastal populations, but the inland groups who live on the southern slopes of the Akwapim ridge north of the Accra plain practice farming. Several Akan and Guan peoples such as Akwapim and Larteh live beyond these hills. East of the Dangme across the Volta River are Ewe peoples, and to their west the Ga, who reside predominantly in Ghana's capital city, Accra (Field 1961; Manoukian 1950). The Dangme, like their Ga neighbors, speak a language belonging to the eastern Kwa family of the Niger-Congo linguistic stock (Westermann 1970; KroppDakubu 1982). The Dangme and the Ga share other cultural features as well, including social and political organization (Manoukian 1950; Field 1940, 1961). Most Dangme live in small, dispersed villages. Others populate seven large towns in southern Ghana. Each of these towns forms the core of one of the seven principal Dangme subgroups, or what are now referred to as "traditional areas." These are Kpone, Prampram (Gbugbla), Ningo, Ada, Dodowa (Shai), Osudoku, and Krobo. Each major town has several dependent or satellite villages that maintain ancestral links with it. It is in a principal town that one often finds the seat of traditional political authority, important religious shrines, and the most intense ritual performances.

Art and Ritual Life The art of Dangme peoples is among the least studied in West Africa, perhaps because, on the whole, their villages produce little sculpture. In the past, artists carved wooden dolls and pro-

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1 PRIESTESS OF AN IMPORTED DEITY PERFORMING A RITUAL DANCE HER FACE IS PAINTED WITH MUD OLD NINGO: 1988

duced textiles, but they no longer do so (Field 1%1:162; Cole & Ross 1977: fig. 221; Anquandah 19821.1 Today, the Dangme attribute small wooden figurative carvings found in their shrines to the Ewe. It is perhaps this lack of a well-defined sculptural tradition that prompted William Bascom's remark that the art of the Dangme and their Ga and Ewe neighbors is "undeveloped" (Bascom 197377). Yet, other evidence shows that Bascom made this comment out of a limited view of what constitutes art in Africa. During fieldwork among the Dangme people between 1986 and 1989, I encountered other art forms2 among them a vibrant body arts tradition that included elaborate body painting, beadwork, coiffure, and costume. These modes of self-decoration were periodic and transient, often coinciding with annual religious festivals. In addition, because most were perishable, Dangme body arts probably eluded the notice of earlier researchers. Another reason for the paucity of data on body art may be that earlier researchers were never in the area when the important rituals involving self-decoration took place. Lastly, Dangme religious art in general is characterized by a minimal aesthetic that avoids color, elaboration, and materials of economic value. In this respect, ritual dress sharply contrasts with the displayoriented art of Akan priests associated, for instance, with the royal courts of Asante in Ghana (Cole & Ross 1977). Because it is so understated, it could easily have been overlooked. To the intensely conservative Dangme, the reenactment of long-held traditional practices (kusumi) is an honorable activity. Older dress forms, including distinctive bead bracelets, headgear, and body painting, which are integral to kusumi, convey a sense of ethnic pride. By its very nature, the Dangme priest2. PRIESTESS OF AN EWE DEITY. HER FACE DECORATED WlTH CHARCOAL AND MUD. DANCING AT A KINGSHIP RITUAL. OLD NINGO. 1988.

3. PRIESTESS OF AN ABODO, OR MINOR DEITY. AT LEFT. HER BODY IS DECORATED WlTH WAW PARALLEL LINES PAINTED IN CHALK. PRAMPRAM. 1987.

hood, particularly its female wing, protects and reenacts kusumi. In many of the old towns, it is priestesses who exhibit a commitment to perpetuating old artistic forms. Thus, religious self-decoration is primarily a female art. According to one view, in many African societies, older fashions in dress survive "principally and solely in ritual contexts" (Sieber 197212). This is true of the Dangme, for what they consider to

5 SENIOR PRIESTESS OF LALUE WlTH THE DOUBLE-LINE MOTIF ON HER FACE AND BODY. PRAMPRAM. 1 9 8 9 .

4. PRIEST OF THE EARTH GODDESS LALUE WlTH THE DOUBLE-LINE MOTIF PAINTED ON HIS BODY FOR THE KPLEDZO FESTIVAL PRAMPRAM, EARLY 1 9 6 0 s

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be ancestral dress is reserved exclusively for the most important seasonal ceremonies, which are tied to the cycle of life. Thus, ritual self-decoration is a living art of fundamental significance. One of the most intensely celebrated seasonal functions is the annual festival, when the gods are collectively worshiped. Every year, commercial activityAgrindsto a halt for this event in each vrincival town. Such a festival often at'tracts'outsiders whose ancestral origins can be traced to that town. A pilgrimage back to one's ancestral town is a reaffirmation of one's Dangme identity. Names of these yearly ceremonies, like Jange-do ("the dance of the lagoon god called Jange"), held at Ningo town, and Kpledzo ("the dance of the Kple deities"), celebrated at Prampram town, suggest that such ritual performances signal the manifestations of spirits. Throughout Africa, percussion is an important ingredient in transitional ceremonies (Needham 1967; Turner 1968). Dangme annual festivals, which also mark the end and beginning of ritual cycles, are characterized by ecstatic ceremonies that include intense music produced with drums, gongs, and bamboo

6 THE DOUBLE-LINE MOTIF DRAWN IN CHALK IN THE RITUAL ARENA PRAMPRAM, EARLY 1 9 6 0 s

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sticks. The annual festivals also provide the context for the display of important beads, headgear, costume, and skin painting, which together honor the spirits. At the conclusion of these activities, some art forms cease to exist, only to be revived the following year. Others, particularly durable items such as clothing and jewelry, go back into storage to await the following year's celebration. Thus, the wearing of the art parallels the briefness of the encounter between humans and spirits. Art and performance are intertwined. For unknown reasons, scholars have often overlooked religious dress in favor of music and dance. Anthropological

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studies of the Dangme (and the Ga) reflect a lack of understanding of the interdependence of the visual arts and ritual activity. Many ignore body art while emphasizing instead the drama of ritual (Field 1937; Kilson 1978).Margaret Field's fragmentary references to body decoration appear to be incidental to her research; she focuses primarily on Ga religious beliefs and practices (Field 1937). Only Hugo Huber provides descriptions of body art among the Krobo.3 Even then, as detailed as his study seems, he makes few references to other Dangme subgroups. Overall, we still lack an articulated exploration of selfdecoration among the Dangme. Ornamentation of the body for ceremonial purposes is integral to Dangme social and political life. All of the elements of religious dress are worn by priestesses during the annual festival, and some may also be featured in transitional rites, including girls' puberty ceremonies and the installation of chiefs. It is perhaps the transforming nature of body art that explains these multiple uses (Cordwell 1980). Dangme religious dress thus conveys significant values and meanings, and a systematic study of it may lead to a better understanding of their culture.

Religion and Society The role of religion as an organizing principle in social and political life is perhaps the most pronounced attribute of Dangme culture. Religious life revolves around the patrilineal clans (wetso), which constitute the primary basis of social organization. A wetso

7.SHRINE TO DIGBLE. THE SEA GOD, WITH STAFFS. BROOMS. AND A STOOL DECORATED WlTH PAINTED CHALK. PRAMPRAM. 1989.

consists of many subclans called kasi, each comprising a number of individual households (we) and claiming descent from one putative male ancestor (Huber 1963:25-29). Members of the kasi often worship their own specific deities, which may be indigenous or foreign, depending on the historical origins of the clan. However, the annual festival focuses on the worship of the major deities. The Dangme believe in a Supreme Being, Mawu. They also acknowledge the existence of lesser gods who manifest themselves in natural phenomena such as rivers, lagoons, seas, and mountains. The Dangme emphasize their worship because, unlike Mawu, they are considered to be unpredictable and capricious in their relations with humans and therefore require constant appeasement through ritual (Field 1961; Huber 1963:274). The divinities are classified by the Dangme into major or minor deities. The major deities, or dzernawoi (sing. dzemawo), of which there are only a few, comprise the oldest gods.4 There are two categories of major gods, the Kple and the Klama. Klama comprises the indigenous Dangme deities, while Kple encompasses chthonic gods taken over from an aboriginal people of the Accra plain called the Guan, whom the Dangme either dislodged or assimilated. Guan religious music and dance have therefore become an integral element of Dangme culture (Nketia 1958, 1964; KroppDakubu 1983). In addition to the Kple and Klama gods, the Dangme also worship a large number of minor deities, wodzi (sing. WO). A wo usually refers to a tutelary deity of a lineage, a clan, or sometimes a non-Dangme immigrant group in a village or town (Huber 1963:238).5These minor deities range in character from abodo, or dwarf spirits (fairies)borrowed from neighboring Akan cultures, to protective spirits enshrined in clay figures (legba) of Ewe origin. This religious pluralism reflects the complex history of settlement in the Accra plain. The fact that Kple and Klama deities are associated with early Dangme society means that they also figure in the historical origins of towns. In many of the principal towns, a particular Kple or Klama deity may be worshiped as a patron god, as in the cases of Jange, the lagoon deity of Old Ningo town, and the sea god DigbIe and earth goddess Lalue of Prampram town. Thus, a typical annual festival reenacts communal history while at the same time celebrating the chief gods.

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Each of the Kple and Klama deities has its own center of worship in a parent town or village, where it has an elaborate shrine. There one encounters an organized community of priests and priestesses of a particular deity. A priest or priestess who emigrates from a center of worship must endeavor to set up a subsidiary shrine for his or her tutelary deity wherever he or she settles. In this way, worship of many major gods cuts across communal boundaries (Huber 1963:238). The division of the gods into major and minor represents only a small aspect of a more complex classification. In Dangme theology, the spirit world replicates human society. Deities can therefore be either male or female, have clan or family affiliation, and may have spouses or children. Religious self-decoration not only gives visual expression to these distinctions in gender, but also suggests rank and social position among the gods. Rosato (1968) examines metaphors of hierarchy in a Mayan religious ceremony. For the Dangme, similar metaphors are encapsulated in aspects of dress that signify the social positions of priests and priestesses. The religious attire of Dangme priests and priestesses reinforces well-known differentiations in status; affiliation with a particular deity imposes a specific code of ceremonial dress and self-decoration. Hugo Huber states, for instance, that "the won0 (chief priest), and to a minor degree also the woyo (priestess),is clearly marked in dress and outward appearance" (1963:240). It is noteworthy that strictures governing ritual dress are dictated by gods, not humans, which makes them irrevocable and immutable.

Dangmes say that not all religious dress forms seem beautiful to them. Yet they are obligated to wear them. For a priestess, dressing up for a ritual occasion is an expression of faith in and a glorification of her deity. Body decoration gives the individual a spiritual identity. It is a method by which a person prepares his or her body for spiritual possession. Accordingly, priestess of the thunder god Tsawe in Prampram, Leekai Addico, asserted that "to decorate one's self for a ritual occasion is to celebrate a g o d (interview, Oct. 1989).

Body Painting Dangme body art includes many forms of painted chalk designs. This is predominantly a female art; except for those of the highest rank, priests rarely paint their skin. On important ceremonial occasions, it is common to see priestesses decorating their bodies with chalk solutions, vegetable mixtures, and ground charcoal. The preparation of the body for a public ritual performance is an intense experience. Applying the designs can take several hours. Sometimes a medium will fall into a trance to reveal how a particular god wishes her priestess to be decorated. But other times, a priestess simply follows accepted norms of adornment that stipulate the likes and dislikes of her specific deity. Chalk paintings and geometric drawings on the body may be the most basic expressions of a priestess's spiritual orientation. The simplest form of designs painted on the body for ritual purposes consists of monochrome powder solutions applied to the upper torso and face. White is the most common pig-

'RAMPRAM. 1989.

ment; others, such as imported blue powder, may be employed along with mud (Fig. 1). At a kingship ritual in the town of Old Ningo in 1988, one priestess of a minor deity had her face painted, half with ocher-colored mud and half with charcoal (Fig. 2). According to my informants, this design indicated the Ewe origin of the deity. At the same ritual, wearing a raffia skirt, a male devotee of an Akan god was also decorated with mud on his upper torso. I was told that when dressed in that fashion, each devotee of Akan deities fell into a trance, displaying abnormal forms of behavior-"a state of dissociated personality," according to Field (1969). They displayed some attributes of their deities, for example, walking like animals sacred to that particular god. Their actions were believed to be controlled by the possessing spirit, and

they were often addressed by, and responded to, the names of their respective deities. Thus, a decorated devotee became the corporeal equivalent of the spirit. Art and dance act as vehicles for this transformation. The most dramatic body designs comprised horizontal parallel lines in wavy or chevron patterns. Priestesses applied these linear motifs on the upper torso and the lower legs. At Prampram, where the tradition seemed strongest, these patterns are the hallmarks of lower-ranked deities such as "dwarf spirits," abodo (Fig. 3). Those who worship abodo exhibited the same kinds of possession fits described above. Many priestesses told me that their assistants painted the designs onto their bodies after the god had expressed, through divination or possession, how it wished to be dressed.

Dangme priests and priestesses considered these elaborately painted motifs to be less efficacious than a simple double-line motif. The latter design only occurred on the bodies of senior priestesses serving the major Kple and Klama gods (Figs. 4, 5). Before applying this simple chalk motif, they coated their skins with merreh or meme, a dark greenish vegetable pomade used for embalming corpses (Adjei 1943; Huber 196368). Because of meme's use in mortuary rites, its application implied spiritual death, even though some priestesses insisted that their use of meme differed from the way corpses were treated with the substance. If spiritual death was intended, then the predominant use of white chalk (ayilo) to create patterns on the body would suggest a transformation, as chalk symbolizes life. Religious festivals closed one year and ushered in a new one, just as the decorating process itself was believed to revitalize a priestess's spiritual bond with her deity. Thus, spiritual death of the corporeal would be followed by new life in the spirit. For priests and priestesses, the parallel-line motif marked an individual as a "child of a deity (Huber 1963: pl. 10).Before the Dangme borrowed aspects of chiefship from their Akan neighbors in the nineteenth century, priests held political power in most Dangme societies. Dangme chiefs have long validated their political authority by obtaining certain religious symbols. The doubleline motif painted in chalk could be the most significant priestly symbol associated with political office in Dangme culture today. During a typical installment of a new chief, a kingmaker (one who supervises the ritual of enstoolment) repeatedly dips two fingers into a mixture of ground white chalk (ayilo) and water. Each time, he draws the parallelline motif on a part of the candidate's body: on the center of the forehead, on the cheeks, from each shoulder down to the back of the hand, and on the feet. Parts of the human anatomy have been known to carry tremendous symbolic meaning in Dangme cosmology. Thus the application of this motif to specific areas of the body suggests an investment of some kind of spiritual power. This impression was confirmed in my October 1989 interview of the kingmaker of the Kabiawe clan, Nene Hargo Taffa of Old Ningo town. Hargo Taffa explained the significance of the motif: "When you marked a new chief in that way, all who saw him would recognize him as KO nomlo [one to be feared and respected]. This was because once the

TOP: 9. THREE PRIESTESSESWEARING JEWELRY WADE OF BLACK AND WHITE BEADS (NYOLI AND TOVI). WINYA. NEAR OLD NINGO, 1988 BOTTOM- 10. NECKLACE OF NYOLIAND TOVI.

Digble, who was also Prampram's patron god, drew the pattern on designated spots within the ritual grounds and along a path leading to the sacred grove of the deity (Fig. 6). In addition, all religious relics in the shrine to Digblestools, brooms, and staffs-were similarly marked (Fig. 71.6 Before applying the white chalk (ayilo) marks, two Prampram priestesses washed the stools belonging to Digble and the earth goddess Lalue and then painted them, first with the embalming agent meme, and then with the reddish camwood pigment called tun. This artistic process reinforces the idea of transformation embodied in the use of meme. In ritual circles, Dangme people use the phrase "tun ke ayilo" over and over, which implies that its meaning must be of fundamental relevance to the encounter with spirits. The phrase denotes the inseparability of the red or earthy color of tun and the white color of ayilo. Red and white embody both misfortune and good fortune, danger and purity. Their use in the same context probably symbolizes the dangers inherent in liminality that is commonly associated with most rites of passage (Turner 1964). To the Dangme, ambivalence or uncertainty characterizes the manifestation of divinities. The wide use of the parallel-line motif defines it as part of a core religious ideology that, considering the conservatism of Dangme priesthood, may survive for a long time. Its multiple contexts--on the human body, on arti-

chief received the marks, he stood in place of the gods, and all things, both spiritual and physical, were subject to him." Hargo Taffa conceded that the ayilo marks were only temporary and often disappeared after the chief's first bath. Yet, he perceived them as unseen symbols of his authority, some kind of concealed regalia, because having been thus painted, a crucial custom had been performed to invest the chief with supernormal powers. Other applications of this chalk-painted motif widened its implications in Dangme religious life. During the Kpledzo festival at Prampram town in 1989, it was used not only on the human body: the chief priest of the sea deity 11. PRIESTESSES WEARING WHITE COlTON HEADTIE: PRAMPRAM. 198s

13. SENIOR PRIESTESS OF THE EARTH GODDESS LALUE. HER BODY IS DECORATED WITH THE DOUBLE-LINE MOTIF. AND SHE WEARS THE AKUKU HAIRSTYLE. PRAMPRAM. EARLY 1960s.

12. PRIESTESS OF A KLAMA DEITY, ONE OF THE TWO CATEGORIES OF MAJOR GODS SHE WEARS THE AKUKUCOIFFURE. PRAMPRAM 1989.

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facts, and on the ground-provide another example of the transfer of bodyart motifs into the domain of artifact decoration (or vice-versa), which has been documented elsewhere in subSaharan Africa (e.g., Berns 1988:57-75).

Beads Bead use in ritual costume illustrates the same contradiction we observed in the application of chalk motifs: the simplest and least colorful bead types are the most powerful. The use of these important beads in limited quantities reflects the minimal aesthetic that underlies the display of religious power in Dangme culture. As indicators of wealth, beads (mue) are essential role markers. But beads generally symbolize spiritual purity as well, and those who wear them attract blessings from the gods. Even though priests and priestesses may wear diverse types of beads as ritual ornament, not all are significant to them. Two bead types, called nyoli and tovi-and to a limited extent, cowrie shells (hangu)*onstitute the quintessential symbols, or "signature apparel," of priestly office (Cole 1975:32). Beyond this, the number of each bead type used and how they are combined reflect cult affiliation and rank. For instance, priest and priestesses who serve the Kple divinities wear bracelets consisting entirely of nyoli, white beads made from a particular fish bone or ivory (Fig.

8). Affiliates of Klama gods use a combination of the white nyoli and black tovi beads made from an unidentified fruit seed (Figs. 9,lO). In contrast, devotees of minor gods that originated from among the Ewe who live east of the Volta River wear only hangu bracelets and anklets. Differences in priestly rank are conveyed by the number of nyoli and tovi beads in a bracelet. Neophytes wear one of each on a fiber string. Those who have been initiated but are awaiting their final installment may be distinguished by bracelets comprising four nyoli and four tovi beads. The fully ordained priest or priestess receives an indefinite number that will fit his or her wrist. The chief priest wears seven beads, four nyoli and three tovi, because the number seven is imbued with

mystical power. Once decorated with the bracelet (la or abakli), the priest or priestess cannot appear in public without it. The basic rules governing the use of these sacred beads by priests carry over into political leadership. When a new chief is to be outdoored, or presented for public viewing, he wears a bracelet made from seven white nyoli and black tovi beads similar to that of a chief priest. The bracelet is always placed on the right arm, the arm of strength. When you extend this arm to shake someone else's, that person is bound to notice the bracelet and will instantly recognize you as a person of authority. Nyoli and tovi bead bracelets (la) therefore function as primary indexes of spiritual and political identity. The employment of a bead bracelet as a validating symbol of leadership in Dangme society has parallels in Igala, Edo, Igbo, and other southern Nigerian cultures (Sieber 1965; Onwuejeogwu 1982; Ben-Amos 1980). These similarities warrant a cross-cultural study of the theme, as it may enhance our understanding of the history of kingship regalia in the Guinea Coast region as a whole.

Coiffure In general, coiffure expands the ideas explored here concerning the relationship between body art, cosmology, and social organization among the Dangme. Many hairstyles are a feature of religious ceremonies. Priestesses serving lowerranked deities comb out their hair or tie it with a piece of white cotton cloth (Fig. 11). Those in the senior rank have two other options. One is to plait the hair into several long strands and tie the ends together into a cone. The alternative is to part the hair into five buns. This second coiffure type, called akuku, akoko, or akukuli, is common to both the Dangme and the Ga (Kilson 1978). In akuku, buns of hair are arranged in a circle around the head, with one bun in the center (Figs. 12, 13). The central bun represents "the head of a gathering." At Prampram and Old Ningo towns, the hairstyle is a privilege only accorded priestesses of indigenous deities (Kple and Klama), whose primacy is widely acknowledged. Thus, the akuku hairstyle symbolizes the seniority of their priestesses. In general, a priestess who is obliged by custom to wear akuku during the annual festival has to grow her hair all year for that single ritual occasion. It therefore appears that the brief display of coiffure, and chalk motifs on the skin, enhances the temporary manifestations of the spirits it seeks to glorify.

14. WEARING A PANAMA HAT, A PRIESTESS OF A MALE D E W STANDS NEXT TO A PRIEST PRAMPRAM. 1987. PHOTO E NII WARCOOPOUE

The akuku suggests diverse metaphors. For example, akuku is likened to the cloth pad placed on the head to enable one to carry a load. According to Asafoatse Addicole, a warlord and ritual specialist, the arrangement of buns symbolizes a hearth, even though it does not resemble the traditional Dangme hearth. Addicole explained that in the same way that a heart6 supports the cooking pot, sb do the gods sustain Pram~ramtown. a role sykbolized by akuk; (interview, April 1987). This hairstyle may be topped with a ceremonial plume made up of one parrot feather (wli or tsone) on the "head," or central bun. Parrot feathers suggest the onerous responsibility of priestly office. Here they reinforce the medial role of a priestess as spokesperson of a god. Use of the akuku and other religious paraphernalia, such as straw hats and beads, during the girls' puberty rite known as Dipo suggests additional connotations for religious dress in general. In the Dipo context, akuku signifies the ritual purity required in all Dangme transitional rites. A late-nineteenth-century photograph now in the Base1 Mission Archive, showing Krobo or Shai Dangme girls during a puberty rite, pro16. CHIEF PRIEST MARTE AKOTO KLEGMETI (FAR RIGHT) SEATED WlTH ELDERS AND PRIESTESSES OF THE DIGBLE SHRINE. 19TH CENTURY. BASEL MISSION ARCHIVES.

PHOTO- WURTESY OF THE BhSEL MISSIONlRCHNES

15. DIGBLE CHIEF PRIEST MARTE AKOTO KLEGMETI (LEFT) WlTH TWO SENIOR PRIESTESSES. ONE OF THEM HIS STOOL WIFE. PHOTOGRAPHEDBY A MISSIONARY IN PRAMPRAM. LATE 19TH CENTURY. BASEL MISSION ARCHIVES.

(Sprigge 1969). Since akuku and other aspects of Dangme religious dress have been retained by them, it is possible that many of the core symbols of priests and priestesses are at least this old.

Hats

PWTO: WURTESY OF THE B B E L MISSIONARCHIVES

vides historical documentation of akuku. This hairstyle still exists among the Dangme-speaking people who now live at Agotime Kpetoe town east of the Volta River. Agotime oral traditions speak of their migrations from the coastal Dangme town of Kpone near Prampram in the eighteenth century

Hats also communicate the enormous spiritual power ascribed to priests. The most respected are straw hats (komi pee) woven from raffia fiber (Raphia ruffia), which the Dangme call soni. Such hats are reserved for senior priests. No priestesses may wear them. After the hat is woven, white clay is smeared on it. Because the komi pee is imbued with immense religious significance, one has to be ritually clean to wear it. It is therefore kept in a special room set aside for the girls' puberty rites. Before a priest is crowned with the hat, he undergoes Dipo to cleanse himself spiritually. The symbolism of the komi pee stems from its ancestral associations and the magico-religious value of the material of which it is made-raffia. The chief priest of Prampram's sea god, Digble,

owns one such hat decorated with red parrot feathers (Fig. 17).He claims that, in view of this hat's inherent spiritual power, he wears his only once a year, during the Kpledzo festival. On that occasion he sits on the sacred throne of Digble, a round carved wooden stool (Fig. 7 ) . Afterwards, the komi pee is returned to storage in the shrine until the following year's Kpledzo festival. The brevity of the contact with both hat and stool points to their general symbolic functions in Prampram town and elsewhere in the Dangme area. Kingmaker Nene Hargo Taffa of Old Ningo town explained that it is a great blessing of the gods to be crowned with this straw hat (interview, Oct. 1988). Huber also stated that among the Krobo Dangme, it is believed that wearing the hat places one in the midst of the gods (1963:234). We may therefore include straw hats in the whole complex of religious art that facilitates some type of transformation necessary in the encounter with the gods. Metal Ornaments Although gold ornaments exist in modem chiefly dress, they reflect no inherent spiritual powers. Dangme priestly ideology rejects outright all art made of gold (sika tsu) or copper alloys (ayawa) because "red" metals are considered destructive to spiritual power. Gold is also seen as worldly and for display. Gold ornaments glorify the wearer and not the gods. Thus, the chief of Old Ningo town, by virtue of his position as chief priest of the god Jange, cannot use gold or copper ornaments. If he violates this rule, he will contract leprosy. On the other hand, silver (sika hio) is mild or "soft" and is preferred by the gods. The most visible metallic ornaments worn by priests and priestesses include iron bells and long silver chains with cast figurative charms. Similarly, highly ranked priestesses embellish their akuku coiffures with figurative silver hairpins. To wear silver ornaments is a form of self-sacrifice, self-denial, and absolute submission to the will of a spirit. Thus, the will of the gods takes precedence over human aesthetic preferences. Garments Religious costume encompasses a limited range of forms. The taka or bojuwe (Ga: tekle) is regarded as an archaic garment. Taka is a single loincloth that wraps around the waist and between the legs. The European traveler Paul

17. MARTE KWABLAH KLEGMETI. CHIEF PRIEST OF THE SEA GOD DIGBLE. IN HIS FEATHEREDCROWN. KPLEDZO FESTIVAL. PRAMPRAM. EARLY 1960s.

Isert reported seeing it among the Ga and Dangme in the late eighteenth century (1784:30). Because of its historical and cultural importance, it is now important ancestral (kusumi) dress and appears only in ritual contexts such as religious festivals and mortuary rites for clan elders, chiefs, and priests. While, on the whole, its core elements have persisted for at least the past two hundred years (as the evidence from Agotime suggests), Dangme religious dress has not been totally immune to outside influences. At Prampram town, ritual dress has been modified and some stylistic shifts have occurred.

I mentioned earlier that gender is important in how Dangme people classify and rank their gods. Nowhere else is this fundamental differentiation between female and male deities more evident than in religious dress at Prampram town. Today, Prampram priestesses of female deities cover themselves from the chest down with imported European textile wrappers. They then tie pieces of red cloth (subue) around the chest and the abdomen. In contrast, those who serve male deities wear a long gown. In addition to the red imported cloth (subue) their costume incorporates strips of yellow silk (sriki) tied around the elbow and the neck, which identifies them as affili-

18. LEEKAI ADDICO. PRIESTESS OF THE THUNDER GOD TSAWE. IN FULL REGALIA. HER DRESS CONSISTS OF A GOWN SEWN FROM IMPORTED PRINTED FABRIC, SILK SCARVES AND TIES FOR ELBOWS AND NECK, A PANAMA HAT, AND STRANDS OF BEADS. PRAMPRAM. 1989.

ates of male divinities in any ceremonial gathering. A type of European straw hat called panama is also worn (Figs. 14,181. The foreign origin of these additional attributes in Prampram religious dress is quite obvious. And the people of Prampram themselves acknowledge that they are not part of the original mode of dressing. Yet, it is difficult to trace the precise source of this fashion. When I interviewed him in August 1988, Nai Wulomo, chief priest of the Ga people of Accra, was unequivocal about the European origins of the outfit he wears for ritual occasions-a white silk feminine gown cinched at the waist and a large straw hat. He claimed that it was a replica of an original that some early European visitors presented to his ancestor who held that office. The fashion of using Panama hats may have been appropriated from Swiss missionaries who were already established at Prampram by 1850. Because these changes in religious dress existed only at Prampram, it suggested a singular rather than a pan-Dangme response to an European influence. Subsequent investigations, however, uncovered the possible existence of a slave element in modern Prampram society. Prampram elders deny reports from neighboring communities of influxes of returned slaves from the Caribbean and parts of West Africa in the nineteenth century. While no one is willing to discuss thesubject of slavery because it is considered taboo, there was much talk about Yoruba, Fon, and Brazilian connections for some later immigrant families who introduced their own deities. If this history is indeed true, one would only need to look at Bahian Candomble Nago ritual vestments (Smith Omari 1984)to appreciate their transatlantic links. Two nineteenth-century Base1 Mission photographs from Prampram show that these intrusive elements in religious dress had become entrenched in by the town around 1880.The first photograph (Fig. 15) depicts Marte Akoto Klegmeti, chief priest of the sea god Digble, with his stool wife and the priestess of the earth deity Lalue. The same chief priest appears again in another photograph, seated with elders (Fig. 16). Because the present chief priest of Digble wore this outfit only for the annual Kpledzo festival, one may assume that both photographs were probably taken on that occasion. Recent photographs taken at Prampram, illus-

trating similar conventions of religious dress, testify to the persistence of Dangme body art (Figs. 13,171. Dangme religious self-decoration is intimately connected to the worship of gods. Broadly defined, religious dress conveys rank, gender, and cult affiliation. These elements constitute the basis of social distinction among priests and priestesses. Ritual dress also reflects the link between cosmology and society, for the Dangme perceive the spirit world as replicating their own. Thus, self-decoration and ritual performance are ways by which order and harmony are reaffirmed in both worlds. In general, Dangme religious art is not recyclable because it is mostly ephemeral. When it comprises durable communal symbols such as stools, those

objects are decorated with the same ephemeral motifs as people. Moreover, human contact with a sacred object is as controlled and brief as the transient body arts. These practices in themselves not only strengthen beliefs in the efficacy of self-decoration but also give the religious art a sense of timelessness. In Dangme philosophy, adherence to the customary ideal of self-decoration is more important than artistic inventiveness. Nene Azu Mate Kole, Konor of Manya Krobo, once remarked, "One cannot discard things whose origins one cannot fathom" (interview, June 1987). The consistency with which the Dangme continue to use these art forms shows that beliefs associated with religious self-decoration will endure even in the face of social changes. Notes, page 96

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Smith, Alan. 1970. "Delagoa Bay and the Trade of SouthEastern Africa," in Pre--Colonral Afrrcan Trade, ed. Richard Gray and David Blrniingham. London and New York: Oxford University Press. Smith, Alan 1969. "The Trade of Delagoa Bay in Nguni Politics, 1750-1839," in African Societies in Souihern Afrrca, ed Leonard Thompson. New York. Praeger. Var d'Almada, Francisco 1902. "Wreck of the Ship Sao Joao Baptrsta." in Records of Soiltheastern Africa, ed. George Theal, vol. 8. London: William Clowes &Sons. Webb, Colin de 8. and John Wright. 1976-1986. The James Stirart Archrrie of Recorded Oral Evidence Relating to the History of the Zulu and Nerghbouring Peoples 4 vols Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press and Durban: Killie Campbell Africana Library Wilson, Monlca. 1959. "Early History of the Transkei and Clskei," A'fr~canStudies 18,4:167-79. Wood, John George. 1870. The Unc~vrlizedRaces of Men, vol. 1. Hartford: J. B. Burr & Co.

QUARCOOPOME: Note., from page 65 I am most grateful to the following people for the comments and suggestions they gave me when I was writing this papef: Dr. Roy Sieber (Associate Director), Dr. Philip Ravenhill (Chief Curator), and Janet Stanley (Librarian), all of the National Museum of Afrlcan Art, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D. C.), a n d Dr. Marla Berns, (Director) Goldstein Gallery, University of Minnesota 1. However, potting and basket-weaving are still important occupations among the Shai subgroup of the Dangme. 2. This research was partly funded by a UCLA Edward Dickson Research and Travel Fellowsh~p(1968-88) and an International Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, New York (1988). 3. Many of Huber's references to Kroho body art exist in his Chapter VI, titled "Initiation and Separation Rites" (1963: 136-232). Additional information may be found in his discussion of communal rites and festival on pages 233-74. 4. Huber's etymology of dzemawo (1963:235) explains that it may be a contraction of dzemi ("in the world") and wo ("guardian"). Thus, the term dzemaulo may mean "guardian of the world." 5. The term mo encompasses "all the mystical agents and powers ...comprising all personified and impersonal supernatural agents of minor Importance which are not otherwise specified and which have a sanctuary of their own" (Huber 1963274). 6.1encountered what may be a variation on the theme in the coastal Ga town of Labadi, where sacred drums, hoes, and headgear from the shrine of the Lakpaa deity depict analogous motifs. References cited Ackah, C.A. 1963. "The Historical Significance of Some Ghanaian Festivals," Ghana Notes and Queries 516-27. Adjei, Ako. 1943. "Mortuary Usages of the Ga Peoples of the Gold Coast," Amerlcan Anthropologist 45:84-98. Anauandah, I.R. 1982. Redisconerinp Ghana's Past. Harlow, Essex: Longman. Bascom, William. 1973. Afrlcan Art in Cultural Perspecfirre. New York: Norton Publishers. Ben-Amos, Paula. 1980. The Art of Benin. London: Thames & Hudson. Berns, Marla. 1988. "Ga'anda Scarification: A Model for Art and Identity," in Marks of Cioil~zation,ed. Arnold Rubin, pp. 57-77. Los Angeles: UCLA Museum of Cultural History

Brain, Robert. 1979. The Body Decorated. New York: Harper & ROW. Cole, Herbert. 1975. "Artistic and Conimunicative Value of Beads in Kenya and Ghana," The Bead Journal 1, 3 (Winter): 29-37. Cole, H. and D. Ross 1977. The Arts of Ghana. Los Angeles: UCLA Museum of Cultural History. Cordwell, Justine. 1980. "The Very H u m a n Arts of Transformation," in Tlze Fabrics of Culture: The Anthropology of Clothing and Adornment, ed. Justine Cordwell and Ronald Schwarz, p p 47-76. The Hague, Paris, New York: Mouton Publishers. Field, M. J 1969. "Spirit Possession in Ghana," in Spirit Medrumshrp and Society rn Afrrca, eds. I. Beattie and J Middleton, pp. 3-13, London Oxford University Press. Field, M. J . 1961. Religion and Medicine of the Ga People. London: Oxford University Press. Field, M. J. 1940. Social Organizaiion of ihe Ga People London: Crown Agents. Huber, Hugo. 1963. The Krobo. St Augustin: Anthropos Institute. Irvine, F. R. 1961. Woody Plants of Ghana. London: Oxford University Press. Isert, Paul. 1793. Voyages en Grrini'r et dons les ijles caraihes en Am6rique. Paris. Kilson, Marion. 1971. Kpele Lain, Ga Rel~grousSongs and Symbols. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Kropp-Dakubu, M. 1982. "The Peopling of Southern Ghana," In The Archaeologrcal and Lrnglrrstrc Reconsirlrctron of African Hrsiory, pp. 244-55 Berkeley: University of California Press. Manoukian, Madeline. 1950. Akan and Ga-Adangrne Peoples of ihe Gold Coasi Ethnographic Survey of Western Africa, 1. London: International African Institute Needham, Rodney 1967. "Percussion and Transition," Man n.s. 2. 606-14. Nketia, J. H. K. 1964. "Historical Evidence in Ga Religious Music," in The Historran in Troprcal Africa, ed Jan Vansina, Raymond Mauny, and L V Thomas, pp. 265-83. London. Oxford University Press. Nketia, J. H. K. 1998. "Traditional Music of the Ga People," Universitas 3:76-81 Onwuejeogwu, M.A. 1981. An Igbo Cioilriation: Nrr Kingdom and Hegemony. London: Ethographica Publishers Rosato, Renato. 1968. "Metaphors of Hierarchy in a Mayan Ritual," American Anihropologrst 70:52436. Sieber, Roy. 1972. African Textiles and Decorative Arts. New York: Museum of Modern Art. Sieber, Roy 1965. "The Insignia of the lgala Chief of Eteh, Eastern Nigeria," Man n.s, 65 (May-June):80-82, Smith Omari, Mikelle 1984. From the Inside to the Outside: The Art and Ritual of Bahian Candomhle. Los Angeles: UCLA Museum of Cultural History Sprigge, R, G. S. 1969. "Eweland's Adangbe," Transactions of

the Histor~calSoc~etyof Ghana 10:87-128.

Turner, Victor. 1968. The Drunis of Affliction: A Study of Relig~ousProcesses among the Ndembu of Zambia. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Turner, Victor. 1964. "Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period i n Rites d e Passage," i n Symposrum on New Approaches to the Study of Religion, e d . J u n e Helm. Proceedings of the 1964 Annual Spring Meetings of the American Ethnological Society Westermann, Diedrich. 1970. The Languages of West Africa. New ed. Folkestone: Dawson.

SMITH OMARI: Notes, from page 75 I . The validity and usefulness of the term "traditional" have been much debated but not satisfactorily resolved by historians of African art in recent decades. As used here, it refers to an identifiable indigenous corpus of conventions that have remained little modified even in colonial- or postcolon~alcontact situations. 2. All of the forty individuals I interviewed during the combined 1977 and 1989 research periods expressed this vlew, registered through dissatisfaction with the mainstream American status quo. Most residents I talked with were college educated (at least one had earned a master's degree) and were fully aware that they were dropping out of the dominant society, frequently against their extended family's wishes. 3. Roy Wagner's theses in The Inoention of Culture (1981) that cultures all over the world maintain a dialectic between convention and invention, and that all cultures are constantly invented and reinvented by both culture bearers and culture recorders, bear important theoretical ramifications for a cultural "actors." These ideas are most convincingly articulated in the chapters "The Power of Invention" (pp. 35-70) and "The Invention of Society" (pp. 10S32). Oyotunji presents an interesting contrast to contemporary West Africa with its dialectic of movements toward modernism or Westernism, and counter-movements toward the traditional 4. This situation contrasts wlth those found in Brazil and Cuba, where direct and indirect historical links to slavery can be traced. Although the term "survivals" has received a great deal of bad press in the literature, it is my view that the

true essence and positive value of the term can only be appreciated ii understanding is attempted from the culture bearer's point of view. In this context, the emphasis is placed on the idea of tenacious adherence to African beliefs and behaviors despite often overwhelming adversity from the dominant European-oriented culture. The concept of survival is seen by informants as being closely related to the concept of resistance. 5. "Society in this instance is conceived and operated (from 'within') as a set of (differentiating) devices for eliciting s basic distinctions consistency and similarity, and ~ t most are the ones that 'put the world together.' " (Wagner 1981:121). 6. 1 have observed a n u m b e r of consultations with Merindinlogun (sixteen cowries) divination in 1977 and 1989 and been told of Ifa divinations and "roots readings" performed for local residents as well as those who regularly come from Savannah, Charleston, and other nearby areas. 7 lfa, a pervasive 11teraryand divination system among the Nigerian Yoruba, is very important in New World religions and culture. Ifa is one of the primary initiations given to beeinnine " " devotees to ensure a measure of control and harmony in their lives. 8. Both in 1977 and in 1989, U.S. government food stamps were used by the wives, who take personal responsibility for feeding thel; children. 9. Both the Obi and the Merindinlogun divination systems are learned in Oyotunji only after the second, more intensive phase of initiation (Osu-Metal 1s completed. The Obi system is simpler and derives its name from the one used among the Yoruba in Nigeria. In this system a form of obi (African fruit) known as obi nierrn (whose parts fall naturally into four divisions) is used by initiates to communicate on a daily basis in their ritual care of the gods. (In Oyotunji the same principle operates, but four dried blts of coconut shell are used instead.) Merindinlogun (sixteen cowries + one for EsuElegba) is received for each rkoko-awo (orrsa pot). This more elaborate system 1s used for initiations and deeper consultations with clients. 10. 1 was surprised that the children were cognizant of the latest rap groups (e g., Run DMC and Slick Rick) and the words to their songs, many of the boys wore versions of the flat-top and razor-design haircuts so popular with the Hiphop subculture. 11. The flag, composed of red, gold. and green verticals with a Black Egyptian ankh (symbolizing life), was designed by Kabiyesi. 12 A significant reason for this amalgamation is that the Oba, who is the Chief Priest, was initiated in both Cuba (as a babalosha) and Abeokuta, Nigeria (as a bahalamo, or Ifa priest). 13. This appears to be an insertion of the American concern wlth astrology that was popular when the village was founded. 14. An odu is a permutation of binary numbers achieved by throwing the opele. Each odu has a vast number of verses The odu verses may be in prose or poetry and form the body of what we know as Ifa divination. In the New World, the odu has extended meaning as a "personal signature" like one's handwriting, or even a prediction of the future. Odus can also provide adv~ceand solutions to problems which people follow as they would a medical physician's orders and prescriptions. 1 5 The sociologist Clovis Semmes (1981) asserts that organized resistance actually began on the slave ships bound for America (e.g., the Amrstad mutiny by Cinque). 16. This ceremony was performed in June 1981 in Ile-lfe, Nigeria, by the Ooni Okunade Sijuwade Olubushe 11, at the first International World Congress of Orisa Culture and Tradition. Oba Adefunmi was proclaimed the Alashe of New World "Yoruba" in America and was given a sword as a symbol of his office and authority References c~ted Bascom, William. 1969. 1fa Divlnafion: Comn~unicationBetween Gods and Men in West Africa Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. Hunt, Carl. 1979. "Oyo Tunji " Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia. Semmes, Clovis S. 1981. "Foundations of a n Afrocentric Social Science," jorrrnal of Black Studies 12,1:3-17. Wagner, Roy 1981. The Inoention of Culture. Rev. ed. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

NOOTER: References cited,from page 79 Clifford, James and George E. Marcus (eds.). 1986. Wrltlng Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. A School of American Research Advanced Seminar. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. Fagan, Brian M. 1984. Clash of Cultures. New York: W. H. Freeman & Co. Schildkrout, Enid and Curtis A. Keim. 1990. African Reflections:Art from Northeastern Zaire. Seattle and London: The University of Washington Press; and New York: The American Museum of Natural History. Vogel, Susan (assisted by lma Ebong). 1991. Africa Explures: 20th Century African Art. New York: The Center for African Art; and Munich: Prestel Verlag.