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| Title: | Staging unity, performing subjectivities: Nkrumah, nation-building, and the Ghana Dance Ensemble |
| Author: | Schauert, Paul |
| Year: | 2012 |
| Periodical: | Ghana Studies (ISSN 1536-5514) |
| Volume: | 15-16 |
| Pages: | 373-412 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Ghana |
| Subjects: | dance pan-Africanism nationalism identity |
| Abstract: | This article explores how Kwame Nkrumah and subsequent Ghanaian leaders used Ghana's state dance ensemble to create and solidify a sense of unity among this nation's citizens by propagating ideologies of African Personality and Pan-Africanism. Performing a diverse repertoire of dances, the 'Ghana Dance Ensemble' has continually encouraged individuals to cross ethnic and national boundaries. As one peers behind the scenes of this ensemble, the complex intersubjective construction of such unity is revealed. That is, as the nation appears as an indivisible unit on stage, Ghanaians, nevertheless remain a collection of individuals, subjectively negotiating and interpreting the ideologies of nationalism, African Personality, and Pan-Africanism for themselves. The author argues that although the historical moment of African and Ghanaian independence has long passed, individuals still struggle to adopt nationalism, including national and transnational identities. Thus nationalism, which requires a continual updating to meet the demands of the present, results in a relentless renegotiation and renewal of the nation as well as the individual self. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited] |