1. ADOWA DANCE
IT IS NO DOUBT THAT AFRICA, IS A CONTINENT
EMBELISHED WITH RICH ART AND CULTURE.
From the ancient city of Ashanti in GHANA, here is one
popular traditional dance.
ADOWA DANCERS
The adowa is a popular dance that is widespread among the
Akan and is performed during funerals and public social
events. An adowa ensemble comprises a lead singer, a chorus
and percussion instruments.
The leader and the chorus are nearly always middle-aged
women, who accompany themselves with hand-clapping
and/or with a dawure double bell or an atoke single bell. The

2. adowa has been studied in detail by Kwabena Nketia in his
Folk Songs of Ghana (1963 pp. 88-99).
The dancers use a symbolic language, the different
movements of their hands telling their own story.

3. ADOWA PERFORMERS
The short dance steps are very subtle, drawing attention to the
upper part of the body. This music is characterized by
polyrhythmic accents: the dance is in compound triple time
and the accompaniment of the drums is interwoven with
syncopations and cross-rhythms.

4. ATOKE SINGLE BELL
The bell plays a steady rhythm, to which the chorus sings the
responses. The lyrics of the songs express social and moral
values such as, chiefs who have passed away, the grieving
family, sympathy for the deceased, and the Akan faith.
The adowa percussion ensemble comprises several drums (a
pair of atumpan, an apentemma, a petia, a brenko and a
donno hourglass drum) and bells (a dawuru double bell and an
atoke single bell)
ADOWA DANCER
Culled from
RMCA/Dominik PHYFFEROEN