Dancing Customs At Ghana's World Damba Celebrations, Part II

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a two part series on dancing that is performed during the Damba festival in Northern Ghana, West Africa and dancing that is performed in the World Damba celebrations in Europe & in the United States.

Click http://zumlala.blogspot.com/2013/03/dancing-customs-at-ghanas-damba.html for Part I of this series.

Part I provides some information about Damba, my editorial comments, and two videos of Damba celebrations in Northern Ghana.

Part II provides four videos of celebrations of Damba by Ghanaians & non-Ghanaians outside of Ghana, West Africa.

The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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EDITOR'S NOTE ABOUT ADDING COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG
With considerable regret, I have disabled the comment feature on this blog (and on my other blogs except for https://pancocojams.blogspot.com, because of the large number of spam comments that I received on those blogs.

Comments for those blogs can be sent to my email address azizip17 dot com at yahoo dot com for possible inclusion in a specific post on those blogs.

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DISCLAIMER AND EDITORIAL NOTE
I know nothing about the Damba festival other than what I've read or I've seen online.

There are many aspects of these videos which would be of interests to persons interested in African culture, for instance, the musical instruments that are used & the music that is produced by those instruments & by human voices. Other points of interests for viewers of these videos may be the traditional clothing that is worn, ihcluding female headwraps, and male hats, and the fact that, particularly some of the males in these videos are wearing Western clothing. However, in keeping with this blog's theme, I'm particularly interested in showcasing the processional movements, the circular dances, and the line dances that found in these videos.

I'm interested in noting what appear to me to be similarities between different cultures & particularly similarities between African cultures & cultures of the African Diaspora. For that reason, it occurs to me that the large swirling umbrellas held over Ghanaian dignitary in some of the videos featured in Part II of this series might be a source of the individually held colorful umbrellas which are sometimes swirled by Mardi Gras paraders in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Galveston, Texas, and by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mummers.

Furthermore, these featured videos document the custom of placing money (if not "spraying money") on or near the forehead of a dignitary or dancer. I'm tempted to cite the times of those occurrences in these videos, but will refrain from doing so as I will refrain from including any other comments about those featured videos.

Please be aware that at least one YouTube video of the Damba festival [actually the same video with two different titles] contains scenes that probably would be considered inappropriate for use in American public schools. I posted a comment identifying those videos by name in Part I of this post.

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INFORMATION ABOUT DAMBA
From nickfghana7 [publisher's comment]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoM0jjcNcnQ
"WORLD DAMBA FESTIVAL" (video posted in Part II of this zumalala blog series)
"Damba is a music, dance, and festival that is celebrated annually by the following ethnic groups in Northern Ghana: Dagbamba, Nanumba, Mamprusi, Gonja, Wala and Kusasi. These remarks focus on the Dagbamba of Dagbon, the kingdom of the Dagbamba people. the word Damba originated from a Dagbani word "Dam-manga" or "Dam-maa amanga". These two words are of the same meaning, that is to either shake oneself or to initiate a dance movement. Dance, in general, reflects the cultural ideas of the people and the Damba is no exception."
-snip-
Additional information about Damba is provided in Part I of this series.

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FEATURED VIDEOS
(THese videos are posted with few editorial comments and with no descriptions.)

Example #1: World DAMBA Festival 2010: Part 1 - Led by Kpan-Naa
M.B. Bawah, courtesy Knowledge & Skills Share



natogmah1, Uploaded on Jan 13, 2011

DAMBA Festival 2010 Part 1
-snip-
One video of this celebration indicated that it occurred in Brussels, Belgium. However, another video of this celebration indicates that it occurred in Amsterdam, The Netherland.

Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0cg2WaYsIA for Part II of this video.

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Example #2: Damba 2011 in The Netherlands



Abukari Abass Uploaded on Aug 31, 2011
damba 2011 in Amsterdam
-snip-
Here is a transcription of the text that is superimposed in the beginning of this video:
"The World Damba Festival 2011 was proudly organized and presented by Knowledge and Skill Share (KSS) Foundation on Saturday April 16, 2011, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Led by:
His Majesty Nibun-Naa Yakubu Andani, Paramount Chief of Nibun in the Dagbon Traditional Area of Ghana.

Motto of the World Damba Festival:
Using culture as a tool for development

Theme of the World Damba Festival 2011:
Using Damba Festival as a tool for building peace and for fostering unity in our society: with special reference to Northern Ghana"

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Example #3: World Damba Festival 2011 - Part 1 - Led by Ninbun-Naa Yakubu Andani - Courtesy KSS Foundation



natogmah, Uploaded on Nov 19, 2011

African Cultural Dance (JERA) from Ghana - performed in The Netherlands in April 2011
-snip-
Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD3WgNIHAso for Part II of this video.

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Example #4: WORLD DAMBA FESTIVAL



nickfghana7, Published on Sep 26, 2012

Damba is a music, dance, and festival that is celebrated annually by the following ethnic groups in Northern Ghana: Dagbamba, Nanumba, Mamprusi, Gonja, Wala and Kusasi. These remarks focus on the Dagbamba of Dagbon, the kingdom of the Dagbamba people. the word Damba originated from a Dagbani word "Dam-manga" or "Dam-maa amanga". These two words are of the same meaning, that is to either shake oneself or to initiate a dance movement. Dance, in general, reflects the cultural ideas of the people and the Damba is no exception.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to all the musicians and dancers who are featured in these videos. My thanks also to the producers & the publishers of these videos.

Thank you for visiting zumalayah [zoom-mah-LAH-yah].

Zumalayah showcases videos of dances & singing games done in circles or in lines, and other movement performance arts from African American culture, from African cultures, and from other cultures of the African Diaspora.

Viewer comments are welcome.