Cultural education in Ghana: A case study of dance development in the university system

Abstract

In 1962, when the Ghana Dance Ensemble (then the National DanceCompany of Ghana) was formed at the Institute of African Studies of theUniversity of Ghana for research into African dance-theatre, a group ofthirteen students embarked on a performing activity whose directionand founders’ aims we did not fully understand, yet we were enthusias-tic because of the encouragement of our parents, our peers, and thefounders themselves. Dance as a discipline and a profession was new inGhana at the time and needed much experimentation to mold it into anacceptable and honorable activity. Surrounded by some uncertaintywithin the academic system, it needed both tact and sacrifice to makeit blossom.There were some problems at the start. Just fourteen years after theestablishment of the university itself as an affiliate of London University,the academic community at the University of Ghana was not accustomedto a cultural program that brought local priests, musicians, and dancersfrom the ethnic system to the campus to instruct and interact withstudents. Earlier, the legacy of the community had been based solely ona British model, with African cultural programs relegated to the back-ground, so that one could expect ill-feeling and misgivings from a largesection of the academic community.