Musical Ethnography of Dagara People in Burkina Faso

Abstract

Dagara constitute an ethnic group who occupy and span two neighbouring countries in West Africa: Ghana and Burkina Faso. They are located in the South-Western region of Burkina Faso and in the Upper-West region of Ghana. Although the Dagara live in different countries, they still share the same socio-cultural practices that define them culturally among other ethnic groups. Dagara cultural identity is their collective and dynamic cultural values held and cherished over the years. Music is one of these cultural values as it constitutes an integral part of the Dagara socio-cultural systems to the extent that many aspects of their everyday life and special occasions are often marked by a variety of musical and dance practices. In the perspective of music as culture, this thesis has ethnographically investigated the music of the Dagara in Burkina Faso by focusing on the significance of the music in its socio-cultural contexts. It also argues that the music of the Dagara depicts their kinship system and their worldview as it approximates or correlates musical and social structures. This approximation essentially consists of an analytical approach of the juncture or the correlation between the musical and the socio-cultural as an important factor of ethnic or cultural identity. The research methodology employed is a qualitative ethnographic method which comprises primary and secondary sources. It has also employed the non-probability sampling technique for the selection of the key informants from five areas of Dagara land in Burkina Faso and the phenomenological and triangulation methods for data analysis. The study is mainly framed within the ethnosemantics theory by Agawu, the Feld’s six-fold framework and the “thick description” of Geertz (1973) as backdrop of the analysis of musical performances that can be considered as ‘webs of significance or meanings’ (Max Weber).