i DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON WHEN WOMEN REFUSE TO ACCEPT WATER IN HONEY’S STEAD: DIALOGIC GENDER REPRESENTATIONS IN SELECTED GA PROVERBS AND CONTEMPORARY CHORAL SONGS. SHEILLA NELSON (10229499) THIS THESIS IS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH DEGREE JULY 2021 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh ii DECLARATION I, Sheilla Nelson, the author of this thesis, do hereby declare that this thesis, with the exception of the cited references, is the result of my own research undertaken under supervision, and that no part of it has been presented for another degree in this university or elsewhere. Signature: ……………………………………...… Date: …..July 25, 2022.…… SHEILLA NELSON (10229499). University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh iii CERTIFICATION We hereby certify that this thesis was supervised in accordance with procedures laid down by the University of Ghana. PROF. KOFI ANYIDOHO (SUPERVISOR) ………………………………………………… Date: …….…. July 26, 2022…………... PROF. ALBERT A. SACKEY (SUPERVISOR) University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh iv DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to the memory of my Father, Mr. Ali Nelson; the people of Tabom and Otublohum, and all of Ga Mashi; and to all Ga-Daŋme people. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, and above all, I am deeply and infinitely thankful to God for His gifts and goodness, and for His unfailing presence and strength for every step of this journey, one that has not been easy but is altogether worth it. I cannot thank my supervisors, Prof. Kofi Anyidoho and Prof. Albert Sackey, enough. I am immensely grateful for their gracious support and inspiring guidance – and for all the insightful conversations in between! I greatly appreciate Prof. Helen Yitah for showing kind interest in this project and in my progress. I am as thankful to Dr. Edem Dzregah for her many kindnesses and encouragement. And I sincerely thank Drs. Mawuli Adjei, Kwaku Osei-Tutu, Kwabena Opoku- Agyemang, Victoria Osei-Bonsu, and Profs. Jemima Anderson and Cristina Ruotolo for their various support. I thank Aunties Jemima and Eunice at the Department office, and Mr. Eric Amartey, the librarian at the Department of Philosophy and Classics. I thank the Centre for Linguistic and Historical Studies by Oral Tradition (CELHTO) for the small grant with which I was able to collect much of the data for this research. I thank also Owulai Moses Adjei, Ezekiel Korley and Greg Mingle, all of the Gramophone Library, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC); and Dr. Hermann von Hesse, who happily and freely shared many important resources with me. I am most grateful to my family, who generously helped me with knowledge and other forms of vital support: especially my late Grandmother, Madam Mary Ansaba Botchway; my Mother, Madam Abigail Naa Amanuah Ankrah; my aunt, Madam Georgina Ankrah; and my uncle, Catechist Samuel Kpakpo Oti Ankrah. I am very thankful for friends who stood with me in ways for which I cannot readily find words: Kwabena Agyare Yeboah, Akua Serwaa Amankwah, Vanessa Esther Aduamah, Elizabeth Kabukie Adjovu, Akwasi Opoku Agyeman, Emmanuel Akwesi Owusu and others. And then to Etse, I say, “Thank you. So much. For e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.” Nyɔŋmɔ ajɔɔ nyɛ fɛɛ, ni Edro nyɛ kɛ hewalɛ kɛ walasɛɛtsɛlɛ, jɔɔmɔi kɛ dromɔ-nikeenii srɔtoi babaoo. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh vi ABSTRACT It is well established in scholarship that in many Ghanaian cultures, gender representations in proverbs and folkloric songs are largely unequal and negative against females. Apart from there not being relatively much research on the subject in relation to the Ga people, a lot of said scholarship is often in subject areas that do not make for a focused, thorough and nuanced study on the subject. And often when research is directly and entirely centered on the subject, the theoretical framework and or dialectical underpinnings of the study, and consequently its direction and outcome(s), are not exactly consistent with the epistemological contexts and cultural realities of the ethnic groups to which the proverbs and song are indigenous. Using an adaptation of Bakhtin’s imagination of Dialogue, together with the kasaŋtswi (indirection) principle and the proverb-name of a Ga sama (symbol), this study suggests four patterns of gender construction in Ga socio-philosophical culture as is evident in Ga proverbs and folkloric songs the kind that Ga music troupe Wulɔmɛi popularize(d). Each of the four patterns has a corresponding implication, an outcome. Per the study’s Dialogic imagination, and more importantly, per the dominant trend of gender representation in the selected Ga proverbs and songs, all four outcomes are generally biased against the female gender. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh vii Contents DECLARATION ………………………………….……………………………………………..ii CERTIFICATION ………………………………….……………………………………………iii DEDICATION ……………………………………….………………………………………......iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………….…………………………………………v ABSTRACT……….……………………………………………………………………………..vi CHAPTER ONE……………………………………………...………………………………...…1 BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………1 1.1 Title of Study………………………………………………………………………………..…1 1.2 Background of the Study………………………………………………………………………2 1.3 Introduction to the Study…..……………………………………………………………….….8 1.3.1 Purpose of the Study…………….………………………………………………………..13 1.3.2 Statement of Problem…….……………………………………………………………....14 1.3.3 Scope of the Study……………….………………………………………………....……14 1.3.4 Thesis Statement……………….……………………………………………………...…15 1.3.5 Research Questions…………...…………….……………………………………………16 1.3.6 Research Objectives……………….…………………………………………………..…16 1.3.7 Significance of the Study…………………....……………………………………………16 1.4 Source of Data………………..………….……………………………………………...……17 1.5 Organization of Research……………….……………………………………………...……19 CHAPTER TWO……………………………………………………………………………..….21 LITERATURE REVIEW……..………………………………………………………………….21 2.1 Ghanaian Proverbs and Folk(loric) Songs…………...……………………………………….21 2.2 Gender Constructions in Ghanaian Proverbs and Folk(loric) Songs………………………….26 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh viii CHAPTER THREE…………………………………………………………………………...….34 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY…………..……………………..…34 3.1.1 Interview with Otsaamɛi at Ga Traditional Marriage Ceremonies (GTMC): Establishing the General Context of the Research Data and Its Implications on Ga Gender Culture…….…34 3.1.2 The Established General Context and Dominant Gender Representation in the Research Data: Implications on Interpreting the Research Data and on the Theoretical Framework………40 3.2.1 Theoretical Framework: Dialogue as Imagined by Bakhtin and as Conceptualized in This Study………………….…………………………………………………………………...42 3.2.2 Theoretical Framework: The Kasaŋtswi Principle and the Ga Proverb-Question as Preamble to Dialogue………………………………………………………………………………..47 3.3 The Four Dialogic Modes and Their Corresponding Outcomes………………………….…51 CHAPTER FOUR …...…………………………………………………………………………..53 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION …...…………………………………………..………53 4.1 Introduction: The Undoing Dialogic Mode (Double Standard)………………………………53 4.1.1 Undoing Dialogic Mode: Dialogue One (1)………………………….………………..…54 4.1.2 Undoing Dialogic Mode: Dialogue Two (2)………….……………….…………..…….65 4.2 Introduction: The Unraveling Dialogic Mode (Irony)………….…………………….………81 4.2.1 Unraveling Dialogic Mode: Dialogue One (1)…………………………………………....82 4.2.2 Unraveling Dialogic Mode: Dialogue One (2)……….……………………………….…..90 CHAPTER FIVE …...………………………………………………………………………..…102 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION …...…………………………………………………102 5.1 Introduction: The Undeifying Dialogic Mode (Tokenism)………………………………....102 5.1.1 Undeifying Dialogic Mode: Dialogue One (1)……………………….…………………104 5.1.2 Undeifying Dialogic Mode: Dialogue Two (2)…………………….…………………..115 5.2 Introduction: The Unmasking Dialogic Mode (Contradiction)…………………………..…124 5.2.1 Unmasking Dialogic Mode: Dialogue One (1)………………………………………….126 5.2.2 Unmasking Dialogic Mode: Dialogue One (2)…..……………………………………...138 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh ix CHAPTER SIX………………………………………………………………………………....148 FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ….…….…………………..….148 6.1 Findings ………………………………………………………………………………….…148 6.2 Conclusions ………………………………………………….……………………………..149 6.3 Recommendations …………………...……………………….………………………….…150 REFERENCES ………...………………………………………………………………..……...151 APPENDIX…….………………………………………………………………………….……158 A. Definition of Key Terms …………………………………………………………..……….158 B. List of Ga Samai (Symbols) ………………………………………………….………..……159 C. List of Ga Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions…………………………….…….…...……159 D. List of Ga Folk and Traditional-Folk Songs ……………..………..…………………..……164 E. Interviews With Otsaamɛi of Ga Traditional Marriages (GTMC) ………….…………...…171 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 1 CHAPTER ONE BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION OVERVIEW: This chapter is an overview of the research, its key contents and core argument. In the following order, this chapter consists of five (5) parts: Title of the Study, Background to the Study, Introduction to the Study, Source of Data, and Organization of (the) Research. The Background of the Study outlines the nature of gender representations as seen in some African, Ghanaian, and particularly Ga socio-cultural, and to some extent, philosophical imagination. The Introduction to the Study includes the Purpose of the Study, Statement of Problem, Scope of the Study, Thesis Statement, Research Questions, Research Objectives, and Significance of the Study. The last two (2) parts of this chapter describe this study’s Source of Data and the Organization of (the entire) Research. These two and some earlier sections of this chapter describe aspects of the study’s Theoretical Framework and Methodology, a more detailed exposition of which is in Chapter 3. 1.1 Title of Study The title of this study is ‘When Women Refuse to Accept Water in Honey’s Stead: Dialogic Gender Representations in Selected Ga Proverbs and Contemporary Choral Songs’. As it will later be unraveled and hopefully, become obvious at the end of this study, the first part of the title, When Women Refuse to Accept Water in Honey’s Stead: a) is a metaphoric reference to “Abiii wo ni ahe nu (One does not ask for honey and take water instead)”, the 1proverb-name of a Ga sama (symbol) that is the basis of the ‘kasaŋtswi 1 This proverb-name is referenced and explained in various parts of this study, particularly under Section 3.2.2 in Chapter 3. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 2 principle’ in this study’s proposed theoretical framework. b) alludes to a Ga 2folksong about a certain outspoken woman who said she loves, and will choose her lover, and then Makola too, over her husband. This woman represents women who assert their voice and agency – sometimes, in outright refusal and rebellion – in the face of the oppressions that they suffer from the gender inequalities against them. As metaphor as allusion, and from the core arguments and conclusions of the study, this first part of the thesis title gestures towards the implications of ‘when women (the female gender) refuse to accept water (mere tokens and such of gender equality) in honey’s (actual gender equality that translates into their lived realities) stead. 1.2 Background of the Study A cursory overview of Ga oral literature shows, among other beliefs and ideals, forms of misogyny, even if subtle and seemingly innocent. For example, one Ga proverb has it that Bɔ fɛɛ bɔ ni yoo kwɔ ha lε, akε aŋtswere No matter how high [tall] a woman is, one [a man] does ekɔɔɔ lε. not need a ladder to climb her. This proverb is very telling about how a woman’s status and achievement are diminished, if not dismissed altogether, in any relationship she has with any man. That is, merely being a woman is almost always the only reason that a woman’s worth and value are of little or of no import and consequence. Also, the proverb’s figurative meaning and implications are steeped in sexual innuendos which debase women or at the very least, objectify them. These representations are not at all the case for men, and for just about any man at that. And this double standard makes the 2 This folksong is referenced in the concluding parts of Section 3.1.1 in Chapter 3. This was in relation to how the woman in the song was perceived negatively by the two Ga Traditional Marriage Ceremony (GTMC) Otsaamɛi who were interviewed as part of this study. And together with the Makola reference, the song text and a discussion about it are in Section 5.1.2, as part of the second Dialogue under the Undeifying Dialogic Mode in Chapter 5. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 3 proverb to be seen for what it really is: one of many demonstrations of misogyny in Ga gender culture, as evident in (oral) literature. Thus, unlike as would have been usual, the proverb is not to be understood based on only its literal meanings, and neither is the proverb deemed another mere piece of (oral) literature. That is, suddenly, the proverb is not thought of as another innocent use of language for merely aesthetic and or rhetoric purposes. Similar double standards and other forms of gender inequality can be said of many other Ga proverbs including the following: Kɛ yoo he tu lɛ, ekɛhãa nuu shitoo. When/ if a woman buys a gun, she gives [is to give] it . to a man to keep. and Nuu mli bɛ fioo. There is no such thing as littleness in [a person if this person is male/] a man. There has been, and still is, ongoing academic and activist discourse that seek to make essential and definitive distinctions between Feminism, African Feminism, African Feminism-s and even Womanism. Preceding this discourse, however, the concept of Feminism itself is highly contested in Africa, such that the legitimacy of Feminism in African cultures is often trivialized, dismissed and sometimes even denied. This lack of legitimacy is largely because, it is …question[ed] whether there is any discernible feminist school though that is actively African… [The initial contention, however, is that] Some see feminism as a (Western) ‘weed’ that has infiltrated Africa, equating in some ways with cultural imperialism and (post-)colonialism. (Atanga 2013, p. 302) And so despite the misogynies that women endure in their various lived realities, feminism is still thought to be foreign, to be alien to Africa, and thus, not to be encouraged, not to be explored and engaged, much less to be welcomed for all the good it can do all humankind. In effect, there is barely any room to even attempt (feminist) ideals and changes that restore the full humanity and dignity of the female members of many an African culture. Thus, various forms of misogyny and University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 4 other manifestations of the patriarchy in African cultures are ignored, be they in (oral) literatures or in said women’s lived realities. And where these misogynies are not ignored, but are rather excused, it is usually because of what the researcher terms ‘token feminism’: the various forms of feminist ideals and practices that are all but truly and fully meaningful to the gender inequalities that women suffer. Token feminisms are fundamentally superficial: they are often placatory and performative, and sometimes disingenuous and also counter-productive. An example of token feminism is the matrilineal inheritance system among the Asante people of Ghana, as well as the institution of queen mother in many other African cultures. In pre-colonial Igbo culture in Things Fall Apart by Achebe (2019), Okonkwo vividly loves and respects Ezinma his daughter, and more so because of her remarkable intellect and strength of character. While bemoaning the abject lack of similar traits in Nwoye his son, and even in Unoka his father, Okonkwo never stops wishing that Ezinma was born a boy. Despite all this, Okonkwo and his society at large have no real use and place for such a female – nothing beyond traditional and domestic roles, such as bringing Okonkwo his food; and nothing close to the strictly reserved position of a male (child), such as carrying Okonkwo’s chair to the special wrestling matches. Therefore, Ezinma has to be content with the token feminism of the opportunity to freely and confidently converse with Okonkwo, at one time, even insisting that Okonkwo eat his food, because he has not eaten for two full days. Okonkwo has been down- spirited, after having taken a crucial part in the killing of Ikemefuna. In Changes by Aidoo (1994), post-colonial Ghanaian society finally concedes to educating the girl child (too), only for the same society to stifle the female’s new and numerous potentialities and successes as a result of this education. As if this stifling is not enough, same society insists on maintaining its age-long suppressive patriarchal expectations of and demands on women, even in the face of new realities University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 5 of said education and of changing times. Thus, access to education proved to be a mere token feminist ideal in the individual and unique lives of Esi the main female character, Opokuya her friend, and Fusena her co-wife to Ali. In the end, and with regards to the patriarchy, these women’s education made no real significant and meaningful difference in the quality of their lives, as compared to the previous generation women who had not been educated – women such as Esi’s mother, Nana her grandmother, and Ali’s mother-aunt Mma Danjuma. The situation is so ironic and tragic that, Esi later asks her mother and grandmother – and patriarchal society at large – why they sent her to school, if they did not expect and accept that her education, in order for it not to be a mere token, will require necessary and often drastic changes in the ways that society has hitherto perceived, treated and valued women. More than token feminism, another term, ‘cultural speak’, is perhaps the reason feminism is yet to gain said popular attention and acceptance. Here, cultural speak refers to a concept in a culture’s imaginary, a concept that suggests or asserts gender equality or gender neutrality or even a feminist ideal, only that this concept is nominal and has neither useful function nor material value in the lives of women. Many a cultural speak is encoded in society’s lores and mores, as part of the given society’s gender culture or its philosophical imagination of gender. Like token feminism, cultural speak is anything but actual and tangible. An example of cultural speak is the gender neutral third person singular pronouns in Ghanaian languages such as 3Ga, Eʋe (Ewe) and the Akan dialects. Another example is the Ga reference of the Supreme Being as ‘4Ataa Naa Nyɔŋmɔ’, an attributive title-name that is inclusive of both the male and female essence. In other African 3 See details about the Ga gender-neutral third person pronouns as part of the first footnotes in Chapter 4, specifically section 4.1.1. 4 ‘Ataa’ is an affectionate and the more reverent version of the term ‘Father’; ‘Naa’ is a title for a female ruler of some sort, or a female with one form of power and authority or the other; and ‘Nyɔŋmɔ’ can loosely be translated as ‘God’. In this thesis, ‘Ataa’ is variously translated as ‘Dear’, ‘Beloved’ or other, depending on the given context. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 6 cultures, some forces, deities and similar entities are imagined, referred to and sometimes also related to as females. This includes how the Akan people call the Earth ‘Asaase 5Yaa’, particularly in reference to the spirit of the Earth’s very being and to It being a profound force of Nature. Also, Ga socio-cultural philosophy has it that “Nyɛ Awo ŋɔɔ…”, which means that “Mother is sweet…”, and by implication, that no one and no-thing soothes, refreshes, gladdens and is as gracious and giving as a mother is to her child. Similarly, the Igbo people believe that “Nneka”, that “Mother is supreme”. Chiding and admonishing the exiled and dejected Okonkwo, Uchendu, same Okonkwo’s maternal uncle, profoundly explains an aspect of the nature of cultural speak: “Why is Okonkwo with us today? This is not his clan. We are only his mother’s kinsmen. He does not belong here...[But] why it is that one of the commonest names we give our children is Nneka, or “Mother is Supreme?” We all know that a man is the head of the family and his wives do his bidding. A child belongs to its father and his family and not to its mother and her family. A man belongs to his fatherland and not to his motherland. And yet we say Nneka – ‘Mother is Supreme.’ Why is that?...It’s true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother’s hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you…And that is why we say that mother is supreme.” (Achebe 2019, pp. 114-115) Thus, by “Nneka” and “Nyɛ Awo ŋɔɔ…” alike, many an African society ascribes a certain utmost supremacy to a mother, or a female parent, or simply, a female. However, like other such cultural concepts, the sheer nominal nature of these two expressions makes them the cultural speak-s that they really are. In the specific case of these expressions, and as aptly demonstrated by Uchendu’s words, this nominal nature is rooted in the normalized role of the female as a carer-nurturer and as the ultimate source of affection and compassion. 5 ‘Asaase’ literally means ‘earth’ and ‘Yaa’ is the day name of a Thursday-born female. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 7 In effect, be it token feminism or cultural speak, it, at best, only pacifies, patronizes, indulges and sometimes even infantilizes women, all without any real intention and effort to treat women with grace and fairness – with equality. And so it goes without saying that neither token feminism nor cultural speak translates into positive and progressive laws and systems, which in turn, actually affect the lived realities of women in same positive and progressive ways. And it is for these and such reasons that token feminisms and cultural speak-s are mere tokens and only nominal, respectively – and nothing more. As evident in said lived realities and in histories of women, as well as in academic discourse and in literary traditions, women have had to be decidedly and unapologetically rebellious if and before they will enjoy what may still be the barest advantages of a feminist ideal or action. Thus, this makes easily tenable Virginia Woolf (2021)’s bold assertions about what would have been the case If Shakespeare had a Sister; makes expectedly urgent Alice Walker’s Womanism, as iterated by Greenblatt and Gunn (1992); and also, makes African Feminism(s) valid and legitimate in its own right, and in effect, worthy of every goodwill and unanimous action. Numerous research has also shown that in many African/ Ghanaian cultures, the misogynies that necessitate African Feminism are sanctioned by, and very often, enshrined in both oral and lived traditions. The oral traditions include folktales and proverbs, while the lived traditions are usually dictated by mores and customs that govern institutions such as marriage and inheritance. In one such research, Appiah-Amfo and Diabah (2014): “argue that although the contexts within which [selected Akan] proverbs are used may not always be gendered…[they] tend to present women in particular stereotypical ways…most of which can be interpreted as derogatory, negative or subservient…[And] although women are sometimes represented positively, such representations, which are seen as virtues, often lure them into accepting and playing…roles [which] reinforc[e] hegemonic masculinity…” (p. 1) University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 8 In another by Cudjoe (2016), she concludes that: “the language of Ewe proverb[s]…supports a patriarchal ideology which…[is] subtle [yet] ensure that women’s traditional roles of being submissive to men are maintained”. (p. 80) It is therefore well established in academic discourse and literary traditions that there indeed is misogyny in both traditional and contemporary African/ Ghanaian cultures. And as can rightly be expected, this is true for Ga culture. There is, however, not as much research which explores the ways that women in African/ Ghanaian cultures assert, even if subtly, gender equality or feminist ideals such as agency and ambition, intelligence and independence, as well as interrogation and subversion of misogyny and its many sibling patriarchal norms. There is even less research that explores how African women assert themselves and dissent the gender culture of their societies, by employing, referencing, dialoguing or even subverting the very oral literatures and lived traditions that inform and enforce the misogynies that women suffer. In one of such work, Yitah (2018) explores how Kasem women “deploy nantandia, a local Kasem term which encompasses intelligence, initiative and courage” in their “contemporary retellings of…Kasem folktales”. By disrupting patriarchal norms and systems in both the temporal and supernatural worlds of these Kasem folktales, these women use their retellings to “assert their own subjecthood” in these folktales and perhaps, also in their consciousness of their lived realities outside of both the original and retold folktales. 1.3 Introduction to the Study Proverbs form both an important feature and foundation of many an African society’s culture, philosophy, value and belief systems – an entire worldview. And among other subjects and issues of life, this includes the worldview about and imagination of gender. In a more general sense, Dzobo (1992) observes that African proverbs University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 9 “state metaphorically certain general truths about life…[and they] lead us to conceive and understand the essence of human relationships, events, life’s situations and the behaviour patterns of people. They establish certain value bases to help us comprehend and order our actions, and they enshrine…vital conclusions…” (pp. 94–95) Thus, anything that a proverb asserts about any subject, including gender, is set firm and fast as fact and truth. And as part of their eclectic qualities, proverbs can inform, be derived from or linked to other oral literary traditions such as folk tales and songs, myths and legends, idiomatic and colloquial expressions, and even symbols and other forms of material culture. For example, the Ga sama (symbol) that is called 6‘Alagba tɛ’, and is reminiscent of a person holding a catapult, is linked to the Ga proverb, Alagba tɛ gbeɔ loofɔlɔ. [Like a well-aimed stone,] a stone thrown amiss (with a catapult) . [too] kills [or can sometimes kill] a bird. Also, the Ga proverbial expression, “Mɔ ko leee mɔ ni fɔ Okai Koi” “No one knows who gave birth to Okai Koi” is most likely informed by the historical narrative about the 7supposedly unknown mother of the ancient Ga king, Okai Koi. Over time, the proverb will evolve from its historical reference and literal meaning to a literary and rhetoric one, to the effect that 8“The origin of a notable person is (sometimes) obscure or unassuming”, or sometimes, altogether unknown. For this reason, 6 See a picture of this Ga sama (symbol) in the Appendix. 7 Maŋtsɛ (king) Okai Koi’s mother is Maŋnyɛ (Queen) Dode Akabi, the famously said wicked and only woman ruler of the Ga people. Her reign immediately precedes her son’s. According to Amartey (1990), mother and son reigned from about 1610 to 1635 and 1635 to 1660, respectively (p. 21). Dode Akabi is said to have been buried alive in a well that she had instructed to be dug, one of the tasking and often impossible commands during her alleged tyrannical rule. “Prince Okai Koi was very young [at the time, and so] on coming of age, he desired to know who his mother was, as well as her name, but none durst tell it. Hence the…expression, "Moko lee moni fo Okai Koi" [sic], i.e. No one knows the one who begat Okai Koi. At last an old woman told him all the circumstances connected with his mother's death. He, therefore, ascending the [throne], ruled the subjects with a rod of iron” (Reindorf, 1895: p. 19). 8 An equally valid interpretation of this proverbial expression can be “Information that is potentially damaging is best left unmentioned.” University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 10 iterations of a proverb in other forms of folklore and material culture are as admissible and authoritative as the proverb itself. To this end, contemporary choral songs, such as those pioneered and popularized by Wulɔmɛi in the 1970s, are of particular importance. Founded in 1973 by Nii Tei Ashitey, as he was 9popularly known, the Wulɔmɛi music troupe is widely known in Ga-land and in Ghana and beyond for songs including 10Mɛridiɛn, 11Kaaafo and 12Mala, Mawie Ga. Wulɔmɛi had the immense support of multi-artist 13Saka Acquaye, who is known to have also directed the group and to have written some of their songs. Before founding Wulɔmɛi, Nii Tei himself had, at various times, been part of bands including E. T. Mensah’s Tempos Band, Tubman Band in Liberia, and later, the Ghana Police Band and the 14GBC Orchestra. Naa Amanua Dodoo was the troupe’s lead vocalist, and 15Nii Adu Ofoliquaye was the bass gombe drummer. Other members of the troupe included Naa Fenua, Nii Nortey and Nii Laalai. Nene Acquah, Nii Annor, Nii Odartei and Steve Ampah were part of the troupe’s band. Later, because of Wulɔmɛi’s phenomenal acclaim, and particularly after some of the foundational members left the troupe, other Ga cultural (music) groups emerged – such as Abladei, Agbaafoi, Ashiedu Keteke (Ashiedu Kɛtɛkɛ), Bukom Ensemble, Blemabii, Dromo Naa (Dromɔ Naa), Dzadzeloi (Jajelɔi), La Dade Kotopon (La Dade Kotopɔŋ) and Suku. Naa Amanua, Nii Adu and John Collins formed Suku, Bukom Ensemble and Agbaafoi, respectively. It is more than reasonable to say that Wulɔmɛi influenced, inspired or least paved the way 9 Nii Tei Ashitey is also known as Raymond Amartei Ashitey. He passed on in his 80s, in December 2018. His funeral and burial were in March 2019. 10 See this song under the Undoing Dialogic Mode in Chapter 4. 11 See this song under the Undeifying Dialogic Mode (One) in Chapter 5. 12 See the song text of Mala, Mawie Ga at the end of the list of songs in the Appendix. 13 Among other artistic occupations, Saka Acquaye was a dramatist, sculptor and musician. 14 Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. 15 Nii Adu Ofoliquaye is popularly known as ‘Big Boy’. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 11 for Ga music by later generation musicians such as rapper Tinny (Nii Addo Quaynor); highlife artistes Adane Best (Joseph Amoah), Adotey Tetor and King David (David Kotey Neequaye); Amarh Pino (Nii Amarh Amarteifio); Kaseembebe (Kaseem Issaka); reggae-dancehall artiste 16Shatta Wale (Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jr.); Gasmilla (Odartei Milla Lamptey); and singer- songwriter Cina Soul (Christie Quincyna Quarcoopome), who mentioned in an interview that “one moment in her [music] career that [she] totally adored” was a performance with Naa Amanua of Wulɔmɛi (and Amandzeba Nat Brew) (Quarcoopome 2021). Together with those of the same genre and era, the songs by Wulɔmɛi are vividly folkloric. This is largely because of the rich language and other literary qualities employed in the songs, the subjects and themes explored in them, as well as the rootsy texture lent them by the infusion of folk elements such as proverbs and (folk)tales, elements that are steeped in lore and in oral tradition. Because of this, even though some of these songs are original compositions of individuals or of one or more members of a troupe, it can be easy to think of these songs as borrowed from, or as renditions or adaptations of already existing Ga 17traditional-folk songs. Thus, the values, beliefs, attitudes and principles that are represented and asserted in such songs are (to be) treated and accepted with utmost respect and assent. And if this is not enough for these songs to command popularity and authority in equal measure, the very name of the troupe, ‘Wulɔmɛi’, together with their corresponding and albeit eccentric stage costume, makes for an even more remarkable import. The name ‘Wulɔmɛi’ refers to Ga traditional priests, the spiritual leaders and the custodians of social culture and religious customs. Like Wulɔmɛi, Ga priests and priestesses are usually clad 16 Shatta Wale’s former stage name was Bandana. 17 See a detailed footnote explanation for ‘traditional-folk’ under the Unraveling Dialogic Mode (One) in Chapter 4. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 12 in plain 18white calico cloth. The women usually wrap one piece of the cloth around their waists, in the form of a long skirt. They drape or tie another piece around their busts or trunk – this top half can hang from the tops of the breasts to as far as near the knees. The men wear can wear a bottom half of full shorts or trousers or similar, with or without a top half draping their chests from across one shoulder. The men may also wear loose hats – made of the same cloth – with raw-cut frills, and the women may wear a simple-tied headscarf or hair band. Around their necks and on their chest, both men and women may also wear (usually) white beads and or 19nyanyara. In an interview, Naa Amanua recounts how it was not until the troupe and its name had been approved, prayed for, blessed and sanctified by the 20Nai Wulɔmɔ and other Ga (Mashi) Wulɔmɛi, together with other traditional leaders and elders, before the troupe became 21officially established (Dodoo, 2020). Therefore, Wulɔmɛi and similar music troupes enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, a popular appeal, not only for their genre of music, but even more so for the esteemed and influential place that these songs hold in Ga oral tradition and oral literature canon. And all this is not without the impact of this place on Ga social, cultural, philosophical and even gender consciousness. Thus, just as one will preface a proverb or some other element of Ga folklore with “Onukpai kɛɛ…” “[Our] Elders/ ancestors…” 18 Led by Nii Tei’s son and daughter, Nii Ashikwei and Naa Asheley, respectively, the new/ second generation Wulɔmɛi wear yellow, instead of white cloth. Some time before he passed on, Nii Tei was one of the producers for Wulomei Returns, a ten-track album of contemporary music genre renditions of previous Wulɔmɛi titles, and in which artistes such as Tinny and Kaseembebe were featured. 19 Nyanyara is Momordica Charantia, a creeping plant used for adornment, as part of Ga purification and other religious rites, and for its medicinal purposes. 20 Nai is one of the three major deities of Ga Mashi, the Ga of Accra Central. The others are Sakumɔ and Kɔɔle (Amartey, 1990; p. 161). Nai is a sea deity; the head of Nai We (the Nai deity home) is the Nai Wulɔmɔ (Nai Priest). 21 Prior to this, however, the troupe was actively working – composing and rehearsing songs – in ready for releasing their first LP and album, Mibe Shi Dinn (Mibɛ Shi Diŋŋ) and Walatu Walasa, respectively, both in 1974. Walatu Walasa is a Ga linguistic modification of the Akan expression, ‘Woara tu, Woara Sa’, which can literally be translated as ‘You dig, you collect (the dug-out debris by) yourself’. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 13 one would as well do same with “Lalaŋmalɔ [aloo lalɔ] lɛ kɛɛ…” “The songwriter [or the singer/bard] said…”, where ‘songwriter’ or ‘singer’ here may as well refer to Wulɔmɛi and or similar. To this end, and in the light of this study, whether Ga proverb or song, and whether an actual Ga 22traditional-folk song or a folk song by Wulɔmɛi or similar, all these are at once, tenable and admissible in de-constructing their inherent gender representations. And it must be mentioned, that except for very rare instances, the gender representations in these Ga songs and proverbs are masculinist or pro-masculine, and most often, altogether misogynist. Also, in said rare exceptions that a Ga song or proverb is in any way feminist, it is almost always a negative representation (of females). In effect, and 23using an adaptation of Bakhtin’s imagination of Dialog(ue), together with the kasaŋtswi (indirection) principle and the proverb-name of a 24Ga sama (symbol), this study suggests four patterns of gender construction in Ga socio-cultural imagination. Each pattern has a corresponding implication or imagination; all four patterns are generally biased against the female gender. 1.3.1 Purpose of the Study Beyond merely establishing perceived misogynist and feminist representations in the selected Ga songs and proverbs, this study seeks to show the implications of the gender inequalities that emerge when the parties in these representations are brought into a prescribed Dialogue with each other. These implications are inherent in the outcomes of the said Dialogue. 22 See reference to this term, as distinct from ‘folk song’, and both as used in this study, earlier in this Introduction. See also a detailed footnote explanation under the Unraveling Dialogic Mode (One) in Chapter 4. 23 An explanation of this study’s Theoretical Framework is in the next section, ‘1.3.3. Scope of the Research’. A more detailed explanation is in Chapter 3. 24 The specific Ga sama (symbol) here is “Abiii wo ni ahe nu”, which can be translated as “One does not ask for honey and take water [instead]”. See a picture of this Ga sama in the Appendix. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 14 1.3.2 Statement of Problem There are unequal gender representations in Ga oral literature, including Ga proverbs and folk songs or their contemporary choral versions, such as those sung by Wulɔmɛi and the like. However, these inequalities are not readily evident because of the token and nominal notions of gender equality and the albeit very rare ‘feminist’ ideals in these Ga songs and proverbs, as well as in other elements of Ga oral literature. If and since these inequalities must be interrogated, and their implications deconstructed, this must as well be done using a distinct Theoretical Framework. This study’s Theoretical Framework is not only consistent with, but also, is derived from relevant 25elements of the body of oral literatures in which these same inequalities exist. At the very least, this study’s Theoretical Framework ensures integrity with the contextual questions of the subject at hand, gender representations in proverbs and folk songs, which in turn, are aspects of said body of oral literatures. All this makes for the Theoretical Framework’s necessary compatibility with the subject at hand, and even the subject’s context. And this in turn, makes the Theoretical Framework valid for its own sake, and for its relevance and aptness to said subject and to its contextual implications. 1.3.3 Scope of the Study For the avoidance of doubt and ambiguity, the two genders under consideration in this research are the male and female genders. And to achieve a focused and unified Dialogue between the 25 This refers to the kasaŋtswi (indirection) principle and the proverb-name of a Ga sama (ideogram), both of which form the conceptual basis for the Dialogue(s) prescribed by this study. See an earlier mention of this in the Introduction section of this Chapter, and a detailed explanation in Chapter 3, the Theoretical Framework and Methodology Chapter. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 15 parties of the gender representations in the selected Ga songs and proverbs: a) this study prescribes four dialectical models, termed Dialogic Modes: Undoing, Unraveling, Undeifying and Unmasking. Each Dialogic Mode has a corresponding outcome, all of which are forms of gender inequality: Double Standard, Irony, Tokenism and Contradiction, respectively. b) The tenor of any given Dialogue is set by the dialectics of the Dialogic Mode in which that Dialogue is conducted, together with the subject matter of the main selected song(s) and or proverb(s) under consideration in the Dialogue. c) the essential meaning of a statement-turned-question of a Ga proverb sets the preamble for a particular Dialogue in a particular Dialogic Mode, and for all four unified Dialogic Modes. This proverb is actually the proverb-name of a 26Ga sama (symbol): Abiii wo ni ahe nu. One does not ask for honey and take water [instead]. 1.3.4 Thesis Statement Employing elements of Ga oral literature to interrogate gender representations in other elements of Ga oral literature helps to more aptly study the inequalities in these gender representations. (For the purposes of this research, the specific elements are the proverb-name of a Ga sama and the kasaŋtwi principle.) Using a prescribed theoretical framework, analyses of the implications of these inequalities tend to certain outcomes, outcomes that expose these gender representations for what they really are: Double Standards, Ironies, Tokenisms and Contradictions. 26 See a picture of this Ga sama in the Appendix. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 16 Ultimately, these outcomes generate and sustain an unending unified Dialogue between Ga gender culture and either or both genders, as the case may be in the selected song(s) and or proverb(s) for a given Dialogue. However, because of the dominant masculinist and often misogynist representations in Ga oral literature in general, the female gender is most often the other party in Dialogue with Ga gender culture. 1.3.5 Research Questions a) What are the unequal gender representations in the selected Ga proverbs and songs? b) What are the implications or outcomes of these inequalities, when either or both genders and Ga gender culture are ‘incited’ into prescribed Dialogue(s) with each other? c) What do these outcomes ultimately reveal about the nature and patterns of the unequal gender representations in the selected Ga songs and proverbs? 1.3.6 Research Objectives a) Describe the unequal gender representations in the selected Ga proverbs and folk songs. b) Define the implications or outcomes of these inequalities, when either or both genders and Ga gender culture are ‘incited’ into prescribed Dialogue(s) with each other. c) Interrogate what these outcomes ultimately reveal about the nature and patterns of the inequal gender representations in the selected Ga songs and proverbs. 1.3.7 Significance of the Study That there is general and dominant misogyny in popular Ga oral tradition, and specifically in Ga oral literatures such as Ga proverbs and folk songs like those sung by Wulɔmɛi and similar, is probably neither covert nor ill-intentioned, and neither unknown nor particular to only Ga University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 17 worldview or even that of Africa and the world at large. This study, therefore, will be quite the cliché if it seeks to merely establish the existence and tangible reality of said misogyny. Therefore, rather than merely establish gender representations in the selected Ga songs and proverbs, this study seeks to illustrate the implications or outcomes of these inequalities, through ‘inciting’ a prescribed Dialogue between Ga gender culture and either or both genders. Also, this study initiates – if not inspires – one way of conceptualizing and decolonializing theoretical frameworks as tools for exploring and understanding Africa and African epistemologies. Broadly speaking, this implies employing original or adapted theoretical frameworks, the underpinning concepts of which are based on, derived from, or at least consistent with the cultural context of the subject at hand. Specifically in this study, this is how one set of elements of Ga oral literature are employed as theoretical framework in exploring the subject of gender representations in another set of elements of Ga oral literature. The first set of elements of Ga oral literature are the said kasaŋtwi principle and the proverb-name of a Ga sama; the second set consists of the Ga songs and proverbs selected and used as data for this study. 1.4 Source of Data The research data are selected from various collections of Ga proverbs and contemporary choral songs. In this study, these songs are specifically described as ‘folk songs’, among other terms and references. In no particular order, the main sources for the songs are: a) the researcher’s personal collection from various sources. b) a collection from the music archives at the Gramophone Library of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). c) downloads from YouTube and other online sources. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 18 And the main sources for the proverbs include: a) the researcher’s personal collection from lived experience and interactions with people, especially her late Grandmother, Madam Mary Ansaba Botchway. Years before this study, the researcher used to share some of these proverbs on one of her social media accounts. b) the list of Ga proverbs in Zimmermann (1972). c) extracts from social media and other sources, usually Ga-centered personal and organization Facebook pages, like 27Patrick Masoperh’s and 28We Are Ga’s, respectively. It is important to state here that there are other Ga songs and proverbs sourced from the above- mentioned, only that these other songs and proverbs are referenced and or used for other purposes in this study, usually as supporting texts to main or selected data texts. Also, unless otherwise stated, all the data, as well as any other Ga texts mentioned and used in this research, are rendered in the most current orthography of Written Ga (WG), rather than Spoken Ga (SG) or Ga as it may be heard. It should suffice to quickly explain that Written and Spoken Ga are distinctly different, at least in terms of phonetics and transcription, but not in terms of semantics. Only a person who is very competent in Ga can tell WG and SG apart. And depending a person’s actual literacy in Ga, he/she can transpose from the one to the other. Finally, in selecting the song- and proverb- texts for this study, and in keeping with the study’s Gender subject and its Dialogic Theoretical Framework: • first priority was given to gendered texts. The relationship context of these texts is neither necessarily nor always romantic, marital, familial, or other. All the same, the relationship 27 https://www.facebook.com/patrick.masoperh/ 28 https://www.facebook.com/WeAreGa/ University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 19 contexts are categorically gendered. These texts are often used as main selected data, with or without supporting texts, which in turn, may or may not be gendered. • non-gendered texts are generally not used as the main and or the only selected data in a given Dialogue. However, under the Undeifying Dialogic Mode, a non-gendered text may be used as one of the two selected data for a given Dialogue. The reason for this exception is explained in the introduction to the Undeifying Dialogic Mode, in Chapter 5. 1.5 Organization of Research Titled ‘Background and Introduction’, Chapter One outlines the fundamental aspects of this study and its core argument. This chapter is made up of the Title of the Study, its Background, its Introduction and the Source of (its) Data. The Background to the Study explores the question of African Feminism in the face of a general and dominant bias against the female gender, a bias that is neither reduced nor undone by the ‘token feminisms’ and ‘cultural speaks’ that it is often fraught with. Beginning with an exposition of the place and value of the Ga songs and proverbs in Ga socio-cultural imagination of gender, the Introduction to the Study continues with information that specify the Purpose of the Study, Statement of Problem, Scope of Study, Thesis Statement, Research Questions, Research Objectives, and Significance of the Study. Under the Source of Data section of this chapter, the various sources from which the research data were collected are described, as well as how data is selected and distributed for use under the four Dialogic Modes, and how this data is rendered or transcribed. Chapter One ends with the Organization of the Research. With more focus on the Ghanaian, Chapter Two, ‘Literature Review’ is an overview of previous and relevant scholarship on Proverbs and Folk(loric) Songs, together with the gender constructions in both. Accordingly, the chapter is divided into two sections. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 20 Chapter Three begins with a description of the general context and the dominant gendered culture within which the research data is situated and therefore, will later be analyzed. The Theoretical Framework and its constituent research methodology and tools are then explained, together with their implications on the positionality of the study. This is followed by a distinction between Bakhtin’s and this study’s Imagination of Dialogue. After this, the four Dialogic Modes prescribed by this study are specified and briefly described, to be explained and illustrated in extensive detail in the next chapters, Chapters 4 and 5. Under the various sections in this chapter, aspects of this study’s Theoretical Framework and Methodology are justified, as variously indicated in Chapter 1. Chapters Four and Five are (data) analysis chapters: they contain thorough introductions to and illustrations of the four Dialogic Modes. The illustrations are done using the selected research data, sometimes together with other relevant or related texts. All this is done in keeping with the specific dialectics or tenor of a given Dialogic Mode. Chapter Four consists of four Dialogues, two each for the Undoing and Unraveling Dialogic Modes; Chapter Five contains another four Dialogues, two each for the Undeifying and Unmasking Dialogic Modes. The study’s ‘Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations’ are summarized in Chapter Six. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 21 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW OVERVIEW: With more focus on the Ghanaian, this chapter is an overview of previous and relevant research literature on Proverbs and Folk(loric) Songs, together with the gender constructions in both. Accordingly, the chapter is divided into two sections. 2.1 Ghanaian Proverbs and Folk(loric) Songs A proverb can be defined as a vivid yet pithy sage expression that asserts a truism in a language steeped in metaphor and symbolism. Here, the term ‘expression’, instead of ‘words’ or ‘statement’, denotes that apart from the oral and verbal, African proverbs in particular, often have visual, kinaesthetic and other tangible or material mediums. Various examples of these other mediums include symbols and totems, gestures and actions, names of 29cloths and or the designs and patterns in them, sewn styles of these and other cloths, and even styles of wearing them – and headscarves too. The proverbs of interest to this study, however, are proverbs as expressed in words, be they written or spoken – or sung, as is sometimes the case here. According to Yankah (1989a), “The word ‘proverb’ comes from the Latin word, proverbium (pro = for and verbum = word), implying that the proverb is what is used instead of a plain word (Bryant 3)”; he also cites “B. J. Whiting, who describes the proverb as ‘a short saying of a philosophic nature, of great antiquity, the product of the masses rather than of the classes, constantly applicable, and appealing because it bears a semblance of universal truth (278)’” (p. 327). Proverbs are one form and genre of what is often termed a culture’s body or canon of ‘oral 29 Ready examples of such cloths are textile prints and what many Ghanaian cultures call ‘kente’ – or variations of it. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 22 literature’ or ‘folk literature’ or sometimes simply ‘folklore’, which also includes folktales and 30traditional-folk songs, greetings and by-words, riddles and lullabies, myths and legends, taboos and even names, as well as idioms and certain formalized (sets of) expressions that are (parts of) speeches such as oaths, apostrophes, prayers or libations, and appellations. In an organic yet dynamic culture, it can be expected that its stock of proverbs, for example, evolve to accommodate and reflect changes and shifts in worldviews about phenomena including gender, gender representations and gender inequality or otherwise. With the inevitable passing of time and its natural tendency to facilitate said changes and shifts, such a vibrant culture may even add to its canon of literatures or lores, thereby effecting more complex and nuanced changes and shifts in the same culture’s values and beliefs as seen in their mores, as well as in their principles and practices as seen in their laws. In other words, as part of lore, proverbs both reflect and congeal into mores and laws. This means that proverbs are not innocent and innocuous as they may often appear: neither are they merely art and articles of aestheticism, nor even elements of rhetoric and orature. However, it should be valid to value and deploy proverbs, irrespective of medium, even if merely and only for their peculiar properties, as well as for reasons and purposes that Anyidoho (1997), Yankah (1989a, 1989b and 1995) and many other scholars have extensively indicated. It is therefore not surprising that as part of constructing frameworks and epistemologies of African (sometimes specifically Akan) Philosophy and Philosophical Thought, philosophers such as Kwasi Wiredu and Kwame Gyekye mention, include and engage proverbs. Wiredu (1980) does argue a distinction between what he calls ‘modern African Philosophy and 31‘traditional African thought’, 30 See a detailed footnote explanation for the researcher’s choice of the ‘traditional-folk’ under the Unraveling Dialogic Mode (One) in Chapter 4. There are also earlier references to this chosen term in the previous Chapter 1. 31 This term appears to be interchangeable with ‘African Traditional Philosophy’ and ‘African Traditional Thought’, as well as “traditional folk thought” as seen in the blurb to Wiredu (1980). University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 23 which readily springs from proverbs and other such folk lores and mores; yet, Wiredu neither denies nor rejects that proverbs and said lores and mores largely inform and are integral to the construction of African Philosophy, be it ‘traditional’ or ‘modern’ (pp. x–xi, 4 and 29). On the other hand, Gyekye (1987 and 1988) does not only categorically assert the imperative place and role of proverbs in the construction of African Philosophy. Also, Gyekye argues against the distinction attempted by Wiredu and others, and even more importantly, against the suggestion that the so-called ‘African (traditional) thought/ philosophy is any less of Philosophy, and or is not Philosophy in its own right, thereby refuting the implied notion that the idea and subject of Philosophy is the preserve of the Western and Eastern worlds (pp. 1–8 and pp. 28–29, respectively). All this goes to prove why “Proverbs, since the time of Aristotle, have been depicted as remnants saved from the ‘wrecks and ruins of ancient philosophy by reason of their conciseness and cleverness’ (Bryant 1945:4)” (Yankah 1989a, p. 327). And all this is but one telling reason and evidence that the (African) proverb transcends it being only and merely “an aesthetic device [and] an agent of vitality in speech” (Yankah 1989a, p. 328). For the Kasena people of Northern Ghana, there is significant scholarship on proverbs, including Awedoba (2000) and Yitah (2006, 2009, 2012 and 2018); there is some more research on Ewe proverbs such as Ladzekpo (1980), Agbemenu (2010), Cudjoe (2016) and Agbemabiese (2016); scholarship on the proverbs of the Akan from roughly mid-Ghana appears to be the most extensive, among which are Yankah (1989), Asante (2002), Agyekum (2012), and Appiah-Amfo and Diabah (2014). For the Ga people of roughly South-Eastern and coastal Ghana, some of their proverbs have been collected in Zimmermann (1972, p. 158–177), Klu (?2018, pp. 59–81) and in three volumes by Squire (2003: pp. 60–65; pp. 83–88; and pp. 86–92, respectively). Apart from these collections, it appears there is very little scholarship on Ga proverbs, and even so, much of University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 24 this scholarship is rather quite incidental, often focusing on the contents and technicalities of subject areas such as history and linguistics, religion and customary culture, music and design or applied science, and even ethnographic studies. Thus, it seems these fields essentialize the subject of proverbs, and are not exactly extensive and discursive in their approach to and treatment of proverbs, thereby not making for studies that centre and explore proverbs in their own right. Neither does this make for a rounder and fuller realization of the nature and nuances of proverbs, and perhaps for inspiring or igniting similar or further research. Among such scholarly works are Odotei (1989, p. 47); Kropp Dakubu (1997, p. 11–12 and 129); Kudadjie (1999); Parker (2000, p. ix); Odamtten (2015); and Asmah, Clement and Mate (2015). Folk(loric) songs, or specifically what the researcher has termed ‘traditional-folk songs’, also constitute an important part of oral literature. To a large extent, and as mediated by the peculiar genre features and qualities of this other form of oral literature, much of the foregoing discussion about proverbs can be said (to be true or at least similar) about these songs too. And again, it appears that far more than any other Ghanaian culture, Akan folk songs have enjoyed vast scholarly interest and attention. This includes research work on the preceding traditional-folk origins or versions of these songs, as well as work on their latter re-imagined versions, and also original compositions in the form of palm wine music and highlife. Having said this, mentioning but a few said research work will suffice: Nketiah (1958), Collins (1985 and 1994), Salm (2003), and Webb (2015). Not only these particular mentioned works by these scholars, and even if these works are largely immersed in the subjects of music and music history, but also these scholars have done significant work on traditional-folk music of Ghanaian origin, especially such music of the Akan people. Salm’s dissertation appreciably focuses on kpanlogo, a Ga traditional-folk music (and dance), which partly influenced the music by Wulɔmɛi and their like; Webb’s long paper is a University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 25 rigorous work that is specifically and passionately about Wulɔmɛi – and Wulɔmɛi alone. And even if cursorily or without much focused detail, and even if in keeping with the length and content of their mentioned works here, Collins and Nketiah variously mention traditional-folk precursors of the songs by Wulɔmɛi and similar, such as adaawe and said kpanlogo. And especially in their other works (not referenced here), these and other scholars have done a lot of work that explore other music genres partly inspired by and or derived from traditional-folk music, genres such as what is popularly called ‘palm wine music’ and ‘highlife’. Considering the 32cultural origins and stylistic influences of palm wine music and highlife, as well as the era in which Wulɔmɛi gained grounds and popularity, one can think of music/ songs by Wulɔmɛi and the like as 33‘Ga highlife’. Even better, Webb (2015) asserts that: “…many highlife-inspired groups performing at local establishments incorporate sequences of popular Ga folk music pieces into their repertoire for foreign and local audiences. Ga folk music has even impacted hiplife, one of Ghana’s most recent branches of highlife inspired by rap and hip-hop, with artists like Kaseem Bebe remixing older popular Wulomei songs for his compositions…Outside of the local scene in Accra one can find groups in the Ghanaian diaspora performing pieces from the Ga folk music repertoire, and several internet sites and blogs online feature select tracks or albums of old releases with short descriptions of various “Ga Cultural Highlife” groups…” (p. 53). 32 The earliest form of palm wine music was in the 1920s, among the Kru people of Liberia and Sierra Leone. As it spread from coastal to hinterland areas, palm wine music evolved into discernibly traditional (Ghanaian) music genre(s), having first begun as a fusion of local (West African) and Trinidadian calypso rhythms, accompanied by Portuguese guitar introduced to the people on the coast by sailors and other ship workers. Dynamic in both time and location since its beginnings in colonial Ghana (Gold Coast), highlife is a popular and an ever-evolving West African music genre that is heavily influenced by palm wine music, traditional Akan and Ga (Kpanlogo) music, as well as jazz melodies from the West. 33 Even though Ga traditional-folk music such as kpanlogo is known to have influenced highlife, and perhaps even palm wine music, these two music genres are often associated with the Akan people. And this is not to mention that per its very stylistic origins and socio-cultural history in Ghana, palm wine music, and to some extent, highlife, began in coastal Ghana, among the Ga people, and most likely the (Akan) Fante people too, before spreading hinterland to (the other) Akan people, and perhaps to the rest of Ghana. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 26 And even so, Ga music by the likes of 34King Bruce predates that of Wulɔmɛi and their contemporaries, and obviously also those that emerged after Wulɔmɛi and their like, such as music by 35King Solomon (Nii Mantse [Maŋtsɛ]). Despite all this, there still is relatively not much scholarship on Ga music and song genres, including those by Wulɔmɛi and their like, and this is something about which Webb (2015) showed concern: “This article intends first to provide scholarly space and an accurate description of Wulomei’s emergence onto Accra’s musical landscape. To date there has been little attention devoted to Ga folk music in the academic world that could be considered commensurate with the music’s impact in Ghana. Moreover, writing about Ga folk music has been largely journalistic thereby lacking interpretation of its broader meaning and significance within the Ga community. Second, I aim to uncover how factors such as urbanization, marginalization and social transformation led to the strategic reconfiguration of heterogeneous artistic and cultural elements—foreign and local, old and new—for the purposes of promoting a Ga cultural renaissance through this stylistic and deeply symbolic artistic display (Clifford 2003: 89).” (p. 54) 2.2 Gender Constructions in Ghanaian Proverbs and Folk(loric) Songs. As has been indicated in detail earlier in this study, especially in the Background and Introduction sections in Chapter 1, almost all – if not all – of the scholarship on proverbs from Ghanaian cultures show that these proverbs (re)present females in unequal and often negative ways. This is true even 34 Founder of the Black Beats band, King Bruce made music from the early 1950s to well into the 1970s, when music by Wulɔmɛi started enjoying popular attention. Albeit often with a mellow tempo and lightly danceable rhythm, King Bruce’s music is outstanding, and this is only partly because of the remarkable poetry of his composition and arrangement, and his lyric’s approachable philosophical inclinations. Sometimes sung in Fante, some of his popular songs are ‘Srotoi Yemlin’ [Srɔtoi yɛ Mli (They Come in All Sorts)] and ‘Minsumobo Tamoshe’ [Misumɔɔ Bo Tamɔ Shɛ (I Love You Like Sugarcane)]. 35 Known in private life as Nii Okaikoi Tetteh-Quaye, King Solomon’s music is experimental and upbeat, but also evidently rooted in or reminiscent of the preceding Ga music history and influences. One of his most popular songs is ‘Fofoi’ [Fɔfɔi (Flower)], which was released in the 1990s. He is still alive and making music. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 27 for gender studies in other elements of folk literatures such as folktales, examples being Opoku- Agyemang (1999) and Mireku-Gyimah (2013). This pattern in gender constructions can be expected among the Ga people too, even though there is barely any scholarly work that decidedly examines Ga proverbs, and even more so gender in Ga proverbs. This is mainly because many Ghanaian ethnic groups, share certain similarities and semblances, which manifest in aspects of their identity, such as their individual languages and literatures, their traditions and customs, and sometimes even the value and belief systems that underpin the entirety of the given Ghanaian ethnic group’s culture and cultural identity. This is particularly so for Ghanaian ethnic groups that are geographically close to each other, as well as those that have had one kind of interaction and exchange or the other, in history. This by no means suggests that some or all Ghanaian ethnic groups are homogenous. Neither does this imply that they are essentially similar or the same, nor that they may be representative of each other and even of the entire nation state of Ghana. Thus, as part of the aims of this study, and as it later emerged as its outcomes, this study transcends establishing said pattern of gender construction in Ga proverbs (and folk songs). One of the rather rare scholarly works on Ga proverbs is Asmah, Clement and Mate’s (2015) Proverbial Symbols in Cloth for Ga Royals. Apart from this work being about the visual representation of some Ga proverbs, these representations are the authors’ own interpretation and “translation of Ga proverbs into symbols, [which they then] use[d] to produce royal clothes [sic]” (p. 22). The authors claimed to have created these symbols using knowledge of traditional design concepts and principles, understanding of the socio-cultural philosophies underpinning these proverbs, and “constant social interaction characterized by casual conversation with [some] custodians of Ga royal culture and knowledgeable elders’ [sic], to formulate, describe, evaluate and assesses [sic] the proverbial symbols” (p. 22). It is important, however, to state that these University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 28 proverbial symbols are different and distinct from Ga samai, the known Ga traditional symbols, all of which are proverbial or idiomatic in their own right, if not that they are directly linked to or based on one Ga proverb or the other. Also in this work, the researchers listed other ninety-one (91) Ga proverbs, together with their translations and interpretations in English. And they recommended further research similar to theirs, that is, the creation of more designs and symbols based on Ga proverbs. Thus, rather than the literary and rhetoric nature and nuances of Ga proverbs in their own and singular right, the subject of Asmah, Clement and Mate (2015) is the visual and material aspects of Ga proverbs. Another scholarly literature that is somewhat relevant to this study, specifically in terms of the subjects of gender and Ga (traditional-)folk songs, is Kubi’s (2017) Celebration of Love: An Aspect of Ga Women’s Discourse on Love in Adaawe Song-Texts. Per its folkloric origins and the rhetoric of its poetics, adaawe as song is composed and sung strictly by only women, specifically Ga young women; as dance and performance, adaawe is primarily a source of communal evening- or night- time entertainment, but also a medium of female expression and assertion about issues including, but not at all limited, to romantic love and love relationships. Kubi (2017), therefore, rightly specifies the focus of his paper on romantic love, and not without admitting that adaawe “provides a platform for…women to give commentaries on significant social issues that affect them”. Also, and even if momentarily, the adaawe “performance territory…demarcat[es and] isolat[es] women from men”, from the larger society and from their everyday lived realities, thereby “insulat[ing]” women from their own “inhibition” and from society’s prohibition of them freely and openly expressing and asserting themselves without any “censure” whatsoever (Kubi, 2017: pp. 59–60). This quality of adaawe is reminiscent of another genre of Ga traditional-folk songs, La kpã, of the La(badi) sub-group of the Ga people – or simply, kpã. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 29 More than adaawe, and perhaps other Ga folklore genres, kpã has received significant scholarly attention, even if as part of work on other topics in Ga custom and culture, and Ga oral literature and tradition. For yet other scholarly works, however, kpã – or La kpã, specifically – can be the singular and substantive subject. An example is Marley’s (2019) Kpa Music as a Medium of Social Resistance Among the La, in which (La) kpã is described as “the type of Ga traditional music performed during Homowo [Hɔmɔwɔ] by the people of La and Teshi [Tɛshi]. In La, the music may be freely performed in public, played on radio, at [drinking] bars and at social gatherings during the period of the customary ban on noisemaking. Outside this period, it is unacceptable to perform or play in public especially if the songs are satirical [or recreational, or even categorically not kpã]. Kpa songs can nevertheless be performed in the form of dirge during the funeral rites of a La community leader such as a chief, priest/priestess, a member of the Amlaku or a kpa singing group.” (Marley, 2019: p. 23). Unlike or more than adaawe and other Ga traditional songs, kpã is specially known for its candid and often caustic commentary on and critique of society in general, individuals and institutions in society, and even incidents and other phenomena in society’s experiential realities. All the same, both adaawe and kpã are not necessarily focused on the subject of gender and gender constructions. And so neither Kubi (2017) nor Marley (2019) decidedly explore gender politics and other gendered issues, even when the contents of an adaawe or a kpã may be about or include love and other relationships between people of the two genders. Therefore, the review of research literature like these ones by Benjamin Kubi and Jacob Nii Marley is, firstly, because adaawe and kpã are specific and original genres of Ga traditional-folk songs, much like folk songs by Wulɔmɛi and the like, and these Ga songs, together with Ga proverbs, consist of the subject of this study. The second reason is that the theoretical aspect of this study, Dialogue, is implied by adaawe and kpã, University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 30 36such that women or a section of society, respectively, is a party in dialogue with another party, the rest of society and all that it is and consists of. Secondly, just like Dialogue, adaawe and especially kpã can always assume the posture of a commentary or critique, a reflection or a didactic exercise, a satire or subversion, and even a protest or an outright resistance. To this end, it must be mentioned that Odamtten (2012) has attempted what may as well be the beginning of actual and concerted canon of Ga gender studies. In his own words, his “paper specifically aimed at adding to the canon of the rather scarce theoretical scholarship that exists on Ga-Adangbe women”, while also admitting that there has been “previous scholarship that has some consideration of Ga Women’s roles…[specifically] in the earlier works of Margaret Field (1940, 1961)…[and] Marion Kilson (1971, 1974).” (p. 111 and p. 114, respectively). Odamtten also notes how “Field’s work was aimed at explaining the religious and political culture of the Ga, but also includes various roles occupied by early twentieth century Ga women” and how “Marion Kilson’s (1971, 1974)…disagreed with some of Field’s initial positions on Ga kinship” (p.114). About the latter scholarship by Claire C. Robertson, Odamtten asserts: Arguably, the first systematic study specifically dedicated to the study of Ga women, and with some theoretical thrust is Claire C. Robertson’s (1984) Sharing the Same Bowl: A Socio-Economic History of Women and Class in Accra. Robertson’s venerable study of Ga women in central Accra explains how Ga women increased their autonomy and economic status within the Ga socio-political hierarchy between the pre-colonial era and the post- independence era. Robertson explains that Ga women in pre-colonial Ga society were involved in “corporate kin mode of production” that functioned in a social web of male dominance, and that the colonial period allowed Ga women to assert more autonomy within this Ga patriarchal system. Finally, the capitalist mode of production in the post- independence era saw women lose their access to production and thereby lose the 36 In the case of adaawe, women are expectedly one party in Dialogue, while society, together with its patriarchal order, is the other party. For kpã, a group of kpã singers is a party, and the rest of society, sometimes including the group, is the target party. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 31 autonomy they gained during the colonial period leading to class formation along gendered lines (Robertson 1984, 1-247).” (p. 114) It is worth noting, however, that although Odamtten (2012) is tentative about and amply qualifies his claim about contributing to – if not initiating – a canon on Ga(-Adangbe) gender studies, his assertions in the entire paper are neither unquestionable nor without counter-arguments, some of which have been intimated earlier in this study, including the researcher’s arguments about ‘token feminism’ and ‘cultural speak’ in Chapter 1. Moreover, and as implied earlier, Odamtten’s paper is tangential to the particular subject of Ga proverbs and folksongs in general, and to a large extent, to Ga oral literature in particular. Rather, it is focused on the subject of Ga religious custom and the role and place of women therein, a focus that is much like the various preceding and albeit extensive and seminal works by Margaret Field and Marion Kilson, and to some extent, even Claire C. Robertson. And as recently implied, his views on Ga gender culture, particularly in relation to the female gender, are debatable, just as he thinks of Claire C. Robertson’s views: “Robertson’s [1984] study revealed a lot of facts and truths about Ga society, however her view of Ga society as having an ideology of male superiority is debatable, as societal emphasis on the patrilineage does not presume matrilineal inferiority.” (p. 114). Helen Yitah’s (2006, 2009, 2012 and 2018) various scholarly work on the double subject of proverbs and gender appears to be the most proximate to this study. Particularly in her Kasena Women’s Critique of Gender Roles and Gender Justice through Proverbial Jesting (2012), the element of a verbal exchange is parallel to this study’s conceptualization of Dialogue, even if this Dialogue is only or essentially a conversation, and be it formal and structured or not. The following 37exchange is an instance of “proverbial jesting”, which in many ways, aptly illustrates this 37 The Dialogue cited here does not contain the Kasem text of which the English text is its translation. The underlined parts of the Dialogue are the Kasem proverbs employed by the woman, in keeping with the ‘proverbial jesting’. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 32 proximity and parallelism: “Woman: I am going ahead, and I know you’ll follow soon. Man: Tell me you’re going ahead to begin cooking my dinner, don’t just say you’re leaving. Woman: I would have said so if you had given me what I need to be able to cook. Man: Go and cook with the little that you have and stop complaining. The female ant says that no matter how small her groin is, she will still show it to her husband. Woman: I am sure the female ant said that on the assumption that her husband would reciprocate her gesture. After all, it is the dog who says it is fair play only when you fall and your partner falls too. If I have to cook, it is only fair that you should provide the food. Man: Well, if I’m trying to be nice and you want to show me how much you know, I will have to compel you to do your duty by me. You must not rub shoulders with me. Woman: The female ant’s groin may be small, but it takes more than a strong hand to expose it. Man: What else does it take? Woman: A kind mouth.” (Yitah, 2012: p. 13) Like Dialogue as imagined in this study, the above exchange or dialogue is not only and not merely like any other dialogue. On the contrary, this other Dialogue is witty and intelligent at once, is both tactful and tactical, and is ultimately purposeful, in the sense that both its content and dialectics are aimed at initiating a hitherto nonexistent and otherwise forbidden opportunity to dialogue a society’s entrenched patriarchal notions and attitudes. And as variously explained earlier, this utmost absence and silence is largely because, “As far as…proverbs and their social functions are concerned, perceptions about gender roles and identity and the structures that engender them are located in the world view of the ancestors…who, through their proverbs [and other forms of lore and more], provide contemporary society…with a normative sphere within which appropriate roles and behaviour are defined…[That is,] proverbs are the wisdom of the ancestors, and [are] therefore encapsulate unchallengeable ‘truths’. African oral literature in general, and the University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 33 African proverb in particular, has been largely insulated against criticism because it is perceived as an authentic culture which must not be altered… [And this] accounts in large part for its perceived unassailable position and for the important role that it plays in the socialization of women and men. The belief that proverbs are created by the ancestors who are always right and therefore must not be contradicted also ensures that the sexist ideology and discriminatory rhetoric in these wise sayings are not questioned.” (Yitah, 2012: p. 10) It is therefore not only audacious and somewhat foolhardy to question or challenge proverbs; doing as much is tantamount to committing a taboo, an attack on the sacrosanct and sacred, a sacrilege in itself. Despite this, and with women or females most often being the victims of the patriarchy and its attendant gender inequalities, Dialogue sometimes implies an engagement that transcends conversation, an engagement that may sometimes be somewhat confrontational or even offensive. Thus, rather than merely engage by way of a Dialogue, females may essentially or also query, critique, dissent and sometimes even protest and subvert their society’s oppressive gender culture. In effect, the aforementioned proximity-cum-parallelism is irrespective of the jesting tone of the said particular Yitah’s work in relation to the dialogic tenor of this research work. That is, the gesturing and insinuating posture of the former and the direct and categorical posture of the latter do not in any way subtract from the shared essence of the two, which is that they both are intentional, strategic and hopefully, effective, in their individual right. Therefore, be it what may appear to be incident-al and perhaps improvised per Yitah (2012) or what may seem more 38event- ive and perhaps pre-arranged per this research, Dialogue is systematic, like the patriarchal order it seeks to de-normalize at the very least, or to dismantle altogether. Dialogue is innovative and (pro)active, and is ultimately aimed at achieving equality and its myriad implications and tangible realities, or at the very least, a means to achieving these. 38 See another usage of this term in Chapter 3, specifically in reference to Bakhtin’s idea of carnivalesque. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 34 CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW: This chapter begins with a description of the general context and the dominant gender culture within which the research data is situated and therefore, will later be analyzed. The Theoretical Framework and its constituent research methodology and tools are then explained, together with their implications on the positionality of the study. This is followed by a distinction between Bakhtin’s and this study’s Imagination of Dialogue. After this, the four Dialogic Modes prescribed by this study are specified and briefly described, to be explained and illustrated in extensive detail in the next chapters, Chapters 4 and 5. Under the various sections in this chapter, aspects of this study’s Theoretical Framework and Methodology are justified, as variously indicated in Chapter 1. 3.1.1 Interview with Otsaamɛi at Ga Traditional Marriage Ceremonies (GTMC): Establishing the General Context of the Research Data and Its Implications on Ga Gender Culture. The 39data for this study are Ga proverbs and folk songs, specifically the contemporary choral songs by Wulɔmɛi and their like. The songs are usually Narratives or have Elements of Narratives such as persona/e or Character(ization), locale or Setting, event/s or Plot, problem/s or Conflict, all of which imply specific Subject Matter from which Theme, and to a large extent, context too, 39 See details about the research data in the ‘Source of Data’ sub-section of ‘Introduction’ in Chapter 1. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 35 can be established. Beyond the literal and the explicit, the proverbs, on the other hand, do not have immediate and singular implied or deeper meaning/s from which their specific contexts may be inferred. It is necessary for a given song and proverb text to exist within some readily defined context, or at least a somewhat discernible context. This context is necessary to help inform and direct the reading of these texts for interpretation purposes. This reading will, in turn, translate into accurate and objective 40analyses of the various and layered meanings of the texts, and ultimately, into arriving at a sound and balanced conclusion of the entire research. Despite the need and reasons for said context, it will be impractical and quite redundant to describe the literal and deeper meanings of each song and proverb text, and in every instance, to also circumscribe what is rather an obvious and recurring or general context of the texts. However, in order to avoid what may appear as an a priori assumption about this gender culture or general context, and to actually and effectively establish evidence for it, the researcher designed and conducted an interview. The same interview was carried out on two separate occasions, with two different people, a man and a woman who play the role of an 41otsaamɛ (pl. otsaamɛi) at Ga Traditional Marriage Ceremonies (GTMC). Usually women, the two otsaamɛi at a GTMC represent the groom and the bride, together with their respective families. These otsaamɛi are usually older, respectable, eloquent and wise women from the said families. Unlike the bride and groom, an otsaamɛ has no direct and immediate personal interest in the gendered relationship that a marriage is, an interest which would have 40 This refers to the analyses of the selected songs and proverbs under the various Dialogic Modes in Chapters 4 and 5. 41 The otsaamɛ here performs a role similar to the one who mediates – so to speak – communication between a king and another person or persons. This otsaamɛ speaks to the other otsaamɛ, and together, they represent and mediate the conversation between the families of the bride and the groom during at a GTMC. The popular English translation for otsaamɛ, ‘linguist’, is both inaccurate and inadequate, and so like Yankah (1995) did with the Akan version of the term, I maintain the Ga word in this study (p. 2). University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 36 compromised an otsaamɛ’s views and declarations about Ga (gender) culture. On the contrary, and in keeping with the spirit and title of their role as otsaamɛ, these people speak or are supposed to speak for and sometimes to the specifics of Ga marriage custom and culture, as well as Ga cultural views about other gendered relationships and the dynamics therein. In recent times, people hire or contract strangers or non-relatives to play the role of otsaamɛ at their (G)TMC, and this is often due to a combination of factors including convenience and (not) having such a qualified person in one’s family. Because of this, playing the role of an otsaamɛ at (G)TMC is becoming a good and huge business for many people, albeit quite informal, freelance and a one-time service for every new client, a bride- or groom-to-be. However, and contrary to the ideal, this element of transaction does not sit very easy with the inherent nature and expectation of a GTMC as a private and socially intimate family affair, and as a celebration between the couple and their families. This is even more so because of the delicate and critical role of an otsaamɛ as the singular representative and speaker of one of the two families. Neither is the personal-yet- familial, the eventful-yet-temperate and joyous-yet-solemn occasion of a GTMC consistent with the paid role of a key person like an otsaamɛ. Also, the transactional element clashes with the notion that culture and custom, which a contracted otsaamɛ represents and embodies at once, are so precious and sacrosanct to be commercialized, to be undignified in this or some other way. Nevertheless, this rather transactional relationship does not necessarily detract from the skills that a hired, non-family member otsaamɛ has, continually hones, and brings to the GTMC occasion – skills including orature and performance, a personable and cheerful air, and a wealth of knowledge about Ga marriage customs and practices. Neither does this detract from the fact that this kind of otsaamɛ too is, at once, the embodiment and very oracle of Ga culture particularly, Ga gender culture – during a GTMC. And so to this end, it would suffice to summarize the contents University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 37 and conclusions of the two interviews: * Even though the two Interviewed Otsaamɛi (IO) are of the two genders, they both unapologetically incorporate and sometimes even replace certain strict Ga marriage customary beliefs and practices with Judeo-Christian ones. In fact, they are wont to quote Bible scriptures as they would elements of Ga tradition and culture, such as Ga proverbs and songs by Wulɔmɛi and the like, both of which are already part of the selected and analyzed data texts in this study. And expectedly, some of their repertoires are neither Ga nor of Ga origin per se, but these are often familiar and popular enough for their audiences to accordingly relate with and respond to. Some of their most often quoted 42Bible scriptures are: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1:27) and “…but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh…and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:20b–24) and “…husbands, dwell with them [women] according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, as being heirs together of the grace of life…” (1 Peter 3:7) and “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is 42 Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible scripture quotations in this study are from the King James Version (KJV). The underlined parts are emphasized by the otsaamɛi for GTMC-s. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 38 the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church…Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.” (Ephesians 5: 22–23, 25) This last scripture is quoted as though a man’s love (for his wife) is on the condition that a woman first submits to him, and also that his love is a natural consequence of her submission. Emphasis is placed on the admonishment that (only) women submit and be subject to men, while ignoring or excluding the preceding verse 21, which makes submission a requirement for all, irrespective of any condition or characteristic, including gender: “…Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” (Ephesians 5:21) Apart from others already referenced in this study, the Ga proverbs that the IO often employ include: Nuu musu ni yiɔ lɛ, ehãa shia hiɔ. A home thrives on a man’s [husband’s] stomach being full [with food]. Bi fooo enyiɛɛɛ nuu sɛɛ. A child does not cry following a man [its father], [but rather its mother]. Yoo naanyo ji bɔlɔ. A broom is a woman’s friend [companion]. Incidentally, one IO mentioned a more vivid and direct version of the third proverb: 43Bɔlɔ feɔ yoo. Broom makes a woman [a real/ true woman]. All these proverbs specifically relegate a woman to the domestic and to nurturing, and to nothing else she may be capable of or aspire to. Thus, other proverbs such as: 44Kɛ yoo hoo nii lɛ, nuu ji mɔ ni tsɔɔ. When a woman cooks, it is a man who dishes it [the food] out. and Nuu mli bɛ fioo. There is no such thing as littleness in [a person if this person is male/] a man. Incidentally again, both IO quoted this second proverb to indicate a man’s superiority to a woman, 43 This proverb, together with the previous one related to it, is very likely an equivalent of the proverb, “Yoo sheee bɔlɔ gbeyei”, to wit “A woman has no fear of [a] broom”. This other proverb is referenced as part of the second Unmasking Dialogic Mode in Chapter 5. 44 See another proverb strikingly parallel proverb to this proverb referenced under the Background to the Study section in Chapter 1 and in the first Dialogue under the Unmasking Dialogic Mode in Chapter 5: “Kɛ yoo he tu lɛ, ekɛhaa nuu shitoo”, which means “When/ if a woman buys a gun, she gives [is to give] it to a man to keep”. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 39 even in cases when a woman is an equal or the greater contributor to a certain positive situation in a relationship. More importantly, they deployed this proverb in response to the popular notion that whatever a man can do, a woman (too) can do same, and sometimes even more. In fact, both IO categorically disagree with this notion, to the effect that irrespective of a woman’s age, wealth, position and other markers of status and forms of power, she is always subject and subservient to a man, even to men of lower status. Moreover, both IO agree that circumstances can change, and so sometimes a man may be required to take on some of the roles and duties relegated to a woman, or that a man takes part in them. However, both IO are quick to qualify this exception by framing what a man does in such a circumstance as “help to the woman”, as something that is never (meant) for a man, something that is below a man, and demeaning to a man. In effect, a woman is not perceived as a complete person and an equal partner in any relationship whatsoever that she has with any man, even when her contributions in the relationship benefit both her and the man, and in some cases benefit the man more, and in yet some other cases, benefit only the man. Finally, the two IO gave interesting responses to one interview question about a 45folksong like the ones by Wulɔmɛi. In the song, a certain outspoken and wealthy woman says that she will choose her lover, and then Makola too, over her husband. One IO dismissed the woman’s words as something provocative in a jovial sense, nothing to take too seriously, but something for a woman to be wary of entertaining in her thoughts, before she becomes what she says. The other IO dismissed the woman herself as a rogue, as brazenly ungovernable, as one who has gone wayward because of arrogance from being wealthy and probably, also because she has fallen into the bad company of other such unconventional, disruptive women. In response to one other 45 Together with the Makola reference, see the song text and a discussion about it as part of the second Dialogue under the Undeifying Dialogic Mode in Chapter 5 University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 40 question, the same IO mentions a proverbial saying, which effectively translates as women not having any sense of discretion and not being strong-minded, and yet capable of being fearfully deceitful, scheming and malicious: Akɛ yoo yitso eshãaa ti. Even though there is a radicalism to this woman’s words and attitude, it is important to note that both IO do not imagine the woman – and women in general – as assertive, independent, and as a full and free human who is well able to express and live out her choices, and much less choices that contravene society’s values and ideals, and (gender) culture and all. * Thus, the interviews with these two otsaamɛi at GTMC help not only to establish the general context of the research data, the Ga songs and proverbs; even more importantly, the interviews help to specify the dominant Ga culture inherent in the data, specifically, a gender culture that is largely and almost always masculinist, if not often anti-feminist. And beyond establishing these, the use of interviews as a research tool is aptly in keeping with the need for a direct and actual engagement with the research setting, Ga (gender) culture. This, in turn, is critical for the ethnographic dimensions of this study. 3.1.2 The Established General Context and Dominant Gender Representation in the Research Data: Implications on Interpreting the Research Data and on the Theoretical Framework. In general, it was clear from the interviews that the two IO clearly have every good intention and they lack an explicit awareness of imagining a female/ a woman as the less party in any instance of gender inequality, or simply an awareness of their being misogynistic, even if remotely so. All University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh 41 the same, in their individual capacities, the two IO represent and personify Ga (gender) culture as it pertains to marriage, a relationship that provides a most apt context for a study about gender and gendered issues. And the fact and reality of this specified Ga culture is both the background and foremost context for how the selected Ga songs and proverbs in his study are interrogated. That is, this established Ga gender culture is practically valid, sufficient and necessary context for each data in this study, be it a song or a proverb, and apart from the ready or remote, and the ample or scanty context inherent in each data. Thus, even when a reading of a given data seems to be a priori or an over-extension of the data’s literal and deeper meanings, such a reading will still be essentially valid and devoid of any argument to the contrary, so long as the reading is within and or consistent with this established context. Apart from the established context having implications on how data is interrogated in this study’s various 46analyses, this context also has implications for the study’s Theoretical Framework, which is basically a Dialogue, a dialogue between either or both genders on one hand, and the gender culture of Ga society on the other. Interrogating the texts requires a particular and focused reading, in order to achieve accurate and objective interpretations and conclusions. One of the reasons such a reading is necessary is in order to arrive at conclusions that are fair and valid, even if contestable. For the most part in said analyses, this reading may seem skewed, often in favour of the female gender and against the male. This bias, however, is neither real nor true: it is only and merely apparent. And as indicated 47earlier,