Dagara Music: African Music and Traditional Dance of Ghana with Bernard Woma

The songs

The Dagara people live in northwestern Ghana, northeastern Ivory Coast, and southern areas of Burkina Faso. The music and dance on this video represent the five major dialects of the Dagara and the Sissala, a tribe from the same region, both of whom use the wooden xylophone (gyil) as their main musical instrument.

Bernard Woma's introductory xylophone solo is derived from traditional folk songs, spontaneously arranged to suit the moment and display his mastery of the instrument.

The Dagara have played Dalari drums since before the gyil was created. These drums are made from clay pots with goat skin and calabash gourds with alligator skin. The songs are typically played by the youth during moonlight dancing after the harvest season. These drums are believed to cause a bad harvest if they are played while the crops are growing. The costumes worn here are called degakpari and they are typical of the traditional smocks of the Dagara people. The instruments are usually played by males, but the dance is for both sexes.

Kobine is a pre-harvest music and dance of the Lawra traditional area in the Upper West region of Ghana. This music and dance is used to thank the ancestors for providing good rains for the harvest, and also as a merry-making celebration for youth to display their dancing skills after a hard farming season. The young men here are seen bare-chested, displaying their dancing skills in pairs, with the young women in traditional Dagara women's clothing. The men wear jingles on their legs and use iron castanets on their fingers to additional provide percussive sounds as they dance.

Bine is a traditional Dagara funeral music and dance, performed following the death of an elderly person. Although the music is the same, the men's dance is different from the women's dance, and the music is so complex that one must to have a good sense of the music before participating. Here the men are wearing sheep skins over their bodies to illustrate the traditional clothing of the Dagara people before the introduction of Western materials. The dance is also a social dance and can be used at all occasions.

Yiila and Guola are traditional musical styles and dances of the Sissala tribe of the Upper West region of Ghana. Yiila means song or singing and it is for youth during moonlight dancing and all other occasions, including funerals. Guola is the traditional Sissala funeral music and dance for the elderly. The Sissala people also use a wooden xylophone--called Zenseh in their language--much as the Dagara people. The two groups each speak languages the other does not understand and have many different customs. The costumes and props used in this dance are the same the Dagara people use in their social, recreational and circular dances.

Bagr Bine is a traditional religious and ritual festival song and dance of the Dagara people. This music is played on a type of xylophone called the logyile. These instruments are believed to possess the spiritual powers of the ancestors. The xylophones are played seasonally and only for the Bagr ritual celebrations, with one exception: they are also used to announce the death of the elderly. The Bagr ritual celebration initiating young and old into the belief system of the religious practise of communicating with the ancestors and God.

Bewaa is a recreational music and circular dance of the Dagara youth, it is a joyous dance for all occasions and acts as the platform for youth to develop their dance and musical skills. There are two forms of Bewaa dance seen in this video: Sebpker and Piru.

Sebkper is the old form of Bewaa dance, with changing styles and display of each dancer's skills. Piru is a contemporary version with new movements and gestures. The Bewaa dance is performed with singing and dancing at the same time; dancers require a great deal of energy and flair to do this dance. The casual costumes used here reflect the recreational aspects of the dance.