ABSTRACT:
This lecture will discuss the creative employment of indigenous, re-invented and newly acquired symbols and their shifting sites of meaning in contemporary Ghanaian society. The rest of the talk will be devoted to exploring and explaining, with audiovisual illustrations, how and why these symbols and their associated meanings are being redefined in the sphere of cotemporary national politics of culture and citizenship. The impact of global economy, commodification, tourism, etc., will be discussed in light of contemporary funerary practices and royal traditions, festivals, material culture, and cultural performances, including their extensions in film and media productions. One key premise is that the contemporary (re)inventions transcend class, gender, age, and religious affiliation; it creates a dialogic space for the sacred and the secular, the public and the private. A second premise stresses that the emphasis on display and spectacle in new venues, increasing aesthetic-artistic dimensions, and elaboration of existing symbols enlarge and diversify the public space in which they are framed.