A study of the arts in the Ada Asafotufiami Festival

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Date
2011-06-19
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Abstract
The arts in the Ada Asafotufiami festival serve as strong visual and performing communicative devices of culture among the Ada people. The principal motivation of this research stems from the fact that the arts and their roles in the Ada Asafotufiami festival are almost completely overlooked when it comes to the analysis and appreciation of the festival. The Asafotufiami festival is annually celebrated in pomp and pageantry as it embodies various forms of art; it has shown a remarkable capacity for survival in spite of several socio-cultural influences. During its celebration the arts of the people are displayed. However, most of the youth and people who participate, observe and read about the festival may not know the ideologies or beliefs of the various rites and significance of the arts. Other cultural values involved in the celebration of the festival may also not be appreciated. This study seeks to contribute to the total development of Art education by providing adequate information on the arts characterizing the festival and the roles that they play. The descriptive method of research was employed for this study. The scope of the study covered the traditional area of the Dangme East District (Ada) in the Greater Accra region. Data was collected through observation, questionnaire responses and interviews. Population of the study was limited to 105 persons, mostly traditional leaders, opinion leaders, participants and educational facilitators. The stratified sampling method was adopted with the assumption that the findings would be representative of the Ada state. The major findings gathered from the study show that, art and culture are interdependent, thus, the success of the Ada Asafotufiami festival is made possible by the numerous roles art play. The arts portray beliefs, traditions and aspirations of the people. It is recommended that, there should be scholarly documentation of the festival by researchers and duly published to help promote the cultural heritage of the people.
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A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Master of Arts in Art Education.
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