Bamaya!

Hello Friends,We continue this week with three versions of the story of how the Bamaya Dance of the Dagomba came into being. The Bamaya is a popular Dagomba dance which features men dressed as women, performing a dance which, depending on the origin story you believe, started as a desperate bid to appease angry gods, or emerged from the mockery of an unfortunate thief.The word Bamaya means, “The river valley is wet” and given the origin stories, I have so many questions and theories but, anyway, here is a picture of a Bamaya dancer!Can’t Get Enough?* Watch a short performance of the Bamaya dance below.* Another Bamaya performance* More about the Bamaya DanceReferences* Cameron, Elisabeth L. “Men Portraying Women: Representations in African Masks.” African Arts, vol. 31, no. 2, 1998, pp. 72–94. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3337523. Accessed 15 July 2024.* Epprecht, Marc. Boy-wives and female husbands: Studies in African homosexualities. State University of New York Press, 2021.* Resario, Rashida. "The visible and the invisible in the visual culture of the Ghana Dance Ensemble." Visual Cultures of Africa. Germany, Waxmann, 2022. p49* Welsh-Asante, Kariamu, ed. African dance: An artistic, historical, and philosophical inquiry. Africa World Press, 1996. p16Mythological Africans is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Mythological Africans at mythologicalafricans.substack.com/subscribe