Samuel Boateng

Critical Improvisation Seminar

Nov 5, 2013

Asafo in Performance: Communal, Political and Creative Offerings

This paper discusses improvisation as a necessary component in the systems of

engagement undertaken by the Akan socio-political establishment known as asafo. It
argues that, these historically military organizationsoften called upon to provide
security in times of war, perform music and dance during local and national events,
participate in ndoboa or labor for public work, and mandated during pre-independent
and post-independent Ghana to articulate the views of marginalized publicspresent a
curious occasion for mapping the nature of improvisatory actions that immerge from
embodied engagements in both ritualized and spontaneous communal practices. While
debates about the origins of the asafo remain inconclusive in studies about the Akan, the
apparent spread of the order since the sixteenth century and its contemporary
configurations within neighboring polities including the Ga of coastal Ghana and the
Ewe of South-Eastern Ghana attest to the practical, socially-influential, and artistically
pungent power that underlines the long history of traditional politicking and co-
creative impulse of the asafo. As a result of their civic agency, cultural performance, and
political activism, asafo companies were distinguished with the most pronounced
form of social recognition as far as patrilineal inheritance was concerned in Akan
societies; membership was traditionally reserved for male children, and the leaders of
the companies, asafohene were elected through a democratic procedure. As I probe the
forms of cultural and improvisatory practices that coalesce in the political, artistic, and
civic spaces of asafo activities, I will also highlight their engagement with artifacts such
as songs, musical instruments, parades, and flags in an attempt to create a clear picture
of this historically revered order of social activists.
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