Agbekor the african dance style

Agbekor : History and Contemporary Performance

Legends of Origin :

Agbekor is a style of dance by the West African peoples of Ewe and Foh. It is an

ancient dance once known as Atamga, Ga meaning 'great', Atam meaning 'oath'. The

word agbekor is a compound of two short words: agbe (“life”) and kor (“clear”). The

professional performer Midao Gideon foli alorwoyie translets agbekor as “clear life”.

Agbekor were inspired by the hunters’ observations of monkeys in the forest.

According to elders the Agbekor began with human observations of monkeys in the

forest. It is odd to think of monkey's suddenly coming from trees and changing into

human form to drum and dance. This could be the origin of modern anthropological

beliefs about the evolution of man. This belief system tells the history of music from

the point of view of the Ewe's.

Agbekor as War Drumming :

Ewe funerals consist of a special type of war drumming, known as Agbekor.

Funerals replaced war as the appropriate occasion for such drumming because it is

full of the passions aroused by death. According to Titon, “elders explained that their

ancestors performed it before combat, as a means to attain the required frame of

mind, or after battle, as a means of communicating what had happened”.

Learning Agbekor — Aside from its use in war music must is actually learned

through acculturation which requires special training. Each student is expected to

develop their own learning style. Agbekor is so complex that people practice in

seclusion for up to a year before performing in public. It is obviously a very precise

skill because one must have the utmost focus in order to learn the style. One of the

most important activities involving music are the texts. Ancestors play a significant

role in the texts and the song's affective power actually derives directly from this.

Contemporary Ewe traditional music do not use the past like