Learning the Ghana ways through Nani

Today in class we had the opportunity to learn the process of Batik.  Nani Agbeli explained how the process worked and what some of the symbols meant.  I thought Nani was a great teacher, instead of just standing at the front of the class lecturing about the process and us taking notes on what he talked about we actually got to do the Batik process.  The first thing we did was choose a stamp and Nani expressed how important it was to understand the meaning of our stamp and to choose something that represented us as a person.  The next process was to sketch a design for our cloth.  Then we needed to put the stamp on our cloth my dipping our wooden stamp into hot wax.  Nani shared with us that it helps make the shake the excess wax off of the stamp and then press it on the cloth immediately.  If you wait to decide where your stamp is going to go the wax will dry on the stamp and you will have to repeat the process again.  That is why it is important to have an idea of the design that you are trying to achieve before you start dipping your stamp into the wax. 

            After we were done stamping our cloth we then folded the cloth whichever way we wanted, we then got the choice of dying our cloth in red, blue, or purple.  The next process is removing the wax.  First we have to let the cloth dry from the dye. We then rinsed the cloth in very hot water to remove the wax and then scrub the wax off of the fabric. The next process is laying a piece of cloth on the table then laying a piece of newspaper on top of that and then laying the wax cloth on top of the newspaper and then another newspaper on top of that.  The purpose of the newspaper is to soak up the wax from the cloth that we designed.  I’m really happy with how my design turned out.

On Thursday September 8, 2011 I attended  the Nani Agbeli Drum and Dance Performance in Maucker Union.  At first I thought we were just going to listen to a lecture about Ghana drumming and dance, however I was highly mistaken.  Nani began by giving a short performance on the drums.  While he was drumming I noticed the rhythm and his reactions to the rhythm.  Nani seemed to be “feeling the rhythm.”  Throughout his performance Nani showed many different emotions while he was drumming.  At one point I noticed happiness then the next I noticed anger in his face.  He made different facial expressions and did different movement with his head and his arms.  The drumming started out slow but then the rhythm picked up.  After his drumming performance Nani performed a dance for us that lasted almost ten minutes.  The dance included many different techniques involving your whole body.  Some specific movements I remember were actions that looked like he was praying to a god by kneeling to the floor and on the opposite end of the spectrum he did a toe touch a few times throughout the dance.  He incorporated the audience by going around and speaking to them in his native language, however we were not sure what he was saying he tried using hand motions and actions to get us to understand.

            We got a chance to learn the dance that he showed us.  At first I thought I was going to be really uncomfortable, but Nani made it really fun.  He taught us that the word dance is often associated with feeling uncomfortable so if you call them movements people will feel less uncomfortable.  The dance was a lot harder than I was expecting.  It incorporates all the muscles in your body.  I had a lot of fun learning this ways of the dance.

            Nani explained to us that there are two performances one is used to prepare for war and the other is just for tourists.  Out of the two experiences that I was a part of this week I think my favorite would have to be textile workshop because it was such a hands on activity.  Learning about the different textiles in class was helpful with the background information before Nani’s arrival but I think the workshop really helped me grasp the whole idea of it.  I learned how important it is to the peoples in the Ghana area and why they take it so seriously.  Making these textiles takes a lot of time and effort.  Many of the people make these textiles for a living.  By learning the dance, the drumming and the textiles I think it helped me see how the peoples of Ghana live and that learning about the little things that go along with these examples help you understand their lifestyle a little bit better.

            I’m a firm believer in everything has a purpose and I think that the purpose of the textiles and the performances is to show other peoples how the peoples of Ghana represent themselves.