Zagba Oyortey’s scientific contributions

There are many misconceptions about African people’s dance, most of which, if not all, derive unfortunately from the framework within which Europe has interacted with Africa. A linear mode of interpreting history and human activity ensured that the early European anthropologists studied African and indeed the cultures of all other subjugated peoples within an evolutionist discourse. There was the assumption therefore, that these were transitory cultures that would in due course follow Europe into an industrialised and ‘scientific culture’. It is my contention that the inability of the majority of Europeans to take on the full significance and meaning of African dance derives from this original misconception. In the kind of dispensation where one culture was seen as ‘primitive’ and the other ‘modern’, African dance, if it had any value at all, was something to be indulged in moments of hedonism.1

There are many misconceptions about African people’s dance, most of which, if not all, derive unfortunately from the framework within which Europe has interacted with Africa. A linear mode of interpreting history and human activity ensured that the early European anthropologists studied African and indeed the cultures of all other subjugated peoples within an evolutionist discourse. There was the assumption therefore, that these were transitory cultures that would in due course follow Europe into an industrialised and ‘scientific culture’. It is my contention that the inability of the majority of Europeans to take on the full significance and meaning of African dance derives from this original misconception. In the kind of dispensation where one culture was seen as ‘primitive’ and the other ‘modern’, African dance, if it had any value at all, was something to be indulged in moments of hedonism.1