AFRICAN TRADITION, SPIRITUALS , AND THE SASA
To appeal to God, call out to the ancestors, and talk with each other, the slaves continued the sacred African
circle dance known as the "ring shout." The dance combines singing with rhythmic shuffle dancing performed in a
circle and executed in a counterclockwise movement. The songs usually consist of a single stanza (referred to as a
"walk") and a single chorus, usually sung at a quicker and more striking tempo, eventually building up to a state of
frenzied ecstasy. Observers often saw the practice of the ring shout as "primitive" or "savage" because they did not
understand the African tradition of "spirit possession," where the dancer's goal was to feel "taken over" by a divine
essence.
The repetition in such songs made them easy to learn and share with others, and the parallel structure made
spontaneous creation of new verses that spoke of current events a simple matter. Recall that the Sasa is comprised
of current and recent events and that Africans (likewise the African slaves) habitually would come together as a
community to share stories from the day. Also, the simple yet steady rhythm of the field and work songs provided
a cadence for hoeing, chopping, picking, threshing – any activity in which the slaves might be engaged, again
reflective of the African predilection for functional music.
An additional way captive Africans dealt with the trauma of slavery was through taking their shared experiences,
shared values, and shared understanding of the world and calling upon the wisdom of the past for instruction and
guidance. It is this process, occurring within the creation of the spirituals, that the African slaves and the concept
of the Sasa underwent their most radical New World transformation.
Recurrent themes in the spirituals include daily toil and weariness, suffering and loss, healing and hope for
eventual release (either through liberation or death), and struggle and resistance. Again, the African need for
musical functionality, and the temporal view of looking from the now-moment into the past is behind such
thematic choices. And while the need to express their pain and suffering and hope was important, with spirituality
as the nexus of the African ontology, it was even more important to worship God and venerate the ancestors.
So, the dead are not dead, as far as Africans are concerned. The spirits of the departed remain member of the
family and the community, and they must be recognized and honored as the elders that they are. It is this
reverence for the spirits of the dead that observers, ignorant of African traditional beliefs, misunderstood
as "ancestor worship." In light of this, one of the most remarkable events the early slaves created to inhabit the
Sasa was the"reconstitution of the tribal ancestors through the texts of the spirituals. In the formation of such
songs as "Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho" and "Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel," and especially "Go Down, Moses," the
slaves essentially plucked biblical heroic figures and set them up as their new departed relatives, who would
eventually shift into and take the place of " the ancestors." The significance of such a transformation cannot be
overstated, as it was key to the slaves's continued survival.
Generations raised with the spirituals agree that one of the most popular biblical heroes referenced in the songs is
Moses, savior of the Hebrews held in bondage in Egypt . In the spirituals, Moses is second only to Jesus as a central
subject. The parallels between the situation faced by the Hebrew captives and the African captives is obvious, but
there was another important reason that the character of Moses was so popular.
Since Moses had been adopted as a relative and was thus included in the community kinship bond, "Brother Moses,"
along with many other biblical heroes, became a part of the communal Sasa. "By entering individuals in the Sasa
period," states Mbiti, "they become our contemporaries." And if, in the fullness of the Sasa, a man could come
from the ranks of the enslaved to deliver his people from bondage once, it could happen again.
The "divine essence" being called upon in the practice of the ring shout included the spirits of the ancestors, who,
according to African spiritual beliefs, might be reborn to the community in the body of a new child. Moses, or
someone like him could be reborn. Until then, through the Sasa, every individual in the community had access to
him as a brother or father or personal hero, a source of hope, and as bedrock for forbearance and resistance.
SYMBOLISM IN AFRICAN CULTURE
African world view is replete with symbols. African symbols are “sources of insights into African
orientations to life" (N.K. Dzobo "African Symbols and Proverbs as Sources of Knowledge" in Person
and Community: Ghanaian Philosophical Studies, I. eds. Kwasi Wiredu and Kwame Gyekye,
CRVP.Series II. Africa, VOL.1, 85. Dzobo distinguished signs and symbols in relation to the degree of
qualitative information that is conveyed through them. "While signs provide simple information, symbols
are used to communicate complex knowledge."(ibid.86-87) Given the diversity of the continent and the
attendant whimsical changes in the cultures of the people of Africa, it becomes so difficult to have a
uniform classification of symbols symbol systems in the country. However, I will take few examples from
one two countries to illustrate my point here. In Ghana, there are six major groups of symbols, said
Dzobo. These six groups are adinkra symbols, stool symbols, linguistic staff symbols, religious symbols
and oral literary symbols. Each of the symbolic group have information to convey concerning the way of
life of the people at every situation they are presented or the history of the society it represents; Adinkra,
for example, is a Twi word and derived from one of the popular national cloths of Ghana
called adinkra, which means "to say goodbye". The cloth is adorned with black colour background and
many artistic such as Owu atwedee, "the ladder of death, everybody will climb it one day to go to God". It
is a traditional mourning cloth won in many communities in Ghana at funerals and memorial services to
commensurate with the bereaved family and equal send forth the dead person to the land of
ancestors.(Ibid. 89-94)
Colour has symbolic meaning in African culture and each colour conveys peculiar information
when won or displaced at significant places or situations. The black colour is a symbolic colour for
funerals in almost all parts of Africa. It is the official mourning cloth at funerals especially the one that
involves a person who died at unripe age-not the death of an old member. The white colour is a symbol of
purity and joy, which usually won at funerals especially the type that involves a dead old member. The
differences in colours of cloth at funeral services convey different messages albeit they are similar
situation, but not taken as the same culturally. One, the death of the young member, is always painful
because it is believed that the one has not accomplished his task in the land of the living to give him easy
passage to the land of the ancestors. It is in fact taken as a double tragedy on the deceased and the
bereaved. The former is going to suffer land of the land of the spirits, which may cause the spirit appear to
the relations in form of ghost in the land of the living No bother want to see the ghost of his dead one
because of the unpleasant sight that comes with it. The dead of the aged member, on the other hand is a
well come death, and the living make merriment to commemorate the decease and perform rituals to
herald his easy passage to the land of the ancestors. Often times, where the dead lived a good life and
loved by many, the members also wish one not only easy passage to the ancestral world, but show
readiness to welcome him into this world again-this informs the African belief in reincarnation.
(I.Onyewuenyi, African Belief in Reincarnation) The red colour is a spiritual colour and has a very
powerful religious significance. It is the colour of the cloth used to adorn the table in the shrine. For
example, in Igbo land, my own ethnic group, the Benins and Yorubas in Nigeria, the red colour is worn is
worn by chief priest of the local shrine whenever he is at the shrine perfuming his duty or at the King's
palace or any public place where he is called up to perform rituals or sacrifices to the gods for one
purpose or the other. This colour is significantly marked out for the Eze muo or Dibia, "the spiritual king
or the native doctor" respectively.
http://ctl.du.edu/spirituals/literature/tradition.cfm
http://www.crvp.org/seminar/05-seminar/Andrew%20Ifeanyi%20Isiguzo.htm