The Slave Ship Dance

Abstract

Abstract The central importance of dance in West and Central Africa has been often emphasized by historians, anthropologists, and Africans themselves. A communal activity, dance was also a crucial element in ceremonial life and created special bondings among all celebrants, thus united by certain beliefs and practices. In the cults honoring the gods or the ancestors, dance was a way of mediating between the godly and the human, the living and the dead. Deities were praised, called upon through a dance designed to invoke special features, proprieties, or abilities. Dance was thus used to solicit intercession, to thwart wrath or punishment that human action might have incurred, to flatter, or to appease. Dancers not only communicated with the spirits but also impersonated them through specific body movements, rhythms, or masks and became possessed themselves.

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