{"product_id":"9798765145289","title":"Revitalizing Decolonization through Dance Scholarship Dancing the African Personality","description":"\u003ch3\u003eBlack Literary and Cultural Expressions\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ch1\u003eRevitalizing Decolonization through Dance Scholarship\u003c\/h1\u003e\u003ch2\u003eDancing the African Personality\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003ch3\u003eEric Baffour Awuah | Toyin Falola | Abimbola Adelakun\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003eSocial Science \/ Ethnic Studies \/ African Studies\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSituates the Black dancing body as a locus of intellectual labor, historical memory, and resistance, challenging logocentric paradigms that marginalize embodied knowledge.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1963 marked a pivotal moment in Ghanaian intellectual history with the inauguration of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, accompanied by Kwame Nkrumah's “African Genius” speech, in which he extolled the African Personality. \u003ci\u003eRevitalizing Decolonization Through Dance Scholarship\u003c\/i\u003e revisits this moment to theorize the African Personality not as rhetoric but as an epistemological framework enacted through performance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCritically engaging with the Ghana Dance Ensemble's neo-traditional experimentations, Eric Baffour Awuah shows how African dance-musicking operates as archive, pedagogy, and theory. Awuah extends his taxonomy of Ghanaian movement culture to Traditional, Professional, Academic, and the Amateur, arguing that these categories function as a kinetic continuum rather than fixed hierarchies. This framework underscores dance as a site of cultural sovereignty where African Genius is realized in ways that resist the fragmentation of body, mind, and spirit. And extending beyond Ghana, the study interrogates West African higher education institutions of dance-music and diaspora associations as arenas where decolonization is negotiated in motion. Case studies of diasporic practices illustrate both resilience and transformation of heritage across transnational contexts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile African Genius may be regarded as the culmination of excellence rooted in creative freedom, African Personality functions as the conduit through which that excellence is embodied in dance-music. This book argues that African dance-music is a vital decolonial practice safeguarding heritage, empowering communities, and envisioning freedom across generations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eEric Baffour Awuah\u003c\/b\u003e is a Ghanaian researcher, performer, choreographer, and consultant, and received his doctorate in anthropology at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for African Immigrant Movements Research Society and the lead convener of the Evolving Rhythms Conference. Prior to relocating to Canada, he taught at the University of Ghana and the University of Education, Winneba.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublication Date: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e10 December 2026\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBloomsbury Academic\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eImprint: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBloomsbury Academic\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eISBN-13: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e9798765145289\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFormat: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHardback\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePage Count: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e208\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWeight (oz): \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e17.76\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Academic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51515380072588,"sku":"9798765145289","price":72.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0710\/9545\/1788\/files\/getimage_b6e08001-e2d6-44c7-9e29-895264026941.jpg?v=1784693232","url":"https:\/\/lateknightbooks.com\/products\/9798765145289","provider":"Late Knight Books and Services, LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}