The Ethics and Pragmatics of Making Heritage a Commodity: Ghana's PANAFEST 2009

Adrover, Lauren; Donkor, David A.; McMahon, Christina S.

doi:10.1162/dram.2010.54.2.155

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June 01 2010

The Ethics and Pragmatics of Making Heritage a Commodity: Ghana's PANAFEST 2009

Lauren Adrover,

Lauren Adrover

Lauren Adrover is a PhD student in the Anthropology Department at Northwestern University. She holds an MA in African Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her current research examines the relationship between cultural spectacle, global capital, and social value in the context of annual festivals in Ghana.

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David A. Donkor,

David A. Donkor

David A. Donkor is Assistant Professor of Performance Studies and African Studies at Texas A&M University. His interests include the interplay of cultural policy, multinational marketing, urban popular theatre, and tricksters; African migrants' urban festivals in the US; and postcolonial nationalism and theatre architecture in West Africa. His publications have appeared in Cultural Studies and in a volume titled The Legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan-African Cultural Activism (Ayebia Clarke, 2007).

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Christina S. McMahon

Christina S. McMahon is Assistant Professor of Theater at UC-Santa Barbara. Presently, her research centers on international theatre festivals in Lusophone Africa. She is the recipient of a Fulbright-Hays grant and the IFTR new Scholar's Prize (2007). Her articles have appeared in Theatre Survey, Theatre Research International, Theatre History Studies, and the Latin American Theatre Review.

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Author and Article Information

Lauren Adrover

Lauren Adrover is a PhD student in the Anthropology Department at Northwestern University. She holds an MA in African Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her current research examines the relationship between cultural spectacle, global capital, and social value in the context of annual festivals in Ghana.

David A. Donkor

David A. Donkor is Assistant Professor of Performance Studies and African Studies at Texas A&M University. His interests include the interplay of cultural policy, multinational marketing, urban popular theatre, and tricksters; African migrants' urban festivals in the US; and postcolonial nationalism and theatre architecture in West Africa. His publications have appeared in Cultural Studies and in a volume titled The Legacy of Efua Sutherland: Pan-African Cultural Activism (Ayebia Clarke, 2007).

Christina S. McMahon

Christina S. McMahon is Assistant Professor of Theater at UC-Santa Barbara. Presently, her research centers on international theatre festivals in Lusophone Africa. She is the recipient of a Fulbright-Hays grant and the IFTR new Scholar's Prize (2007). Her articles have appeared in Theatre Survey, Theatre Research International, Theatre History Studies, and the Latin American Theatre Review.

Online ISSN: 1531-4715

Print ISSN: 1054-2043

2010

TDR/The Drama Review (2010) 54 (2 (T206)): 155–163.

https://doi.org/10.1162/dram.2010.54.2.155

Abstract

At Ghana's 2009 Pan African Historical Theatre Festival, discursive battles over the commodification of African heritage erupted amidst acrobatics, naming ceremonies, and asofo dancing. This aesthetic and verbal volleying entangled state dignitaries, paramount chiefs, and visiting diasporans, while the watchful eye of Barack Obama gazed from ubiquitous billboards.

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