A01=Courtnay Micots
African art
African art history
Afro-Brazilian
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Courtnay Micots
automatic-update
carnival
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JBCC6
Category=JFC
Category=JHBT
Category=JHMC
Colonialism
COP=United States
costume design
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnography
Fancy Dress
Ghana
Gold Coast
Language_English
masquerade
PA=Available
performance studies
Price_€100 and above
PS=Active
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9781793643094
- Weight: 680g
- Dimensions: 162 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 24 Jun 2021
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Kakaamotobe, meaning to scare, is known across southern Ghana, West Africa, as Fancy Dress performance. Masqueraders dress in colorful costumes and wear fancy and fierce masks; they dance energetically to drums or brass band music through the main streets of town during holidays, especially during Christmastime. Competitions held in two towns are intense annual events. This lively secular masquerade is a carnival form that has been practiced for well over a century primarily by coastal Fante people, and many additional ethnicities participate today. Kakaamotobe: Fancy Dress Carnival in Ghana explores the fascinating history, aesthetics, performance, and underlying messages of this masquerade with ties to other carnivalesque practices in the Black Atlantic. While Fancy Dress may engage with global cultures through some of its aesthetics, the practice is profoundly African. The utilization of elaborate costumes, masks, and brass bands expresses not a desire to imitate outside cultures, but rather the impulse of youth to adapt traditional culture to the contemporary environment. Courtnay Micots argues that the outward impression of folly belies the more serious refashioning of power, identity, and modernity in the community.
Courtnay Micots is associate professor of art history in the Department of Visual Arts, Humanities, and Theatre at Florida A&M University.
