Kinetic art is a genre that artists explore to create motion in their works. There are two types of kinetic sculpture practices existing in Nigeria. The first is the traditional kinetic sculpture practice which is the earliest type. The second type is the contemporary kinetic sculpture practice. The first is generally referred to as traditional masquerade that requires human actuation. It is currently being threatened by the emergence of foreign religion and modernity that has classified them as fetish. While, the second type of sculpture practice that needs stimuli such as mechanical, electrical devices; or natural means such as wind or air-current has not been fully entrenched in Nigerian artistic environment. This paper therefore x-rayed these kinetic sculpture practices in Nigeria with a view to highlighting their importance to the socio-cultural and economic development of contemporary Nigeria. Some selected traditional and contemporary kinetic sculptures were critically  appraised to determine their character, roles and prospects in contemporary Nigeria society. It was observed that masquerades which were found in most cultures in Nigeria are gradually going extinct. While very little impact has been made in contemporary kinetic sculpture. If both traditional and contemporary sculpture practices are preserved, harnessed and synergised, they would bring about radical kinetic art sensibility in Nigerian artistic landscape and boost tourism potentials for Nigeria.

Dance education in Ghana has undergone rapid transformation as a result of the dynamic political atmosphere Ghana has experienced over the period covering pre-colonial and post-colonial eras. During the pre-colonial era, dance was an integral part of the worldview of communities in Ghana and its education was viewed as a critical aspect of the continued survival of the communities. As power shifted into the hands of the colonial masters, the promotion of indigenous performing arts, including dance, were seriously marginalised. Efforts expended to revitalise dance education in Ghana, during the post-colonial era, has achieved little success, particularly at the basic and secondary levels of the educational system. This paper is a review dance education as it existed before the advent of Europeans on the soil of Ghana, the colonial as well as the post-colonial eras. The history is presented within the framework of the critical education theory, which postulates power negotiation and its rippling effect on educational policies. Varied political systems that have spun over the history of Ghana and their impact in the promotion of dance education in Ghana are reviewed. Reflections indicate that political power and systems have the ability to control the development of a philosophy that guides the policies and practices of educational system in Ghana. Possible implications are that if efforts are not expended to revitalise dance education in Ghana then this aspect of Ghanaian culture is heading towards extinction.

This article provides a discussion on Ghanaian Ceramics and how expressions have opened up in the visual art especially in the medium of ceramics to bring Ghanaian Ceramics onto the international scene. It looks at how colonialism impacted the Ghanaian Art scene and the lack of visibility due to the Western canon and privileging particular art forms, schools and exhibitions. It discusses how the Faculty of Art at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has had significant role in building connections to the international and how the foundation for a stronger ceramics programme and practiced were developed. Through reforms and emancipatory directions from some faculty members and practitioners, contemporary Ghanaian ceramic practice is emerging on the global scene and creating connections with the global fraternity. The new  practice is becoming vital, forward looking, and imminently contemporary. The works produced currently by Ghanaian ceramic artists are strengthened by rich and diverse forms of traditional Ghanaian ceramics and Ghanaian cultural traditions broadly with less limitations to materiality and form.

Many African countries that were colonised imbibed the coloniser’s language as their own and used them as their national language. The local languages have mostly been relegated to domestic communication. There have been however, recent debates to introduce local languages as national language and to be used as medium of instruction in schools. This paper contributes to these debates and proposes the use of drama in the teaching and learning of local languages. It argues that drama uses dialogue, gestures, movements, props and can integrate music and dances which are created in context for selective and appropriate language and culture. Drama becomes even more potent in aiding the learning of language when it is written in multilingual dialogue as in the plays of Mohammed Ben Abdallah. The paper employs conceptual analysis to discuss Abdallah’s The Witch of Mopti in which he uses bilingual dialogue as a model that could aid the learning of a local language.

Akwa-Ocha which connotes white cloth is basically an indigenous hand-woven cloth that is produced by the Aniocha people of Delta state. The cloth which contains surface decorative motifs and symbols is used for various festive occasions among the people. Akwa-Ocha motifs and symbols and their functions reveal the people’s history or past events, religion and social behaviours. Nigerian traditional elements such as the Akwa-Ocha motifs and symbols feature in the changing landscape in the design of fashion accessories in Nigeria. Thus, contemporary trend in global fashion conciseness has influenced Akwa-Ocha in its application of fashion accessories. Akwa-Ocha motifs and symbols function as carriers of cultural heritage and identity of the Aniocha people. This paper therefore focuses on the use of Akwa-Ocha motifs and symbols for the design of fashion accessories using available local materials. The exploration of Akwa-Ocha motifs and symbols for the design of fashion accessories for obvious reasons include creating an identity, checking the emphasis already placed on foreign fashion accessories, creating awareness and projecting one of Nigeria’s rich cultural heritages.

The purpose of this study was to investigate reported influences on Ghanaian Basic School band pupil’s instrument choices, to gain an understanding of reasons expressed by students for preferring certain instruments and not others, in addition, to explore whether Ghanaian children are gender-stereotyped in their musical instrument choices. A questionnaire was developed to gather information concerning students’ instrumental music experience, family participation in band, reported reasons for instrument choice, non-choice, and several other questions to give readers insight into how Ghanaian basic school bands operate. The sample consisted of 142 pupils from five basic school bands in the Accra metropolis. Results revealed strong gender/instrument associations. Pupils indicated that their choices were most influenced by their school band teacher. Other reported influences included instrument sound and programmes the school band attends. The results also revealed that girls in the Accra metropolis who are members of the school bands tend to prefer playing the “percussions” which are mostly regarded to be for boys. Gender association with certain instruments seemed to override professed reasons for instrument selection. 

This article concerns itself with the adaptation of some selected indigenous structural fugu fabric designs for textile prints. The objective of the study is to adapt the structural design concepts of Daboya fugu fabrics into fabric prints and fabricate fashion items from the adapted prints produced. The practice adopted the studio practice-based research design where an artefact is to be created with descriptions to give an understanding of the creation. Data was collected through interview and observation. The sampling techniques used for the study were purposive and convenience and a sample size of seventy (70) respondents were engaged. Findings revealed that the surface effects of structural designs from fugu fabrics can be adapted and produced with printing techniques and still maintain their unique characteristics. It was also noted that the applied designs were still recognisable by majority of users as true resemblance of the structural fugu fabric designs. The study recommended that Textile artists should draw inspiration from other cultural structural designs like kente, adinkra and others and develop design concepts for contemporary usage and applications. It was also recommended that educators in textile study should encourage more adapted designs from indigenous textiles and make them beneficial to the country in terms of economy gains through exports. 

Quality Theatre-for-Development (TfD) education requires adequate provision to support the holistic development of the individual through an all-inclusive curriculum. TfD is a strategic resource for personal, socio-cultural and sustainable development. Hence, instructional TfD is valuable to sustainable development discourses, the global knowledge economy and the global society. This article explores to evaluate instructional TfD in higher education in Ghana. Employing the qualitative approach to research, the article used an empirical case study design to evaluate the TfD curricula of three public universities in Ghana, focusing especially on course contents, pedagogical approaches and teaching and learning logistics. The data collection method adopted were document review (curricula, course outlines, course descriptions and logistics for teaching and practice), with qualitative content and thematic analytical approaches guiding the data analysis process. The findings showed that the curricula as textual materials privilege preferred pedagogy that mostly specifies artistic and cultural pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in TfD. Also, the curricula are guided by utilitarian, cognitivist-behavioural and developmentalist philosophies that pay little attention to critical discourses in affective-aesthetic education. Such philosophical underpins reflect the ideologies and values of the designers and implementers. The analysis further demonstrated that the desired pedagogical context of implementation generally thrives on course contents, which are theory-practice-driven. The article proposes a discipline-specific and context-dependent framework and a space for the practice as artistic-aesthetic-cultural education to support quality TfD education delivery in Ghana. 

This article examines the construal of colour symbolism in the indigenous culture of the Yoruba people. The article assessed colour sources, indigenous values, importance and its classification in the Yoruba indigenous milieu. The crust of this article is established on colour in the idiom of Yoruba philosophy. The appraisal finally focused on the Yoruba aesthetics, values, religion and colour healing therapy using descriptive method in achieving the objectives. It was observed that foreign language, technology and religion poses treats to Yoruba colour culture. It concluded that colour and its associate in the Yoruba philosophy is fast disappearing because of lack of tenet theories on colours through which Yoruba colour identity could be preserved. Therefore, there is need for revisiting and reviving theories of colour representation in Yoruba worldview for posterity.

In Ghana, music as a formal subject of study occupies the periphery of the curriculum. While a number of reasons account for this, the article highlights the one which has eluded the radar as far as Ghanaian music education scholarship is concerned. This reason is that music has not been given adequate exposure in terms of official policy on education in Ghana, to prove its worth. Based on the mere exposure theory, the article reviewed the major provisions for various educational reforms/ordinances passed for basic schools in Ghana from 1852 to 2007 and focused on the place of music in each of them. The study revealed that since 1852 (when the first educational ordinance was passed under a colonial government in the then Gold Coast) up to 1959, there was no official policy on music education in the basic school curriculum in Ghana. Music was introduced in 1987 as part of the Cultural Studies Syllabus. It was made to stand on its own as a subject  in 1994, but the syllabus for the programme was not ready until 1998. Nine years after in the introduction of this syllabus however, music lost the status of being a single subject in the basic schools as it was made a part of the horizontal interdisciplinary integrated curriculum of Creative Arts.