Gone to the Village Royal Funerary Rites for Asantehemaa Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II

Описание: A documentary film by Kwasi Ampene (University of Michigan)
Executive Producer: Lester P. Monts
For information: [email protected]

Length: 50 mins


Description
Gone to the Village is a film about the crucial role of female leaders in the social and political life in Asante culture over the past 500 years. The Asante Kingdom is one of the most powerful pre-colonial states in West Africa but now part of modern Ghana.

Shot on location during the four-day burial and fifteen-day final funerary rites in January and December 2017, the documentary is a rich example of Asante oral traditions using symbolic communications in the visual and the performance arts to express collective grief in Ghana.

Due to a complex system of matrilineal inheritance, this was the first time in 209 yrs that a reigning king is burying and performing final funerary rites for his biological mother who was the reigning queen.

All the kingdoms and ethnic groups in Ghana and Africa came together for a national celebration of the life and service of this remarkable woman.


Endorsements

Gone to the Village, like the funerary rites that it documents, beautifully represents the persistent richness of Asante cultural practice in 21st-century Ghana. Informative narration and interviews contextualize footage of spectacular ritual performances interweaving music, dance, visual and verbal arts. A must-see for scholars and students of African expressive culture.

Daniel B. Reed
Laura Boulton Professor of Ethnomusicology, Indiana University


Gone to the Village is a unique and powerful documentary, beautifully filmed, of the elaborate funerary rites for the Queen Mother of the Asante in Ghana. Leading Asante scholar and musician Professor Kwasi Ampene directs and narrates with the authority, gaze and sensitivity of a true insider, with stunning footage of the rich cultural traditions of the Asante people. Filmed on location in Kumase during the funeral, we witness traditions
that have stubbornly and proudly resisted the onslaught of colonial rule and globalization. Through the film, we learn about the history of the Asante as well as the central role of women in this matriarchal society. The scenes of dance, song, drumming, proverbs, and dress code are of exceptional and exquisite beauty, unprecedented in the African continent.

Lucy Durán
Professor of Music with special reference
to West Africa and Cuba, SOAS,
University of London