Abstract:
This study examined the aesthetics of Dagaaba women play songs. Dagaaba are people
who speak Dagaare, a Gur Language spoken in the Upper West Region of Ghana and in
neighbouring Countries like Burkina Faso and Cote d‟voire. Songs are mostly sung
during occasions such as birth of a child, marriage and funeral ceremonies. Songs are
therefore inevitable because they play a very vital role in human life. The study was
conducted in Ul-kpong Bakonoyiri community in Jirapa district of Upper West Region of
Ghana. Purposive sampling method was used to obtain 30 Dagaaba women consisting of
2 lead singers and 28 chorus singers. The Dagaaba women play songs were audio
recorded as the women sung the play songs while photos were taken as the women
performed the songs. The audio recorded songs were transcribed and then translated into
English Language using meaning-for-meaning translation. The findings show that the
songs performed by the Dagaaba women are Anlee, Kccre, Gyaŋ and Yaaloo. The
Dagaaba women use play songs to help address some social problems in homes and the
society as a whole and also for recreational purposes. The Dagaaba women compose their
play songs in lines and stanzas. A line or a stanza is determined by the pauses made by
the lead singer. The number of lines in a stanza varies from song to song. The songs also
vary in rhythm depending on the type of performance. The Dagaaba women employ the
use of literary devices such as metaphor, simile, symbolism, repetition, personification,
assonance, alliteration and rhetorical questions among others to convey the message to
the audience. The main themes around which the songs are composed are love, praise,
caution and lamentation. The use of the figurative language makes the songs sound
beautiful in the ears of the audience and thereby making the Dagaaba women play songs
uniquely different from other songs.
Description:
A Thesis in the Department of Ghanaian Languages Education, Faculty of
Languages, submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Ghanaian Language, Dagaare)
in the University of Education, Winneba