The aesthetics of Dagaaba women play songs

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.