Ga and Adangbe Canoe Culture: a Composite Art Form for Studio

GA AND ADANGBE CANOE CULTURE: A COMPOSITE ART FORM FOR STUDIO PRACTICE EXPLORATION By Kirk Divine Agbenu A Thesis submitted to the Department of General Art Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY College of Art and Social Sciences Faculty of Art ©August, 2011, Department of General Art Studies i DECLARATION I hereby declare that this submission is my own work towards the PhD and that, to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published by another person nor material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree of the University, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text. Kirk Divine Agbenu (20039932) ………………… ………………… Student’s Name & ID: Signature Date Certified by: ………………..… ………………… Dr. Prof. Richmond Teye Ackam (Supervisor’s Name) Signature Date Certified by: Nana Afia Opoku-Asare (Mrs.) …………………… ………………… (Head of Department’s Name) Signature Date ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A thesis of this kind involves so many people in all its stages - conceptual, evolutional and analytical - such that when it is completed the researcher feels indebted to many people. Indeed the content of the pages of this thesis are imbedded with layers of contributions and experiences of experts in art, university lecturers, marine specialists, canoe artists, fishermen and chief fishermen as well as the countless men and women I bump into each time I went to the beach sites looking for the next information. I wish to thank all lecturers at the Department of General Art Studies especially, Art Education for the knowledge I acquired from the courses I took in the Department which have helped my academic work a great deal. Particularly, I want to say thank you to Dr. E. C. Nyarkoh, Dr. Joe Adu-Agyem and Nana Afia Opoku- Asare, the current Head of Department of General Art Studies for their suggestions and guidance. I also thank Mr. Edwin Bodjawah for reviewing this thesis. I am also grateful to Dr. Kąrî’kachä seid’ou of the Department of Painting and Sculpture whose suggestions deepened my understanding of research, its types and techniques. I salute you and your laudable inputs into my work. The award of the KNUST Vice Chancellor’s Special Initiative Programme Grant for the MPhil/PhD Art Education Program which has been the mother of all other supports is greatly acknowledged. iii Following this, I wish to thank the Department of Painting and Sculpture for giving me the consent to do the PhD (Art Education) programme under the Vice Chancellor’s Special Initiative Programme during the headship of Dr. Attah Kwame. Before starting out on the field work, my colleague canoe researchers and I were aptly prepared by Mr. Joseph Nartey, the then National Secretary of the Canoe Carvers Association. Several times when I went to Prampram, he was the point of reference that opened the doors of meeting canoe carvers, chief fishermen, and fishermen from whom I gathered primary data on the culture of canoe making and canoe art. I cannot end without mentioning how supportive the team of canoe carvers was to me when I joined them on their canoe carving expedition for a couple of times. Thank you to you all. My personal research assistant and informant, Ati Sama, an experienced canoe carver himself, demonstrated all the steps involved in incised carving of pictograms. He was vital in getting sample drawings of the various groups and names of pictograms among the Gas. Without the assistance of Mr. Paul Bannerman of the Marine Fisheries Research Division, covering the research sites would have been impossible if not erratic. The Ghana Canoe Frame Survey 2004 Information Report he made available to me made scheduling for participant observation and interview very well organized. To Mr. Joseph Narh and Nii Gbortsui of the SS Apapa canoe family, I am grateful for all the detail information you ferreted out for me through several consultations and cross checking. Dr. Irene Odotei of Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, iv granted me an interview and provided me with a copy of her own book that charted my research on a new helm. I thank her very much. My mother is my backbone, my inspiration and most adorable gift and help of which the greatest has been her patiently coping with my inconsistencies and urging me to keep on till I finish. Mum, “at long last, I have finished my work and thanking you for your prayers”. To my pastors, Lady Rev. Dr. Joy Bruce and Emmanuel Fiawoo, thanks for making your office and digital camera available for use any time I needed it. To all these people I am grateful. One other person I am more than grateful and more than indebted for practical help, for financial help, for encouragement and for sharing of ideas about this project from start to finish is Dr. Prof. Richmond Teye Ackam, my supervisor and dad. Thank you and God bless you. v DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to: My mother, Madam Margaret Amenyade Amuzu And my beloved, Miss Rachael Naa Ayele Tagoe, You are the two most endearing gifts from God to me. Thank you for your motivation. vi ABSTRACT Considering canoe as a work of art, this thesis project sought to use fundamental known theories of art to examine canoe as a composite art form involving painting and sculpture in order to find out the artistic nexus underlying canoe art among the Gas and Adangbes from Accra to Ada and subsequently exploring the data in studio practice. The data collection and analysis involved literature review, fieldwork review and studio practice experimentation. Survey findings by the Ghana Canoe Frame Survey (2004) were used as the research frame to determine sample size of each research site and to ascertain individual subjects possessing significant comparable and representative character in carving and painting. Non-participant observation technique was used to examine the pre-hull and initial hull making stages of the Ga and Adangbe canoe. Participant observation was also employed in the completion stages for one (1) Adangbe canoe by the researcher in order to have hands on experience for better understanding of the canoe making process. Structured and unstructured interview techniques were employed to elucidate information for the identification, description and analysis of the Ga and Adangbe canoes into their artistic categories. In all, findings show four (4) artistic categories of Ga and Adangbe canoes (Isotropic, Optimized, Orthotropic, and Hydrostatic) corresponding to four (4) distinctive compositional structures (Isocomp, Opticomp, Orthocomp and Hydrocomp). Additionally, five (5) distinctive visual elements were categorized with vii varying subdivisions. Furthermore, the findings were explored in the studio by translating ideas from Ga and Adangbe canoe art into twenty (20) digital paintings by the researcher. These digital paintings with their titles ranging from “security” to “Samai” have been described and analyzed in the thesis report. Based on findings from this research thesis project, the researcher conclude that Ga and Adangbe canoes are versatile cultural art objects with several connections for art-theory practice and exploration vis-à-vis art teaching and learning through studio practice. It is recommended that further research into canoe art will be a good catalyst for promoting swimming and canoeing to attract local and international tourists. Also, efforts should be made by hotel operators with boats, to employ canoe artists to include some of the Ga and Adangbe pictograms on their boats. Furthermore, as a national policy, a university or teacher training college course should be structured around Ga and Adangbe canoe art to integrate this versatile cultural art into main stream curriculum as among coastal dwellers. viii TABLE OF CONTENT Page Declaration .................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... iii Dedication .................................................................................................................... vi Abstract ....................................................................................................................... vii Table of content ........................................................................................................... ix List of Plates .............................................................................................................. xiii List of Tables ............................................................................................................ xvii List of Figures .......................................................................................................... xviii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview ................................................................................................................1 1.2 Background to the Study ........................................................................................1 1.3 Statement of the Problem .......................................................................................6 1.4 Objectives ..............................................................................................................7 1.5 Research Questions ................................................................................................7 1.6 Delimitation ...........................................................................................................7

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