Performing the Nation: Nationalism after Independence?

In Paul Schauert’s book, Staging Ghana, he takes a broad ethnographic approach to studying the relationships that exist between nationalism in terms of the state and nationalism as it is experienced by the individual. Throughout the book, his lens often refocuses to show readers the both the contrasts and similarities that can be observed when studying nationalism in this manner. Thus, it was incredibly interesting to watch him zoom his lens both in an out while discussing nationalism as something that can be used to understand the mechanisms that drive the collective. His view of the collective is as an entity that influences individuals that is also simultaneously an entity that is made up of autonomous and unique individuals. It is by looking specifically at two government-tied performance groups, the National Dance Company and the Ghana Dance Ensemble, that he helps to define the connection between the individual and the state while set on stage.

The way these performers interact with their audiences by representing blended and broad images of a multi-faceted culture on a single stage in a single, replicable moment is inherently political. Dance groups presented traditional and ethnic identities as cosmopolitan, functioned as instruments of the state, but also had great impact on instigating social changes when it came to both nation building and individual self improvement. “Thus, the performance of music and dance in a national/stage context becomes a potent study objection because it has profound impact on the social processes involved in constructing both a nation and the lives of individuals. In other words, the recent scholarship on state dance ensembles has proven them to be legitimate and powerful sites of social action and change wherein national, ethnic, and global (cosmopolitan) identities are reshaped and the various goals of individuals and groups are achieved” (Schauert 18). In fact, these groups were initially called upon during Kwame Nkrumah’s reign as instrumental vehicles for presenting a manufactured image of nationalism which Nkrumah wanted to solidify post-nationalism, yet despite the messages they were sending, the performers as individuals often maintained their own desires and vision – manipulating the tools they had in proximity to seek out self-improvement and upward mobility. However, the government has the means to either empower or disempower the arts. “While Ghana’s state-sponsored dance troupes have continued to perpetuate the trans/nationalist ideals of Nkrumah, they have reimagined and augmented them to meet contemporary needs, reshaping the nation and nationalism in the process. As the articulation of nationalism changes over time, the intensity of it is similarly dynamic, waxing and waning with shifts in governments. That is, while certain Ghanaian regimes have concentrated more efforts on nation building, working to create broad political and social momentum, other more reactionary governments have placed more emphasis on patriotism, stirring national pride in Ghana’s citizens to sustain the status quo” (Schauert 20). Post-Nkrumah’s disposal, the governments that followed afterwards did not spend as much effort funding the arts and promoting national culture, but this varied, J.J. Rawlings’ regime reinvigorated the arts while J.A. Kufor’s government once again neglected it (Schauert 20). For the collective, nationalism referred to the government’s plight to define what it meant to be Ghanaian and jointly, what it meant to be African. “… nationalism is rendered as a set of embodied practices and modes of experience that contribute to various degrees to the staging of the nation, the development of corporeal ontology, the construction of the self, and the foundations of meaningful lives…the ideologies and practices of nationalism profoundly inform bodily lived experiences, which transform the individual self and its abilities to manage a matrix of possibilities” (Schauert 27). Post-independence, this was critical as Nkrumah pushed to present Ghana and Africa as a whole as a powerful player on the world’s stage. Hence, it makes sense that he invested so much time and efforts in managing the way Ghanaians staged themselves as they told stories, played music, and performed dances. He wanted to define nationalism and Pan-Africanism for both his country and the world. Image was everything, people are impressionable, and therefore, performance is powerful. Schauert tactfully uses the following quote from Louis Dumont in 1970 to levy his observations throughout his book, “[The nation] is in principle two things at once: a collection of individuals and a collective individual” (Schauert 2). Although the NDC and GDE were initially used to construct and inadvertently reinforce manufactured understandings of nationalism by translating messages about social roles, culture, and politics by translating the government’s messages to stagecraft, individual artists were not completely without their autonomy – they were also able to use the state for their own whims.

Thus, Schauert’s reading brought deep insight into the relationship between the collective, the individual, and the state as culture is used as both a political tool to sway the masses and simultaneously, a vehicle for individual expression and freedom. Nationalism is conveyed as both a tool, whose function changes depending on the context and management, as well as a collection of emotions. “Moreover, emotions are not just expressions of experience but are ways of understanding being because, rather than clouding judgment, they fundamentally inform reason, rationality, and thus the formation of self. Emotions are particularly crucial to the study of nationalism because this social phenomenon is rendered meaningful through intense, passionate, and intimate engagement with the state and its ideologies as individuals reconcile these deeply held beliefs about ethnicity and kinship. Tapping into this ‘primordial’ domain of experience, governments attempt to create an emotional bond with their citizens; music and dance have been vital in attempts to achieve a level of ‘cultural intimacy’ [Herzfeld 1997] between the nation and the state” (Schauert 25). The way Ghanaian artists performed and influenced nationalism, is both complex and integral that sense, because nationalism just as much how it is used as it is how it makes people feel.