Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, PhD
Professor of Ethnomusicology
Illinois State University
Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts, School of Music
Normal, Illinois USA
Award Winner Performance Artist
Bi Nka Bi Workshop Facilitator
Belonging, Justice, Fair play, Freedom, Peace, Forgiveness, Unity, Harmony, and avoidance of conflict or strife.
Outstanding achievement in a Leading Role for Walking With My Ancestors
Creative Director Founder
ABURUKUSU Center for Creative Learning
Award Winner Book Writer
Ellen T. Blaney Humanities Award
Musicologist Performance Artist
As an indigenous scholar, “a holistic, embodied learner working with myriad identities, including spiritual identities,” (Dei 2015), I have a deeper appreciation of my society's rich intellectual heritage and knowledge and puts them on equal footing with other knowledge. I am interested in how Indigenous ways of being inform how we seek knowledge and experience sound. I am also interested in understanding the ways that walking, sound, sensorial/emotional experience, and multi-modal listening can be pivotal to conceiving an ethnography.
My research spans Africa, African America, and middle passage-focused areas. I have conducted research that peers have termed ground-breaking, practice-led research at several pan-African locations, including Ghana, Senegal, Brazil, and the United States. Pushing the boundaries of ethnographic research—how and where we conduct research, I got shackled, sat in dungeons, and listened to how the roaring sea, crashing waves, and the clinking shackles contribute to the dungeons’ soundscapes. I consider the spaces at former dungeons for enslaved Africans as incubators for Black music formation, and in so doing carry out an ethnomusicological study in those terrifying and important sites.
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As a practicing musician and performer of Ghanaian drums, atenteben bamboo flute, and the adenkum stamping gourd rattles, and singer, I have been involved with drumming ensembles since my formative years in Ghana. With this background, I have launched African Drumming and Dance Programs at institutions in Florida, Georgia, and Illinois.
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Keynote at University of Florida
Because Nsatea baako ntumi mpopa animu, “One finger cannot effectively clean the face,” my methods blend creative expression, scholarship, and experimental performance towards a performative discourse. My dancing, drumming, acting, singing, spoken words, and other forms of scholarship allow me to present the “ugliness,” and “beautifulness,” make connections between the past and the present, and open up spaces for deepened reflections and conversations.
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I recently used “walking as method” to explore the musical pasts of a warrior group in Ghana (Kormantse). The book Walking with Asafo in Ghana, by University of Rochester Press, documents that process.
Methods
Research Interest
For the past fourteen years, I have been engaged in immersive ethnographic work at former dungeons for enslaved Africans in Ghana and Senegal. So far, based on this work, I have given a TEDx Talk (2018) and written two multi modal works, Walking with My Ancestors: Elmina Castle (2014) and Walking with My Ancestors: Cape Coast Castle (2019). Both are meant to offer fresh perspectives on the experiences of the “forgotten” and “nameless” women, men, and children who once languished in the former dungeons.[1] I perform live drumming, dancing, and acting to explore how today’s racial and cultural problems connect with truths of our shared and painful pasts. Walking with My Ancestors: Cape Coast Castle (2019) is an award-winning and nationally recognized performance piece about a mother’s search for guidance from the spirits of her ancestors in the former dungeons. Each performance concludes with a “talk-back” to encourage dialogue about how this overlooked and “silenced” part of our world history continues to define relationships, politics, and policies. It allows us to have difficult and deepened conversations about identities, immigration and migration, citizenship, and homeland and diasporas. Ultimately, the work is a human story we write together about triumph over adversity, hope, resilience, emotional justice, and survival.
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Building on my father, Dr. Kwasi Aduonum’s dissertation, Compilation, Analysis, and Adaptation of Selected Ghanaian Folktale Songs for Use in the Elementary Classroom (1980), I am searching for and documenting Ghanaian folktales and their songs for use as epistemologies resistance in the college classrooms.
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[1] Both works were originally directed by Kim Pereira and produced by Don Shandrow.
Bi Nka Bi Ambassador
As Bi Nka Bi Ambassador, I work with different organizations to cultivate welcoming, sustainable, and productive healing spaces where everyone’s authentic selves are welcomed, valued, and celebrated. I provide workshops using ancestral knowledge, proverbs, music, movement, games, play, storytelling, and other indigenous teachings to help craft a plan to build sustenance and the common good of our communities. The sessions are grounded in several Ancestral teachings of the Akan of Ghana: Wisdom, Respect, Love, Humility, Bravery, Truth, Honesty, Interdependence, and Community.
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Bi Nka Bi (“One must not bite another”) is a Ghanaian Akan Adinkra symbol about Belonging, Justice, Fair play, Freedom, Peace, Forgiveness, Unity, Harmony, and avoidance of conflict or strife.
Vision
Our vision is for Communities that uphold Belonging, Equity, Justice, Respect, and Love for all.
Mission
Our mission is to:
· Celebrate our authentic selves
· Embrace full human experiences and life journeys
· Care for each other and ourselves
· Heal land and our spaces
· Cultivate welcoming spaces
· Bring joy, amusement, and play to each other
Nana
Nkoso Hemaa (Queen of Progress) of Gomoa Obokrom, Central Region, Ghana.
As Nkoso Hemaa, I am responsible for ensuring that my community is on track towards progress.
I founded and direct the first Preschool for children 3 to 5 years-old at Obokrom in 2013. At the present, I partially fund the school and support the community with projects and other ventures. I am also responsible for ensuring that the youth stay on track towards the highest potential.
Nana Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
Celebration in Ghana
Nana pounding Fufu
A Praise Song
Dr. Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
Child of Akan Ghana
Daughter of Professor Kwasi Aduonum
Daughter of Ohemaa Akosua Pokua Agyei
Foriwaa Amanfo, Aburoo Du-é
A grain of corn that feeds a multitude
A woman of indomitable and fiery spirit
Audacious, energetic, and steadfast woman from the Aduana lineage
Phenomenal woman
Pioneering scholar
Got shackled and sat in former dungeons for enslaved Africans
To learn about the suffering of her Ancestors
Ahwene pa!
Professor Aduonum
African Music instructor and Ethnomusicologist
Dynamic, innovative, and passionate
Eiii!
ͻbenfoͻ Aduonum, eeee
She directs African Music Ensemble
Drummer, singer, composer, storyteller, dancer
Combines live drumming and dancing to explore
Truths of our painful pasts
Obokrom Queen Mother and founder of a school
Author of children’s books
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
ͻnantefoͻ sene oni ne ͻse asem nti
She walks with Asafo!
ͻbenfoͻ Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
ͻkani ba a ofi ͻman Ghana
Okunii Akwasi Aduonum ne
ͻhemaa Akosua Pokua Adjei ba
Foriwaa Amanfo, Aburoo Du-é
Aburoo betem a eye apata ma ma ekͻm guo
ͻboͻba
ͻbaa kokoͻdurofoͻ a, ofiri Aduana Abusua mu
Í»baa a osi pi si tá
ͻbenfoͻ nimdifoͻ a otwa esa pa to hͻ ma nkyiremma
ͻno ena otiatia ne nananom a tetebi aborͻfo efaa wͻn nnͻmum no anammͻn mu
Saa kyere se yebehunu amanehunu a ye nananom efa mu wo nkoasom mu
Ahwene pa
NimdifoÍ» Aduonum
ͻbenfoͻ a ne nimdee wͻ ndwom mu ebunkam ewiase afanan nnwom ahodoͻ nyinaa so
ͻno na ͻma dada edane mono
ͻno na ͻnna kͻpem se obedi nkunim
ͻbaa sima preko pe
ͻde ͻsee eye ͻyͻ
Eiii!
ͻbenfoͻ Aduonum, eeee
ͻno ne panin a ͻda abibinwom ene asa ekuo a ewo Illinois Sukuupͻn no mu ano
TwenekafoÍ», nwomtofoÍ», nwomsaifoÍ», asa wura, anansesem wura
Te-te wÍ» bi ka, te-te wÍ» bi kyere
Foriwaa tweneka, ne nwomtoÍ», ne nwomsai,
ne asa, ne anansesem nyina soÍ» ene no
Í»bokrom Hemaa, nimdefoÍ» a w’asi adesua bia a mmÍ»fra mmÍ»fra enya nimdee ahyease ho ntetee
ͻtwerefoͻ a otwere mmͻfra mmͻfra nwoma
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
enam se ͻnantefoͻ sene oni ne ͻse asem nti
ͻne Asafo na ebͻ anantee
