Dondology

Mission

Our mission at this Symposium is to reclaim and appraise dondology as:

1. a robust trans-disciplinary intellectual arts discipline (Akpome, 2024);

2. a knowledge project that centers Indigenous scholarship;

3. an epistemological, creative, scientific, spiritual, economic, metaphysical field of study;

4. an innovative African-centered field of study with immense creative, economic, socio-cultural, and economic potential for the African community;

5. a theorized and defined field of study; and a

6. sustainable discipline for futurities.
    

By “talking/taking back” dondology as an affirmation of our Ancestral scholarship and re-envisioning it as a resistive “alternative to colonial thinking” (Dei, 2024), we actualize and expand upon Professor Nketia’s vision to “reinstate traditional music and dance in contemporary contexts” (2016). This is an action-oriented, anti-colonial, and unapologetic engagement with our rich intellectual traditions to emphasize their relevance and support their sustainability.

We will 1) 2) define and theorize dondology, 3) reposition dondology as an African-centered discipline, and 4) deliberate ways to sustain dondology for futurities.