Prof. Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, PhD
- delsmartt5
- Sep 24
- 2 min read
Professor Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum (also known as Nana Hemaa Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum) is a visionary in the field of ethnomusicology whose work transcends the boundaries between scholarship, performance, and healing. As a Professor of Music at Illinois State University, she teaches courses in Black Music and Ethnomusicology and leads the ISU African Drumming & Dance Ensemble.
Dr. Aduonum’s methodology is rooted in practice-led research — she does not merely study
music and sound; she lives it. Her work engages deeply with sensory experience, ancestral memory, and embodied storytelling. She has conducted intensive ethnographic research in former slave dungeons in Ghana and Senegal, undergoing the challenges of those spaces to listen to what the walls might still “say” — the echoes of pain, resilience, and creative survival
One of her signature works is Walking with My Ancestors, a performance and research project born from this dungeon work — a theatrical, musical, and embodied journey into the histories that often remain submerged. Through this project, she sparks conversation about how those historical sounds and silences continue to shape identity, community, and memory.
Teaching & Influence
At ISU, Professor Aduonum’s courses traverse continents and histories — from African music traditions to Afrofuturism, from diaspora soundscapes to the politics of performance. As a mentor and educator, she encourages students to see music not just as artistic output, but as a space of inquiry, connection, and social justice.
Her work is widely recognized: she is an award-winning playwright, performance artist, and public speaker whose creative outputs inform, challenge, and expand disciplinary norms.
Among her honors is the Ellen T. Blaney Book Prize in the Humanities, awarded for academic excellence
Community, Workshops & Public Engagement
Beyond the academy, Dr. Aduonum leads Bi Nka Bi workshops — interactive, community-based sessions grounded in Akan proverbs, ancestral wisdom, music, movement, and storytelling. She facilitates space for healing, belonging, and collective expression, especially among communities that have been historically marginalized.
As a scholar-practitioner, she brings her own Ghanaian roots to her work. She plays traditional instruments — Ghanaian drums, the atenteben bamboo flute, adenkum rattles — and integrates them into her performances and curricula. She also contributes to discourse on decolonial scholarship, advocating for indigenous and embodied epistemologies to reshape how knowledge is produced and shared.
Recent & Ongoing Work
In March 2023, she delivered a talk on Walking as Methodology in conjunction with her book Walking With Asafo in Ghana: An Ethnographic Account of Kormantse Bentsir Warrior Music at Illinois State’s Milner Library.
Her performance “Walking with My Ancestors: Cape Coast Castle” has been featured across venues to bring visceral, emotional awareness to the experience of enslaved Africans.
Her research, which spans Ghana, Senegal, and transatlantic spaces, continues to push discourses around music, memory, trauma, resilience, and justice.
Why she matters: In an academic landscape often dominated by abstract theory, Professor Aduonum’s work brings us back to the body, the land, the ancestors — reminding us that knowledge, history, and healing are not just conceptual, but deeply felt, heard, and shared. Her artistry, scholarship, and activism invite us all to listen more closely, remember more deeply, and act more justly.
Comments