Bamaya Solo

[serpz123]

what's the name of the drums being used?

[claurelle26]

hi, where can i find these accessories and dance costume? i wanna do this dance for my talent for my upcoming pageant!

[idreamofthemusic]

From what I know, Bamaya is a dance performed by men dressed as women because during the great drought, when people prayed , it was believed that women were responded to first. Is this true?

[obamorofunfuno8]

@idreamofthemusic no there has to be more to the story. If that were the case why then wouldn't they just have had the women do the dance? From what I was told it was through divination that the message was conveyed that the men should dress as women and perform the dance. But still there most certainly more to the story. But it rained! :-)

[91BAZBAZBAZ]

POOO

[tukeyful]

Lisa, I think a little was lost in translation - it didn't look to me like he was upset with you specifically. I think the issue is more general, and one that is seen with many traditional arts - culture gets diluted if we let it. We should do our best to learn the truth and to only teach others when we are sure that we have gotten the right story ourselves. There's no blame, but these stories are precious and worth respect :)

[Stimulator7]

@tukeyful Well said, man. My own teacher (in a different style of West African Drumming than this) would agree. He would absolutely consider it disrespectful, as if you were "taking his music and calling it your own" if one were to accidentally (as is often the case) say anything about/show someone, any aspect of his music and dance, unless we are absolutely certain than we are in fact doing it correctly and representing it well (which usually also means that "we learned it correctly, from him

[boohcool]

awsome

[andaninuman]

i lke that

[faileb]

thanks for this video, the 1st time i saw this dance was at Dan_Ibu Int. Sch. in Wa now my mates and I want to represent ghana at our school n I believe this would help. thanks once again

[wolf1951]

great stuff

[BanjoPariah]

what is the name of the flute?

[BanjoPariah]

wow

[EyenEfik]

Do women do this dance also or is it strictly for the men? Please let me know. I'm a dancer and last year for my school's Ghana Independence celebration I had to perform a Yoruba dance because I was the only performer and I do no know any dances from Ghana. Give me a tribe and a cool dance to learn that is traditionally done by both men and women or just women and I will perform that this year.

[blingmaster300]

sorry im not sure

[Kbosh]

it can be danced by both men and women. i learned it from dolsi-naa abubakari lunna in dagbon.

[mote65]

i thought it was about rain, sulley imoro, an instructor of mine(he teaches at the dagara center in ghana), said that the men have to dress up to get the rain to come down because the men were acting foolish, and in order to appease the gods they had to dress up and dance like women so it would rain.

[Lisa246861]

I'm sure there are probably a ton of different reasonings for the dance. I don't know which one is the actual original one, but that's the one I was taught. I feel like Wikipedia-ing it now. :-)

[mote65]

it won't be found on wikipedia, i tried doing a paper on it for my seminar and there really is very little information about the dance on the internet.

[Saurencaerthai]

I recall hearing this from Bernard, too.

[mote65]

bernard woma? he was at my school this thursday, wonderul performer on the djil, everyone was so energetic, it flowed throughout the audience. top-notch performers worthy of world-class fame.

[gkaabank]

Hi Lisa, it about rain.

[Lisa246861]

Thank you.

[awalalhassan]

Hey Lisa Please what you know about Bamaya is not right ,Okay please do not say that okay is really offending my tribe, if you want  a history please go were the tribe is, many people say a history's of my tribe dances wrong so please the right is about rain I will not tall much on the net thank you very much , by awal alhassaan from Tamale Ghana,,,,,,

[Lisa246861]

Gees...Sorry if I offended you, but that's what I was taught, so excuse me for my ignorance. Thank you for correcting me tho, as many people have already done. Unfortunately, no matter how interested I am in learning about African culture, I can't afford to just hop on a plane and fly down to Ghana or any other part of Africa. I'd love to, but I can't. So I take classes here to learn what I can. Its not my fault if they teach me the wrong things. But instead of getting angry, just re-educate.