Establishing a Comprehensive African Dance/Music Department

Out of the heated dissension and turbulent turmoil of the sixties, the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. One of the features of this act was the mandate that courses on Black and Minority studies be included in the schools of the nation. One of these courses was African dance. I was an under graduate junior at the time department chairs were scurrying to find what courses their departments could offer or risk the loss of federal funding. As a student who was a musician, had studied African dance, Labanotation and had my own percussion notation system, I was in an opportune position. When consulted I suggested that the department offer courses in African dance. The faculty knew my background and I was groomed to become the first person to teach African dance and music at Brooklyn College.

After I graduated and became a staff member, I realized that I had inherited an empty classroom. There were no instruments, books, lesson plans or guidelines that I could use in my teaching. At this moment I set my sights on creating an African Dance/Music department necessary for this new course of study to survive in the academy. First on my list of things to do was to secure African dance/music as an independent department of its own, complete with its courses of study. African dance would be taught with its music, as dance does not exist in Africa without some form of music. These courses would be on the undergraduate and graduate levels. All candidates pursuing a degree must have dance and music literacy. This means that they would have to know systems of notation, Greenotation and Labanotation so they could present integrated scores of music and dance in written format. They would need language, particularly French. The majority of the countries in West Africa, with the exception of five, speak French. Therefore, research materials would be written in French, not English.

As a department we would have to establish our academic robes and colors. To date I do not know if the existing African studies/Black studies departments have their own colors either in African studies, African music or dance. The department would offer masters and doctoral degrees on the graduate level. The more appropriate doctoral degree would be the Doctorate of Arts degree as opposed to the Ph.D. or Ed. D programs. The doctoral of arts is newer than the doctoral of philosophy and the doctoral of education degrees.

The history of academic degrees began in Italy in or around the 13th century. (1) These institutions focused on degrees of scholars, bachelors, and masters. Along with this came the origin of colleges, conferring of academic degrees, academic dress and department colors. In 1389 an Act of the University of Vienna (2) established the order of the graduation procession. These proceedings carried over from Italy to other countries of Europe and later to the United States. The three popular degrees awarded were bachelors, masters and the doctorate. The doctoral program was essentially divided into the doctorate of philosophy and the doctorate of education. These degrees were essentially teaching degrees and were awarded in the fields of science, law, mathematics, and literature.

The doctorate of Arts degree was designed to award people in a given specialty the highest level of professional development. It is my understanding that this degree was developed to train candidates to be college teachers. This degree signifies that the awarded is a professional and is capable of expanding existing horizons of knowledge and perception within a given field.

After the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 courses on Black and Minority studies were mandated into the curriculum. For Black students, African music and dance was at the top of the list as a reflection of our lost culture. As a pioneer in this field, I too was desirous of earning a doctoral degree in the field. There was no program available which reinforced the fact that if I wanted such a program, I would have to create it myself. I feel that the doctorate of philosophy and education are too rigid in structure and do not contain any leeway for new and innovative ways to approach the new subject matter. This is why my preference is the doctoral of arts program.

As a new teacher of African dance, I placed all my efforts into creating an appropriate program, particularly in my teachings at Brooklyn College. I went to Africa to hone my skills; learn dances and music of different regions in Africa; brought back instruments so my students could play the traditional instruments. There virtually was no curriculum in African dance at the graduate level and to compound the matter, there weren't many teachers who were qualified to teach this area of specialty. Therefore when NYU was creating a course in African dance, and a qualified teacher could not be found in the tri-state area, I was asked to seek a personality from my people in Africa to see if they wanted to teach a course. In this manner I was able to secure a teacher from Africa to teach the course. I also created courses in African music and dance in colleges within the New York area and taught some of them myself, namely Teacher's College of Columbia University, New School for Social Research, New York University and later at Adelphi University in Long Island.

As I referenced in my masters thesis entitled Ngoma: Evaluation of African Dance Instructional Material within the New York City University Complex, there would be a lack of books, recordings, photos, writings, and instruments as instructional materials. I also reference in this thesis that the majority of students studying it would have little or no experience in African dance movements or music. My thesis verified my assumptions and hypothesis. The master's degree was conferred on me in May 1972.

Throughout four decades I continued to go to Africa learning more instruments and dances to include in my textbook on African music and dance. When I was a Fulbright scholar to Ivory Coast and the Gambia, I taught my system of percussion notation, Greenotation, to students at L'Institut National Des Arts and in the schools of Gambia.

I also served as a US State Department Cultural Specialist to Ghana where I taught students how to write dance on the computer. The students and performers were extremely receptive of this program and worked diligently to notate TOKOE a puberty dance of the GA people. We appeared on Ghana national television. Much is still needed to create a doctoral of Arts degree program in African music and dance in the University of Ghana, and in the diaspora.

(Photo of Tokoe Notation of Music and Dance)

(Photo of the Mirror Newspaper article)

(Photo of Me and Notation Students on Campus at Legon)

In 2014, I will publish my textbook Greenotation: Manuscripts of African Music and Dance, so the field will have a standard text.

I conclude this writing by stating the field of African music and dance needs to be fine-tuned so that we are all working on the same page. Africa needs to cease trying to adapt and explain their culture through the eyes of the colonizers, and present it though the eyes of their ancestors. Finally I state that according to my experiences even the doctorate of arts degree needs to be tailored to fit the needs of African music and dance. It would be in the best interest of the students to have language, particularly French, as the majority of countries in West Africa speak French and documents are written in French, not English.

I also highly recommend that students and teachers become literate and learn Greenotation, and Labanotation. Without these two systems of notation there is no literacy as African music and dance are oral traditions that need to be transformed into written documents so thesis and dissertations on African music and dance can be written. Without these systems of notation African music and dance will remain an oral tradition or a sub-set of another department. We must begin to study, learn and appreciate African music and dance for its own intrinsic value. The best program that leads to a doctoral degree is the doctoral of arts wherein the student not only becomes learned but also can perform. My work in this area of specialty will revolutionize the study of African music and dance.

1.History of College Education - Wikipdia.
2. College and University History -Wikipdia.