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Performing identities
Introduction
In November 2013, the paramount chief of Nandom, Nandom Naa Dr Puoure Puobe Imoro Chiir VII, and his traditional council celebrated the silver jubilee of the Kakube Festival, a two-day cultural festival. Since its creation in 1989 (see Figure 1), the Kakube Festival has waxed and waned in terms of the numbers and rank of politicians honouring the durbar, the number of groups participating in the dance competition, and the size of the local crowds attending the event, but it has been celebrated every year. Steering through conflict-ridden moments of party-political campaigning and changing governments, it has survived, and has been partly instrumentalized in periods of intense contestation of the paramount chief's legitimacy as the rightful Nandom paramount chief (see Figure 2). It has negotiated conflicting claims to authority over, and 'ownership' of, local culture. Within an unchanged basic format of a Durbar of Chiefs and a music/dance competition on successive days, it has showcased changes in the range and aesthetics of the dances and songs that are presented as 'our own culture'. Particularly in the past ten or so years, as Kakube's public face has become ever more polished, the festival has attracted even more official visitors, and has gained increasing visibility on the national scene, now being perhaps one of the best known Northern Ghanaian festivals. If there was one message that the Nandom Naa and the organizing committee wanted to convey to local and national publics during the silver jubilee, then it was that Kakube not only has 'come to stay', as the recently elected Nandom District Chief Executive put it,1but that it has been developed into a highly successful cultural event which 'make[s] people know that we also have our own culture', as the Nandom Naa explained.2It has put Nandom on a par with communities in Southern Ghana that often look down on the 'uncivilized' north.
Figure 1
The first celebration of Kakube Festival in 1989. The photo shows the Nandom Naa (in the embroidered striped smock just to the left of the umbrella) and his followers on their way to the festival ground. A level of informalism is evident. Photo: Carola Lentz.
[Figure Omitted; See PDF]
Figure 2
The fifth anniversary of Kakube...