Rescheduled to 3/24/20: Graduate Colloquium Series: Edudzi Sallah (PERF)
In compliance with recommendations surrounding COVID-19, our Colloquium Series is being moved online for the remainder of the semester. Rescheduled to Tuesday, March 24, 2020. More information about joining via Zoom forthcoming.
“Toko Atolia: An Anlo-Ewe Cultural Performance of Retributive Justice”
Rescheduled to Tuesday, March 24, 2020.
Zoom Meeting information:
Meeting ID: 637 561 769
https://tamu.zoom.us/j/637561769
In compliance with recommendations surrounding COVID-19, our Colloquium Series is being moved online for the remainder of the semester.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Tuesday, March 17, 2020, 4-5 p.m.
Location: 311 Glasscock Building
Edudzi Sallah
M.A. candidate, Department of Performance Studies| 2019-2020 Glasscock Graduate Research Fellow
Abstract:
This research provides an understanding of how cultural practices emerge from a people’s worldview by focusing on one particular indigenous African execution practice called Toko Atolia. Toko atolia, now defunct, was practiced by an ethnolinguistic community in pre-nineteenth century Ghana – West Africa – known as the Anlo-Ewes. Toko atolia took the form of burying hardened criminals alive in a ritualized manner. Toko atolia has been judged barbaric by modern externally imposed notions of justice and punishment. This project offers an appreciation of the worldview that shaped toko atolia, and argues, contrarily, that this seemingly barbaric practice makes sense within the worldview of the pre-nineteenth century Anlo-Ewes. The ethnographic fieldwork and archival research provides a wealth of perspectives from which developed an analysis of the relationship people today have with toko atolia. This research seeks to further intercultural understanding by showing how externally imposed judgments overlook deeper meanings in cultural practices.
The Graduate Colloquium offers graduate students an opportunity to discuss a work-in-progress with faculty and graduate students from different disciplines. By long-standing practice, colloquium presenters provide a draft of their current research, which is made available to members of the Glasscock Center listserv. Each colloquium begins with the presenter’s short (10-15 minute) exposition of the project, after which the floor is open for comments and queries. The format is by design informal, conversational, and interdisciplinary.
The paper is available to members of the Center’s listserv, or by contacting the Glasscock Center by phone at (979) 845-8328 or by e-mail at glasscock@tamu.edu.
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