By Suenia de Azevedo
I am from the Northeast region of Brazil, more specifically Pernambuco, which has a strong influence from African culture. As the region in the country with the most significant presence of the Black population, I grew up learning that food, dance, and music from northeastern Brazil are a heritage of the slavery period, more precisely from Black slaves that came from Africa in the past centuries. Since I arrived in Ghana I can visualize everything that I learned throughout my life materialized in the Ghanaian culture.
One significant example is, in a comparison of my experience living in the United States and here, the food that is considered disposable in more developed countries is highly appreciated in Brazil and Ghana. This is the case for chicken gizzards or fish heads. It is curious to see how for Brazilians and Ghanaians find value in the undesirable “disposable” foods as a source of nutrition that is highly appreciated and a popular in Ghanaian meals.
Moreover, the dance is also another example to be noted. As a scholar who is interested in music and gendered performance, the importance of the body in Ghanaian dance looks similar to the one in Brazilian culture. Instantaneously, it reminded me of Gilberto Freyre, a Brazilian sociologist from Pernambuco, who said that the body shapes the Brazilian Identity. I can set that side by side with the Ghanaian culture, especially their performance of dance since they use their hips and buttocks as significant elements of their performance. In my perception, those are ways to revert the hypersexualization of those parts that were considered anomalies in the past, as the celebration of their culture through their embodied performances.
