The Rhetoric of “Bragoro”: The Philosophy Behind Akan Traditional Concept of Marriage
Peter Arthur 
& Angelina Mensah
Issue: Vol.3 No.2 September 2021 Article 2 pp. 32-41
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/motbit.2021322 | Published online 20th September, 2021.
© 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This paper discusses the intertextual relationship between the world of Akan Bragoro (puberty rites) song texts and the real world of Akans. The Akan Bragoro song texts are performed during Bragoro celebrations and the song texts define the Akan concept of sex and marriage within the parameters of traditional Akan philosophy. The paper uses qualitative research methods that are irrigated by ethnographic and stylistics approaches to text interpretation. The findings of the research indicate that texts of Akan Bragoro songs key all the meanings this traditional philosophy has to offer: sex is strictly a marital affair and marriage is for those who are prepared for it. The stylistics of the song texts also frame the epistemic of Akan love and that the basic condition of Akan conjugal love is a good character on the side of both the man and the woman. The paper further reveals
that the Akan Bragoro song texts constitute the site where the precipitates of Akan marriage are provided and Bragoro initiates are introduced to the Akan way of life. These precipitates are rehearsed in performance year after year, making the Akan Bragoro an enduring cultural practice that guides the life of the Akans throughout all ages.
Keywords: Performance, Bragoro song texts, Verbal art, Cognitive poetics, Tradition
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Peter Arthur(PhD) is a Senior lecturer in the Department of English, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Angelina Mensah is an MPhil student in the Department of English, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Arthur P. & Mensah A. “The Rhetoric of “Bragoro”: The Philosophy Behind Akan Traditional Concept of Marriage ” Journal of Mother-Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics and Theology 3, no.2(2021): 32-41. https://doi.org/10.38159/motbit.2021322
© 2021 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
