A Systematic Review of the Aesthetic and Performative Dimensions of Akan Folk Games
Main Article Content
Keywords
Akan folk games, aesthetic performance, indigenous games, embodied heritage, intangible cultural heritage
Abstract
Akan folk games are living performance traditions in which movement, song, speech, rhythm, gesture, material objects and social rules operate as an integrated expressive system. Although their educational and sociocultural value is increasingly recognised, evidence about the aesthetic and performative dimensions of these games remains dispersed across ethnomusicological, educational, cultural and practice-based scholarship. This review synthesised evidence on how Akan folk games generate aesthetic meaning, organise performance and sustain cultural transmission. A systematic integrative review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020, with additional guidance from ENTREQ and synthesis-without-meta-analysis principles. Searches covered Google Scholar, ERIC, Crossref Metadata Search, named institutional repositories, targeted publisher and journal websites, and backward citation searching from database inception to 31 July 2026. English-language empirical, ethnographic, practice-based and analytically substantive studies focused on Akan games or closely related Ghanaian play-song traditions were eligible. Sixteen studies were included and appraised using design-appropriate Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool criteria. The evidence revealed six mutually reinforcing dimensions: sonic and oral, kinetic and embodied, spatial and material, dramatic and affective, communal and ethical, and transmission and adaptation. Adaptation for schools and digital media can extend access, but decontextualisation may weaken linguistic, embodied and community-authenticated meanings. Akan folk-game aesthetics are relational and performative. Their beauty emerges from coordinated action and from the fit between artistic form, social purpose and cultural memory. Safeguarding therefore requires multimodal documentation, community validation and educational use that retains the games' sonic, kinetic, spatial and participatory integrity.
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Isaac Asare-Aboagye, Department of Languages and General Studies, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Sunyani, Ghana
Department of Languages and General Studies
Rank: Lecturer