Adowa is not just a dance.
It is a conversation carried by the body — a language of wrists, shoulders, eyes, and silence.
The first time I truly understood that, I was ten years old.
It was during Akwasidae at my grandmother’s village. The palace courtyard was already alive before sunrise. Women moved from one corner to another balancing trays on their heads, old men sat beneath large umbrellas discussing history, and the air carried the scent of dust, incense, and fresh palm wine.
Then the drums began.
Not ordinary drumming. Talking drums.
They called names. Praised ancestors. Warned, teased, celebrated. To outsiders, it sounded like rhythm. To the Ashantis, it was speech.
I stood quietly beside my grandmother, holding the edge of her cloth as the dancers entered the courtyard.
The women moved slowly and gracefully, wrapped in rich cloths of gold, black, and red. Beads rested around their wrists and ankles, catching the morning light whenever they moved. No one rushed. Every step carried intention.
One woman immediately caught my attention.
She was not the youngest, nor the most heavily adorned, yet everyone watched her. She danced with a confidence that seemed to silence the entire courtyard. Her shoulders rolled gently to the rhythm while her fingers curved delicately through the air.
Then she touched her chest softly.
After that, she pointed toward the elders.
Finally, she lifted both hands toward the sky.
I tugged at my grandmother’s cloth.
“What does that mean?” I whispered.
My grandmother smiled without taking her eyes off the dancer.
“She is speaking.”
I frowned. “But she hasn’t said anything.”
“She has said plenty,” my grandmother replied.
I watched again, more carefully this time.
The dancer touched her ring finger and tilted her head slightly.
“A message to her husband,” my grandmother explained.
The woman then brushed her palm lightly across her shoulder.
“She speaks of burdens.”
A moment later, she circled her wrist slowly and smiled toward the queen mother.
“That,” my grandmother said, “is respect.”
I stared in amazement.
The dance was not random movement. Every gesture carried meaning. Every sway held emotion. Joy. Desire. Pride. Grief. Love. Strength.
Even silence had language.
As the drums grew louder, more women joined the circle. Some danced with playful energy, others with solemn dignity. An elderly woman moved carefully, yet the entire courtyard watched her with reverence. Her hands trembled slightly with age, but her story remained clear.
“She has lived through hardship,” my grandmother murmured. “And she is telling everyone she survived.”
For the first time, I understood that culture was not locked in books or museums. It lived in people. In movement. In memory. In stories passed from one generation to another without ever being written down.
The drums continued long into the afternoon.
And there, beneath the Ashanti sky, surrounded by music older than memory itself, I realized Adowa was more than performance.
It was history dancing in human form.