Cultural dances play a huge role in African societies. These dance forms are used to teach moral values, social etiquette and to help people mature and celebrate members of the community while celebrating festivals and other occasions.
African dances are largely participatory and every ritual dance often have a time when spectators must participate. Here are a couple of examples of some amazing traditional dances from different countries in Africa.
Moribayasa (Guinea)
From the Malinke people in Guinea, this dance is done by women who have overcome great adversity. The woman starts the dance wearing old ragged clothes. Accompanied by musicians she circles the village several times, singing and dancing. The women of the village follow her and sing too. The woman then changes her clothes and buries her old clothes in a special area.
Atilogwu ( Nigeria)
Also known as the 'Acrobatic Dance' of Eastern Nigeria. The leaps, turns, jumps and intricate footwork of the dancers is certainly a sight to behold. The dance is usually performed at key events & ceremonies.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBF6Mn__R1I[/embed]Aduma (Kenya)
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY-EXKzaLqc[/embed]This is one of the most famous traditional dances of the Massa performed during Eunoto, the coming of age ceremony of warriors. It is also know as the '"jumping dance" with each of the young warriors trying to jump higher then the previous one. Members of the group may raise the pitch of their voices based on how high one jumps.