"It's a Great Song!" Halo Performance as Literary Production

Haló is a sociomusical drama that was once popular among the Anlo-Ewe, from ca. 1912 till its official proscription in 1962.The etymology of the name haló (i.e., ha + lo, "song + proverb" or "Great Song") suggests three definitions, but these are just different routes leading to the same goal. The definitions invariably retain and stress the essential qualities of haló: the spectacular, the unusual, the precarious, havoc, danger, and challenge. These features and the rules or prescriptions governing the performance are shared and applied in a spontaneous fashion when factions engage in the war of insults and music. Haló can be summed up as a multimedia event, as well as a sociomusical drama that involves songs of insult, dance, drumming, mime, poetry, spoken forms, costume, and a variety of visual icons. Although the music is constructed mainly along Anlo-Ewe models, there are special observances, devices, and techniques that are unique to this genre. As will be elaborated later, these devices and related art forms are employed primarily to effect the purposes of aggression and violence, and to establish musical superiority.

A performance usually involves two villages or two wards from one village, and is characterized by direct or comic forms of provocation, aggravation, and sung and spoken insults, which are sometimes exaggerated through dramatic enactments. Each haló context is a highly emotional one, with the two factions and their supporters competing at physical, verbal, and musical levels. The numerous police arrests that result from the performance and its related events are further indications of the grave and wider social ramifications of haló. This search for superiority in both physical and musical domains is also often accompanied by magical practices and related machinations against opponents. These practices also frequently involve the acquisition of "singing gods" (supernatural powers with whom the sources of musical creativity are identified). In addition, individuals or groups also take precautions by fortifying themselves spiritually against enemy attacks (i.e., physical and spiritual attacks). The socio-dramatic aspect of haló is thus intensified through the physical confrontations, the musical and verbal exchanges, and the involvement with the supernatural realm. The performance can therefore be described as a unique context for reevaluating and qualifying social and interpersonal relations. As with many oral genres there is no precise dating of the origins of haló, nor is there is a discernible pattern for tracing its diffusion among the Ewe over time.

Statistics resulting from several years of fieldwork show that about 88% of Anlo-Ewe towns have a history of haló, and that about 40% of factions have engaged in the genre more than once. These figures, the official ban, and the lingering of veiled forms of insult in contemporary practices confirm the social significance of the art from in Anlo-Ewe society. The most common precipitates of haló are: (1) the taking of someone's wife from a different ward, (2) derogatory remarks on the music of another ward, and (3) personal insults communicated directly or vaguely in song, and (4) interpersonal hostilities and aggressive stance due to the factor of social competition. Today, there are social and musical incidents that intimate haló, but these contemporary examples are quickly contained by the traditional rulers in order to avoid breaking the law. Since each performance has a cumulative effect and exacerbates a previous one and with consequences of forms of physical confrontation outside the performance context, one cannot simply describe haló as a tension-relieving ritual. The features outlined above would therefore suggest unique relationships between the genre and the social milieu, and suggest that violence is central to the definition of the genre.

The semantic, dialogic, poetic, and general expressive features of the corpus of texts and music produced in haló performance can be summarized as phenomenal, as examples will demonstrate. The texts and their associated performative acts are an integral part of haló dramaturgy, as summarized earlier. In order to understand the place and work of literary production in this dramaturgy we must first outline the textual characteristics, temporarily disengaged from their related performative acts for this purpose. There...