Day two of Religion at the Crossroads: Africa’s Creative and Spiritual Heritage offered another rich day of scholarship, performance, and living tradition, centering the power of the Black sacred arts to preserve memory, shape identity, and sustain communities across generations.
The day opened with an extraordinary keynote lecture and performance by Torgbui Gideon F. Alorwoyie, professor of percussion and director of the African Percussion Ensemble at the University of North Texas. Widely recognized as one of Ghana’s foremost masters of traditional music and dance, Alorwoyie drew on decades of artistry rooted in the traditions of Ghana’s Volta Region. Through masterful drumming, dance, song, and storytelling, he demonstrated how performance serves as a living archive of history, spirituality, and cultural knowledge, offering a powerful reminder that the sacred arts continue to connect communities across time and place.
The afternoon sessions expanded these themes through two engaging panels. Staging the Divine explored performance, ritual, and material culture as spaces where the sacred is encountered and communal memory is sustained. Presentations examined Vodou as a living practice of freedom expressed through voice and sound, the sacred symbolism and artistic vision of Fabiola Jean-Louis, and Nigeria’s Iovbodẹ festivals as enduring expressions of collective identity and spiritual heritage. Together, the panel illustrated how music, visual art, ritual, and performance continue to embody the sacred while preserving cultural traditions across generations.
The second panel, Digital and the Divine, turned to the rapidly changing landscape of religion in the digital age. Speakers explored the digital mediation of Pentecostal worship in Nigeria, the emergence of online forms of Christianity and religious syncretism, and the evolving relationship between digital media, African music, and visual culture. These conversations highlighted the creative ways faith communities are adapting to new technologies while extending sacred expression to broader audiences.
The day concluded with a remarkable evening as conference participants welcomed the Lahare Kunde Shrine from Lente in Ghana’s Ketu District. More than a performance, the gathering offered a rare opportunity to experience a living religious tradition centered on one of Ghana’s renowned healing shrines. Through powerful drumming, singing, dance, and ritual, the shrine community embodied the conference’s central themes, inviting attendees into a vibrant expression of spiritual practice that has flourished along the Guinea Coast for generations. Together, the day’s keynote, scholarly conversations, and immersive performances demonstrated the enduring vitality of Africa’s creative and spiritual heritage.
Photos by Amanda Patrick
