Paper short abstract:

How dancing collective experiences shape the future of the city and the continent in a global world ? Based on the study of DJ parties in the cosmopolitan town of Accra, this anthropological research analyses both the discourses of organisers and interactions between participants during the venues.

Paper long abstract:

Accra is known as a "hub on the urban landscape where inhabitants from different countries may invent new forms of cohabitation" (Van Wolputte et al.2022). These people incidentally meet in different venues dedicated to music and dance. What's happening there? "We are the authority of who is next" is a motto of one Ghanaian creative agency that organises venues and advertises artists (Avallon 2020). How collective experiences are created and spread? How the future is imagined and built in the city?

DJ events are the point of departure for my ongoing research. I study not only the musical sounds but the gathering, the movements and interactions of participants, the economical and political context of these events in order to analyse how people cooperate, how these events are integrated in the city and spread collective experiences over the world. To go beyond lifestyle, musical tastes and economic differences, I follow three different scenes in a context of circulation of people. The first is connected to diaspora living in Europe or the USA; the second is attended by a continental diaspora from the francophone neighbouring countries; the third scene is a place dedicated to Afrobeat, a style of music largely shared across the world.

Based on the observation of DJ parties in Accra, and on interviews with organisers, DJs and participant, I will present an analysis of dancing events, that shape the city, and shape the global world, giving a central place to the African continent.