I Am What You See Photograph

This body of work is a work-in progress to re-introduce and open up conversations about other forms of existing within the body other than the binary (male and female) in Ghana. It explores this through African spirituality and Ghana’s pre-colonial history. In the Dagara community amongst the people of Ghana, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, within African spirituality women perform certain rituals in order to build their masculine energy. It is believed that both women and men must work on balancing their sexual energies – when one gender’s energy becomes more powerful than the other, it causes an imbalance within their community. During the ritual, the women dress up as men with beards and mustaches and perform the warrior dance that young men learn as they are being initiated into manhood. The ‘female father’ known as the ‘puré’ ensures that the masculine energy is built. Everything about her carries a masculine energy – from her physical features to the tone of her voice. She is usually mistaken for a man.