The Ewes
After a series of several negotiations, a handful of European countries very humbly decided what would become the borders within the African continent. The most famous and important of these negotiations was the Berlin Conference that took place in 1884-1885. The majority these territorial breakdowns still exist today and are at the origin of the tensions and nonsense that still affects the lives of millions of Africans. One of the most obvious consequences of these fabricated borders is that many families and ethnicities were spread out across two or three countries.
The situation for the Ewe (pronounced “Evv-aay”) people is quite symptomatic of this abomination. Living in an area going from the western shore of Benin to the eastern shore of Ghana, the Ewe people live mainly within three countries: Benin, Togo, and Ghana. The Ewe are reminded of this fact, as nearly every marriage and funeral requires some family members by necessity to travel across a border. Nonetheless, if the territorial unity of the Ewe people was divided, the cultural unity still remains in tact, even if distinctions can be observed here and there.
In the three countries where we find their presence, the Ewe population is identifiable by its: language, food, and customs — even though in Togo, there is sometimes confusion between the Ewe and the Guin-Mina due to their similarities. One of the specific Ewe customs that we will study here is the battle of words known as Haló.
What is Haló?
To describe Haló is not an easy task, so let’s start by translating the word itself. Haló is in reality the combination of two words, Ha and Ló.
Ha means song and Ló means proverb. If the translation of song proverb helps us a bit, we still do not fully understand what the expression covers. Haló is essentially a competition that mixes: songs, drumming, dance, poetry, mime, and costume — all with the intention of using art to make fun of and to insult an opponent.
In general, Haló is a confrontation that takes place between two villages, or two wards from the same village, that have an open conflict. A [Haló] performance… 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 highly provocative and emotional one, with two factions and their supporters competing at physical, verbal and musical levels.(1).
On each side, ridiculing the opponent is the main objective, even if ignominious secrets are revealed. As long as the attack is expressed in an artistic manner, the attack is considered compliant, even if it is linked to the physical appearance.
The Reasons Behind Haló
Haló always starts with an open conflict between two opposing persons or two opposing groups. The specific reasons leading to Haló are diverse but very often linked to the protagonists’ ego. Very often and quickly the arguments between two individuals escalate to a point where two wards are involved. The insults feed a conflict that can lead to physical altercation. Haló intervenes in this context as a catalyst to channel the anger by establishing an artistic and usually musical confrontation.
If the village chief intervenes as the authority with the power to give a decision that is supposed to close the case; the possibility still remains that the reasons that led up to the conflict did not disappear and thus that tension may continue to hang in the air. Especially if the reason for the confrontation was a suspicious death.
One other source of aggression and violence over which the system of rule has limited legal control concerns a situation where individuals attribute the death of a person to the practice of black magic by an imagined or real opponent. In many cases the mishap is perceived as a collective and calculated attempt to undermine and reduce the manpower of the opponent ward. (1)
The villages are very often divided in small identifiable wards. Individuals residing in these wards have a strong sense of belonging. For the different members of a group, an attack against someone from their group is considered as an attack against the whole group. If in a case of suspected murder, the allegation is punishable by law, the reasons leading to Haló do not necessarily need to be something that has violated the law.
For example, a woman leaving her husband to form a new couple with a man from another ward is not doing something against the law but the resentment that it can create for the people living in the other ward can trigger animosity between the two sides. Animosity which can manifest itself into a Haló.
Artistic Competition
If Haló is the result of an unresolved conflict, the competition that it triggers must first be artistic. Each side has to deliver the best artistic performance possible to be heard and to win the battle. The main vehicle of this battle is the insults present in the songs. For this reason, opponents have to be extremely meticulous in the choice of their words.
The balance between the stories told and the musicality of the delivery is crucial.
On that aspect, a bridge can clearly be established between Haló and Hip Hop at its beginnings, when rap battles were taking place during the block parties in New York. It is also not a coincidence that Hip Hop was born and raised in neighborhoods where the majority of the population was descendant from enslaved Africans. This cultural aspect, of expressing emotions and humor, survived and was passed on from generation to generation laying the foundation for Hip Hop.
In Haló like in Hip Hop, an important pressure is on the shoulders of the composers. After each attack, it is expected for the composers to come back with a response that surpasses the quality and delivery of the attack. The element of surprise is an important element for the performance’s success. As a result, the competing groups mainly rehearse at night and in secret. The secret rehearsal is called “havolu”. During the havolu session, the private details and insults present in each song is introduced to the future performers.
Rules
Even if there are no written rules, the different parties follow certain customs that are generally accepted:
1. The target opponent or a close relative must be physically present
to serve as an audience
2. The warring groups must perform in turns
3. The audience must be demarcated from the performers /
the performance arena must be sectioned off with a rope to guard against unexpected and
violent reactions from the audience
4. The target opponent, or surrogate, must stand on a raised platform
or chair to facilitate identification when his/her insults are being
performed
5. The two groups must perform before an impartial judge, usually a
chief from a neutral village
6. The songs must be “buried” after a winner has been determined
7. If it rains during the performance, the group that is performing during the rain becomes disqualified at that exact moment
Where is Haló today ?
The different Haló sessions took place during the dry season and would last in general for one week. While the rules seems clear, they were often broken. Violence was able to surface when one of the opponents was no longer able to contain their anger. Moreover, as a form of counterattack and to diminish the physical attack of a rival, the performing opponent would try to continue their performance during a violent attack.
We need to add that a lack of respect for the rules is taken into consideration by the judge, when reaching a decision on the battle. The judge’s decision is based on the quality of the songs, the poetry of the lyrics, the quality of the voice, the coordination between the instruments, the songs, the costumes, and the performance by the mimes. At the end the judge gives a decision and the songs are symbolically buried.
Haló sessions did result in acts of violence that could be observed in the different Ewe villages where the art form took place. For that reason, in 1960, Ghana decided to ban its practice. In Togo, it was the French colonial administration that decided to ban Haló in the 1930’s, but it took a few decades before the practice finally disappeared. In the case of Togo, it is interesting to add that some historians mentioned the fact that the French colonial administration banned this practice due to concern that the population might use this tool to criticize the colonial powers. If the practice as described in this text disappeared in the form as it was described, the methodology is today used to support a candidate or a political party as propaganda instrument.
In writing this small introduction to Haló, I relied on the below texts which were very important to my research. I invite you to read these texts and to do additional research if you would like to know more about the topic.
-Freedom to sing, license to insult : The influence of Haló Perfornmance on social violence among the Anlo Ewe
– A war of words : Haló songs of abuse among the anlo ewe (Corinna Campbell)
-Histoire des Togolais : Des origines aux annees 1960 p 174
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