Contemporarising ɔhene tene (the Akan chief’s procession) as political communication

Abstract

This paper is about politics and communication in a Ghanaian traditional setting. It focuses on ɔhene tene (the Akan chiefly procession) as a single act of non-rhetorical symbolic communication. Situated within the conceptual frameworks of public relations and political communication, the description and analysis of ɔhene tene characterises its staging as image-making which communicates and projects power and authority. Through in-depth interviews, observation, and drawing on encoding and decoding of the sight spectacle, observed visual and sound elements of ɔhene tene are detailed, highlighting their signification and consequential roles that combine as public relations and political communication activities. Ɔhene tene is contextualised and proposed as a constructed image typology and “political language” with lessons for political communication and public relations practices.