ZINLI: ORIGIN AND CULTURAL RESISTANCE IN GLOBALIZATION

Abstract

ZINLI is an artistic sports physical activity (APSA), dance and music. It is a great cultural richness of Benin, in particular of the people of Abomey. This empress dance was once reserved for the monarch alone and its music was only sung in special situations. This is why the kingdom of Abomey destroyed and the royalty scattered, this dance was destined to disappear! But it has withstood adversity, time and globalization. This study while describing the Zinli, explains its anthropological scope to lead to the main factors that hinder its promotion and the realistic management that must be executed on it in order to guarantee its safeguard in the context of globalization. A retrospective cross-sectional study of a qualitative nature, its population was that of: a youth, potential succession for the sustainability of the zinli; connoisseurs of Zinli dance and singing (current support of this APSA); customary leaders who are the guardians of the tradition. The results of this study showed that the "acculturating" effects of globalization and the new modern dances, as well as the non-existence of a model for the management of cultural heritage: traditional dances and songs, are the main factors threatening the Zinli dance survival. However, the Zinli song, conservative of orality and pledge of biography, would benefit from retaining all its basic richness while enriching itself with a relative acculturation through other dances and songs: Beninese, Africans or even Westerners who would leave it, in the end and despite everything, strong in its identity.