Part 3: Regional Case Studies. West Africa West Africa: An Introduction West Africa SavannahForest

Part 3: Regional Case Studies

West Africa

West Africa: An Introduction

West Africa

Savannah Forest

Savannah region

Savannah groups in contact with each other through empires

Musico-cultural similarities throughout the Savannah regions

Some influence from North Africa, Islam

Savannah

Western Sudanic Central Sudanic Voltaic

Savannah regions – other general traits Social organization involved professional class of

musicians (i.e., griot, dyeli, jali)

All classes of instruments, though some areas have primarily membranophone instruments

Contexts include: Ceremonial music Praise singing Religious rites

Forest Belt

Eastern Forest Western Forest

Far more differentiation, less homogeneity in forest belt Secret societies important Percussive instruments with complex rhythms predominant

musical trait Elaborate traditions of court music and masquerade

Yoruba Popular Music

The Yoruba

Live in Nigeria, Benin Republic, and Togo Lagos center of Yoruba popular culture Yoruba is a tonal language

Yoruba Popular Musical Identity The dùndún (talking drum) a symbol of pan-

Yoruba identity Mixture of global and local Instruments & ensembles organized with lead

(“mother”) and accompaniment, hierarchy Instruments “speak”, like language “Spraying” provides most income for popular

musicians

Muslim genres

Wákà Spiritual inspiration, female performers Unaccompanied, hand-clapping

Sákárà Instrument, genre, and dance style Solemn, social dancing and praising

Àpàlà Lyrics are essentially praise songs Social dance drumming style

Yoruba Highlife

Ghanaian highlife bands performed in Lagos, spread popularity

3-5 winds, string bass, guitar, bongos, maracas, conga

Bobby Benson’s Jam Session Orchestra Worked in England First electric guitar in Nigeria

1950s was Golden Age

Jùjú

Emerged in early 1930s Named for tambourine (jùjú) Built on palm wine guitar music Rhythm from dance drumming style Trio (singer + banjo, tambourine, gourd rattle)

Jùjú – Early styles

High tessitura, nasal style Metaphorical lyrics Tunde King 1940s changes included:

Amplification Expanded instruments, conga-type drums Slower tempos

King Sunny Adé

The Green Spot Band, 1966 Style modeled after Tunde Nightingale Patron was Chief Bolarinwa Abioro Known for skilled guitar playing After 1972 split from Abioro, formed “African

Beats” band Became a major international star

Afro-Beat

Began in late ‘60s as mixture of highlife, jazz, and soul

Basic style is 3 layers: Interlocking electric-bass and bass drum Rhythm guitar, congas, snare back beat Percussion sticks and gourd rattle, horn sections

supports singer

Fela Anikulapo Kuto, 1938 -

Studied trumpet in London Played with Bobby Benson Late 1960s influence of soul (from Geraldo

Pino) Travel to US in 1969 led to more activism

Run-ins with military, song lyrics political Mother killed by military Slogan was “Music is a Weapon”

Fújì

Grew out of Muslim Ramadan tradition Features drums Syncretic style (highlife, American pop,

Muslim recitations, Christian hymns, jùjú)

"The Tradition" and Identity in a Diversifying Context

Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast

City of Man = (growing, modern city, primarily Muslim

Petit Gbapleu = (old Dan village)

Ge (genu=plural)

An institution that serves as base of Dan religious, social, and political life

Provides a sense of ethnic identity Involves performance of forest spirits,

sometimes as masked dancers

Dan religion and Islam

Many residents of Petit Gbapleu are Muslim, do not believe in worship of two Gods

But many still practice Dan, blend the two (syncretic practice)

PDCI Party for the Hairdressers PDCI was leading political party at the time Held a party for hairdressers, as political

move Ge masked dancer performed, along with

master drummer Ge and drummer incorporated popular music

elements, also non-local traditional elements

Creolization

Karin Barber, Christopher Waterman

Creolization is what happens when “local selectively ‘appropriate’ elements from metropolitan cultures in order to ‘construct’ their own hybrid medium in which to articulate their own, historically and socially specific, experience.”

Creolization

Advantages of this theory:

1. People seen as active cultural producers

2. Something qualitatively new, not just dilution or corruption of “authentic” forms

3. Function & significance determined by specific new context

North Africa

North Africa

Population consists of Arabs, Berbers, Gnawa

Historic conquest by Romans, Scandinavian tribes, Christian Byzantines, & Muslims

Cultural area includes Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, parts of Mali and Niger

Arab-Andalusian Tradition

Influence from Spain to Africa Original repertoire was nuba (suite of songs) Modal Oral-poetic

Music and Islam

Call to prayers, Koranic chant not considered music

Religious songs during Ramadan Sufi chants Curing ceremonies

Music in folk life

Annual, calendric celebrations Life-cycle events Professional musicians (griots) Sung poetry Instrumental music rare Many forms of dance (even with camels)

Popular music

Genres Tahardent Rai azri

Arab-Andalusian Arabi Hawzi Sha’bi zendani

Tuareg Music

Tuareg

Tuareg society consists of 8 large units or confederations

Culturally diverse Nomadic tribes

Music

Mostly vocal, but various drums & flutes Primary instruments are anzad, tende, and

tahardent Prominent position in everyday life Verbal genres highly esteemed Dance includes camel dances

Anzad

One-string lute-like instrument Played only by women Heroism, courage, love are subject matters Solo instrument or vocal accompaniment Many regional variations Takes years to master

Tende

Mortar drum Central to camel festivals & curing

ceremonies Not as much status

Tahardent

3-stringed lute Compositional formulas Urban genre for entertainment

From Village to Vinyl:

Genealogies of New Kabyle Song

A vava inouva

Algerian song by Idir, text by Ben Mohamed Important for Kabyle Berbers Based on traditional song “internal gaze”

Authenticity vs. modernity

“Authenticity came from the Kabyles, modernity could only come from the State.”

Internal Gaze

Internal Gaze is accomplished by….. Stylization Folkloric time Process of story-telling put on display

Transmission

Played in France, towards French audiences Translated to many languages Tapes & cassettes in Algeria

Transmission of the song made

Berber culture desirable

East Africa

East Africa – An Introduction

Nomadic, semi-nomadic and settled groups Indonesian influences Arabic & Islamic influences European influences

Music of Tanzania

Tanzania

Least urbanized African country Mainly Bantu-speaking people Swahili spoken w/English

1964 United Republic of Tanzania

Tanganyika Zanzibar

Music in Tanzania

8 stylistic areas Membranophones include royal drum sets Untuned & tuned idiophones Range of chordophones and aerophones

Forms (neotraditional)

Beni ng’oma Taraab National training centers Jazz

Music and the Construction of Identity Among the Abayudaya (Jewish People)

of Uganda

Abayudaya Jews

Converted to Judaism in 1920s, interruption by Idi Amin, revival in 1980s

Only about 750 people in Eastern Uganda Primarily 5 Bantu ethnic/language groups

Boundaries

Boundary-leveling strategies for… Local ethnic groups North American Jewry

Boundary-maintaining strategies for… Christian and Muslim neighbors

Boundary Maintaining Strategies Adding a Hebrew verse Jewish leaders adapt local folk songs Contemporary music contains Hebrew text,

subject matter “Lekhah Dodi” Hebrew pronunciation influenced by local

language

Central Africa

Central Africa

“Central Africa” is not a geographic

fact, but a concept

Central Africa

For this chapter defined as people speaking…

Adamawa-Eastern languages Bantu languages

Adamawa-Eastern language groupsMusical traits include: Tonal systems Part-singing Patterns of movement Instrumental resources

Bantu language groups

Pygmy Yodeling Polyphony

Several other diverse cultural groups

Musical Life in the Central African Republic

Music in Central African RepublicPerformances of modernity = how people

situate themselves within a changing world

Performances of modernity

Zokela are “musicians who play and sing in a vigorous style based on multiethnic rhythms, harmonies, melodies, and topical themes from the Lobaye

Alleged origins in 1981 Now tending towards spectacle Local → international

BaAka dances

Mabo Rhythm is a triplet pattern At least 2 drums accompany

Dingboku Women’s dance Stand shoulder to shoulder in line

Both dances stopped because of Christian missionary work, but later recontextualized

Southern Africa

Southern Africa

Politics, Economics, Languages, and cultural traits all determine how to define “southern Africa”

For this paper, includes southern tip up to the Zambezi river

Southern Africa cultural groupsMuch overlap in these groups…… Khoisan (i.e., Khoikoi, San)

Nguni (i.e, Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi)

Sotho S.E. African (i.e., Shona, Venda, Chopi, Tsonga, Sena)

Middle Zambezi (Lozi, Nyoka, Ila, Tonga)

S.W. Bantu (Ovimbundu, Ovambo, Nkhumbi, Herero)

Indigenous music: Musical / Cultural traits Prominent use of polyrhythms Linguistic influence on melody Secondary sound source (rattling/buzzing) Cyclic form Drums, plucked lamellophones, xylophones,

musical bows Music defined with metered rhythm

Indigenous music - Issues

Tuning systems: reasons? Influences: tonal-harmonic belt? Influences: Indonesian? Instruments: mbira origins?

Impact of Wider World

Mining Apartheid Missions/Education Sociopolitical Factors Musical Instruments Independence and international relations

Popular Music of South Africa

South Africa

European, colonial influence early on Led to large urban centers Constant historic flux between village and

urban centers

Cape Town

Slavery system developed early on Mixed-race peoples Birthplace of popular music industry in South

Africa Neotraditional music/instruments

(i.e., ramkie)

Kimberley

Diamond mines discovered New genres developed

Xhosa praise poetry Basotho’s veteran migrant songs Zulu men’s walking-and-courting song

Working-class, popular music developed Black men learned that through music they

gained some status

Christian Religious Music

First began to make an impact among Xhosa people

Congregational singing appealed to blacks New black South African choral style –

makwaya (choir)

Influence from the U.S.

Blackface minstrelsy African Methodist Episcopal church Virginia Jubilee Singers American ragtime and jazz

Johannesburg

Gold mines discovered Mixture of races, ethnicity, classes Shebeen developed as informal place of

music-making

Marabi

“Pianomen” began to emerge In dance halls and shebeens, pianomen

devised various musical formulas Four-bar progression ending on the

dominant: I-IV-I6/4-V7 Other instrumentalists also picked up on

marabi

Jazz

Makwaya composers developed hybrid compositions (Reuben T. Caluza)

Semi-professional song-and-dance companies Jazz/ragtime bands modeled on American bands Male close-harmony quartets Kwela=street jazz appearing in 1940s mbaqanga=jazz form that took its name from corn

porridge, known as “South Africa’s” jazz

Black show business & apartheid Many black musicians left Mbaqanga jive created: electronic version of

mbaqanga, also reclaimed Zulu pride

(i.e., Indoda Mahlathini and Mahotella Queens)

Township-jazz musical theater Other groups/individuals of importance

included Malombo and Jonathan Clegg

Dance and Gender as Contested Sites in Southern Malawian Presbyterian

Churches

“There’s a stranger at the door”

European/American hymn, but Malawian performance style

(The only CCAP group whose performance style is this way)

Growth of dance as form of worship Political changes of 60s Blantyre synod programs of 70s

Scottish Presbyterian attitudes towards dance/gender Scottish missionary work from late 19th c. Discouraged dancing, esp. by women Divided life into secular and sacred realms Mvano groups educated women to be

Christian women Rev. David Clement Scott, however, believed

in establishing “African church for the African people”

Malawian cultural attitudes towards dance/gender Elderly women passed on traditions to young

girls, often brewed beer, seen as “evil” by missionaries

Women can be chiefs Women often spiritual intermediaries

Acts of Resistance

Some Malawians held secret dances Peaceful march by Mvano women