Mande: Dancing and Drumming

T The West African Experience

“Mande” is a heading of one of the major

branches of the large Niger-Congo language groupings that covers most of West Africa (Charry 2000:15)

- Liberia - Ghana - Sierra Leone - Senegal - Mali

What is Mande?

In the 13th century, the West African Mande (or

Mali) empire was established by the legendary warrior and hero Sunjata and his allies

The Mande homeland is situated along the Upper Niger River roughly between Bamako in southwestern Mali and Kouroussa in northeastern Guinea

History of Mande

Music is very important - Back in the time of the Mali Empire, griots performed songs for kings and nobles. - Mali has produced many stars of African music, including a number of female singers of Mande music - Oumou Sangare

Mali

Michelle Coulibaly -began as a ballet dancer but then later got introduced to African dancing by a lady from Sierra Leone - wanted to have a deeper understanding of how African dance worked -went to Senegal to study dance however, in Mali is where the dancing really affected her

Interview

In Mali, as well as in the Mande class the

djembe is played. -meaning of the drum translates into “everyone gather together in peace” - lead djembe player controls the ensemble and engages in two fundamental kinds of playing -singing or group dancing - solo dancing

Drumming

In Mali, performers sing to the drummers before

dancing to symbolize respect In public events, a circle is formed with the

drummers at the head - dancers emerge singly or in twos and threes approaching the drummers, engaging with them for short periods of time and then falling back into the circle - those in the circle support the dancers by clapping and cheering

Dancing