Ride The Rhythm Road

West African Drummingby Jeanie Carroll

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent comprised of: * Benin * Burkina Faso * Liberia * Togo * Côte d'Ivoire * Mali * Cape Verde * Mauritania * The Gambia * Niger * Ghana * Nigeria * Guinea * Senegal * Guinea-Bissau * Sierra Leone

Map of West Africa Image 1

What do we want to know?

Essential Question Where is the music? It's in West Africa!! Unit Questions What is the music from West Africa like?

Instrumentation: Balafon, a marimba/xylophone instrument played with mallets. Djembe, a carved wooden, tunable hand-drum with a goatskin head. Dun Dun, a tunable wooden drum with goatskin heads on both endplayed with sticks Various percussion: Shekeres, Djabarras And cowbell-type instruments

Ancient Versions, Image 2

Current Instruments

Dun Dun, a tunable wooden drum with goatskin heads on both endplayed with sticks Various percussion: Shekeres, Djabarras And cowbell-type instruments

Balafon Djembe

Styles:Traditional (Mandingue, malinke

Content QuestionsWhat specific rhythms come from West Africa? How has their music influenced the music of Western cultures? Which cultures have been affected by West African music and how did that come about? What was happening in history when Europeans came in contact with West African people? How did that affect the spread of West African rhythms and dance?

What was happening in history when Europeans came in contact with West African people? www.myspace.com/banjorootswestafrica

West African Sources of Slaves for the New World

Most of those who were enslaved and transported to the New World came from the coastal lands of West Africa. The principal West African centers of the slave trade were: *Greater Senegambia (an appelation coined by the eminent West African historian Boubacar Barry, this historic region includes present-day Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea Bissau, and Guinea. A major gateway into West Africa, Greater Senegambia was also an early principal source of slaves for both the trans-Saharan slave trade and the later trans-Atlantic slave trade.) *The Rice Coast (also known as the Upper Guinea Coast, the coastal and riverine lands along the Atlantic Coast stretching from the Gambia River on down to Sierra Leone) *The Windward Coast (Sierra Leone) *The Grain & Ivory Coast (Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire) *The Gold Coast (Ghana) * The Bight of Benin (also referred to as The Slave Coast, it included present-day Togo, Benin, and western Nigeria)

Resource PageContent:

1) www.myspace.com/banjorootswestafrica

Images:1) www.solarnavigator.net/geography/west_africa.htm2) www.myspace.com/banjorootswestafrica3) www.tenthousandvillages.com/eightnote-balaphone4) www.thedrumspot.com/classes.html (djembe)

Constant demonstration of skills

*Personal Responsibility *Assessment*Teacher Informal Questioning*Peer Assessment*Performance at the *International Festival of Food & Song in November*Variety Extravaganza Performance in the spring