Music of Africa
To begin
Another place another blog! Here we go again on an explorative journey to learn more about other cultures. Now this was a tough one for me. And you're probably thinking "literally how you have a whole continent to work with" and you're right. The only thing is I don't know where to start. So of course in my struggle to think after a long, stressful week I just started googling and found some pretty cool stuff that I think you'll enjoy.
Mbira
Now I had zero clue this was a thing and the reason I picked it was because I saw the word "xylophone" in the description on a website called Culture Trip while I was looking for some kind of instrument to look into. My reason being I had no clue there were xylophone like instruments. I mean was I just supposed to assume that lots of people strapped metal to wood and decided to hit it? How to heck did we get to the xylophone? But I digress, let's get into just what the mbira is and how it works. For starters the mbira is an instrument that originated in Zimbabwe as described on the Mbira website. It was originally made directly from iron ore, which is impressive to me. However, now the metal used is typically recycled steel. The metal is used to create anywhere from 22 to 28 keys, which are then mounted on hardwood soundboard called a gwariva. Now we have the main "xylophone" structure of the mbira, but there's more to this instrument than just metal and wood. As seen in the picture above, the mbira can be placed in a hollowed gourd called a deze that allows for amplified sound. Unfortunately, changing a higher frequency of droughts has led to the deze being composed of fiberglass rather than gourds. In order to secure the mbira into whatever kind of deze is used, a small stick called a mutsigo is used to secure the instrument. The finish off our lovely instrument, we have to add texture. Now this can consist of metal beads or bottle caps that are mounted to a metal plate, which is placed on the soundboard. Additionally, these can be added to the deze. The purpose of this final addition is to create a buzzing sound that can be anything from a soft sound to that of a tambourine. So what I'm learning is this is a pretty complex considering how it's made. Now the moment you've all been waiting for, the mbira:
I chose this video because for one it's short. But it's also a pretty good display of all the aspects I described above. Everything from the steel keys to the bottle caps is included and the man plays a variety of keys. Not sure this is my favorite sound, but I respect anyone who can play this because it sure isn't something simple like a drum or a cowbell.
Benga
Now that we've covered an instrument, now let's get to some music. Specifically: benga. Benga is a form of music that originated in Kenya in the 1970s. The cool part about this genre of music is that it unified aspects of Kenya's musical past as described on the Red Bull Music Academy. Now the golden age of benga occurred in the 1970s and 1980s and the lyrics definitely show that. From political messages to songs about love benga had a wide range and a unifying affect on Kenya. Now This was actually incredibly difficult to research. I found benga on a list of African music genres on Real World Records and while the site gives a nice description, I thought I'd look for something about benga specifically. This was hard. Finding a video that wasn't thirty minutes to an hour long was especially hard. But I found this short video that gives a nice little description of the history of benga. So to give something more than my crappy description here is a video.
Hopefully that did a better job explaining than I did. Instruments were a lot easier to research in my opinion, but I could suck. If you want to look up some benga music one artist mentioned in the Real World Records blurb on benga is Ayub Ogada. I mention this because his music is on Spotify so it should be easy to find. Now I would like to move on because gosh darn it that was hard work.
Elima
Okay this is another hard one. I wanted to be diverse about my topics so here we are. Now let's begin. For starters there is a distinct difference between adolescence and adulthood in African culture. This may sound simple, but in our society the line is often blurred. I mean I'm legally an adult, but I still need my parents help with a lot of stuff. Not necessarily the point, but I'm trying to set some kind of example. There are lots of coming of age rituals throughout Africa that vary based on the culture. For the purpose of setting the stage for my video selection, let's focus on girls. Now we know there are lots of different traditions for girls around the world. Some positive like the Sunrise Ceremony and some negative. I won't go into the negative. However, if for whatever reason you want to learn about the good, the bad, and the ugly an article describing three different ceremonies on Pulse is a great representation of different rituals in different places. Now for this I will focus on the elima ceremony of the Twa people. Now plain and simple this is all about puberty. When a girl starts her first period she is sent to an "initiation school" which is basically when all the young, menstruating girls are placed in a secluded house. This process should take at least a month and consists of an elder woman teaching the young girls about motherhood, the history of the Twa, and all around how to be a good Twa woman. Once their stay in this secluded home is done the girls are brought back and celebrated. A festival is held and the newly initiated women are now prepared for marriage and all the other tasks of womanhood. So without further ado here is a video of this celebration.
I actually thought the video was really cute. The way the moms held their daughters hit me right in the feels. And the girls seemed like they felt a little awkward, but everyone was really happy for them. I'd also like to add that the nugbeto ceremony of the Anlo Ewe is a really cool ceremony in my opinion, but I couldn't find a video of it. Definitely check it out if you're interested though.
Benga is so interesting! Thank you for sharing that with us! I have never heard that before, but I love the music! The age differences in music and dance is so interesting! So kind of like in Native American culture men and women would not perform together there is a difference in age in African culture. I would have never thought there would be a difference in age for music, but I mean I can kind of see that in our culture too. Like we do not listen to the same things as our parents most of the time.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much to cover about Africa and even the smallest topics you can get lost in. For me, just the exploration of their musical culture has distracted me from their culture itself. I really enjoyed your analysis of Elima, the ceremony. Most of the music and documentaries we listen to/watch are very heavily driven through a male perspective and I am always interested in a counter-perspective from another side.
ReplyDeleteReally weird to imagine the fact that in some cultures, once a girl has had her first period she is then considered a woman after going to an initiation school for 6 weeks and is prepared for womanhood and marriage at like age 10. Meanwhile in America, your not even considered a full adult until 21.
ReplyDeleteI'm very grateful that you shared a woman's perspective. It showed just how different America is from certain cultures. I am very shocked at how young a girl is considered a woman. I had never heard of Elima before reading your blog, so the information was very shocking to me.
ReplyDeleteLol I really liked the Benga music you talked about even though it was hard to research about! I enjoyed reading your analysis of the age differences in music and dance in African culture. Also that video is so cute!
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