The
music of Africa is as vast and varied as the continent's many regions, nations,
and ethnic groups. The African continent comprises approximately 20 percent of
the world's land mass and has a population of roughly 934 million. African
music is as diverse as its cultures and peoples and has flowered in many
indigenous forms as well as been shaped by foreign influences.
Although
there are many different varieties of music in Africa, there are a number of
common elements to the music, especially within regions. The concept of music
in Africa, especially in sub-Saharan Africa bears a difference from other
regions and cultures. The roles of music and dance are tightly woven together
in sub-Saharan Africa, and music intersects with every aspect of life, expresses
life through the medium of sound. By helping mark the important moments in
life, music helps to underscore the divine and eternal value of human life.
African
music also helps to connect people together in a variety of ways, strengthening
the fabric of the community, which in turn reinforces people's commitment to
support each other and the community, toward mutual health and prosperity.
Another crucial role of music in Africa is as a mode of communication. Talking
drums, signal drums, songs, and the sagas of the historian griots each
communicate different types of important information.
As
African society has changed in response to the forces of colonization,
independence, and globalization, the role of music changed as well, adapting to
the new situation in which the people of Africa find themselves. Though there
have been changes in some of the forms of the music, including the infusion of
instruments, musical styles, and genres from outside the African continent,
music remains very important in Africa today. Also, as Africans traveled from
Africa to other parts of the world, both as a result of African slave trade and
later migrations, the music and dance forms of the African diaspora have
influenced a number of international musical styles and genres, including many
Caribbean and Latin American music genres like rumba and salsa, as well as
providing the foundation of musical tradition behind African American music.
TRADITIONAL
MUSIC
When
discussing African music, the term "traditional music" is used to
refer to the characteristics of African music prior to the colonization of the
continent by European countries, which was most widespread during the late
nineteenth century. This pre-colonial period was full of social changes and
dynamism. Great African empires and kingdoms rose and fell, many of their
traditions and cultures still prevalent to this day throughout African
villages.
Because
of the extensive Arabian influence of the music on north Africa, which gives it
a separate and distinct style, this discussion will be focused on the music of
sub-Saharan Africa, which shares many characteristics from region to region. A
great deal of African traditional music as it occurred in African life and
culture throughout the years, was performed by full-time musicians. Although
the terms "traditional music" and "folk music" are often
used interchangeably in the literature describing this music, the term
"traditional music" is more accurate, because some of it belongs to
court music or sacral music traditions, therefore the term "folk
music" is not always appropriate.
Music
is an integral part of African ethnic life, accompanying many kinds of events,
including childbirth, marriage, hunting, and even political activities. Many
cultures use song and dance to ward off evil spirits, and pay respects to good
spirits, the dead, and ancestors. The majority of sub-Saharan African folk
music and traditional music is functional in nature. There are, for example,
many different kinds of work songs, ceremonial or religious music, and courtly
music performed at royal courts, and typically none of these are performed
outside of their intended social context.
MUSICAL
COMPONENTS
Despite
their diversity, traditional African musical forms share some common traits.
The emphasis is placed more strongly on rhythms than on melody and harmony.
Repetition is use as an organizing principle on top of which improvisation is
built. African music is mostly performed by groups of musicians, frequently
employing polyphony, polyrhythm, and a conversational style of music and
interlocking.
FORM
The
most frequently used form in African musical traditions consists of the use of
ostinato, or repeated short musical phrases with the accompaniment of
melodic-rhythmic patterns. For example, in the call and response method, a
leader usually sings a phrase with a chorus singing back a response. Two or
more melodies may be combined to form larger sectional formations. Contrast is
achieved through a series of musical movements or “acts,” each consisting of a
section repeated several times.
RHYTHMIC
STRUCTURE
Rhythm
is the most distinguishing characteristic of African music tradition. Four
basic elements characterize African rhythmic structure. They are an equal pulse
base, a metric time arrangement, a specific organizing principle unifying a
diversity of simultaneous rhythmic patterns together, and an exact starting
point for rhythmic groupings.
TEXTURE
African
music, from the communal nature of African society, is marked by the
simultaneous sounding of two or more pitches. Melody and rhythm are interwoven
within this dense structure of various instrumental and metric combinations.
Ornamental devices, either vocal or instrumental, are commonly used to create
additional layers, providing a richer density to the texture. Another important
feature of African music is its related movements or body percussion, such as
hand clapping, foot stamping, and dance. Body movement is strongly encouraged
by this type of music.
TEXT/LYRICS
African
music is often used to transmit messages and ideas; and to record and recount
historical events. Consequently, the meaning of the texts and their relation to
the music especially important.
POLYPHONY
The
composition of African music employs polyphony. Polyphony is defined as the
composition of multiple simultaneously sounding and rhythmically independent
parts. In such a composition, the originating melody carries given more
importance than the resultant harmony. The Zulu choral music of South Africa is
an example of vocal polyphony. When this music is performed, individual voices
will enter at different moments in a cyclic and continuous manner, giving rise
to a complex and constantly shifting texture.
REPETITION
Most
African composition is based on the repetition of a musical unit. It is that
repetition that holds together the other musical units of the composition.
These other unit are structured with great freedom relative to the first unit,
producing their own rhythmic pattern that coincides only occasionally with that
of the other units and with the basic pulse. For example, in the mbira music of
the Shona people of Zimbabwe, a repeated pattern is established by the
interaction of various parts, and the musician develops an improvisation out of
this core pattern.
CALL
AND RESPONSE
The
call and response is a form of music composition wherein a vocalist or
instrumentalist will sing or play a phrase and another vocalist or
instrumentalist will answer with another phrase creating a lively exchange.
HOCKETING
Hocketing
is the sharing of rhythmic or melodic lines between two or more players, one
part resting while the other part performs a note or notes. An essential
element of hocketing is integration—the working together and interlocking of
the parts. In a more general sense, fast alternation short groups of notes
between voices, instruments and timbres is a key element in the polyphonic and
polyrhythmic structure that is distinctive to much of the music in sub-Saharan
Africa.
MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS
Besides
using the voice, which has been developed to use various techniques such as
complex melisma and yodel, a wide variety of musical instruments are used in
African music.
These
include a wide array of drums. Drums used in African traditional music include
tama talking drums, bougarabou and djembe in West Africa, water drums in
Central and West Africa, and the different types of ngoma drums (pronounced by
some "engoma") in Central and Southern Africa.
Besides
the numerous drums, African percussion instruments can be divided into two
broad categories: Instruments with rhythmic functions and instruments with
melodic functions. Large gongs, twin gongs, slit gongs, and ritual gongs;
rattles and foot rattle; woodblocks, bells, and double bells are examples of
instruments with rhythmic functions. Other percussion instruments used for
rhythmic parts include shakers, such as the kosika, rainsticks, and woodsticks.
The melodic instruments include string instruments, (musical bows, different
types of harps and harp-like instruments like the Kora as well as fiddles),
many types of xylophone and lamellophone such as the mbira and different types
of wind instrument like flutes and trumpets.
A
more specific classification can be made by categorizing them into groups
namely, chordophones, idiophones, aerophones and membraphones, following the
Hornbostel-Sachs system of classification for musical instruments.
MEMBRAPHONES
Membraphones
are instruments that produce sound by a vibrating membrane. The most prevalent
type of membranophone, drums, are utilized as both melodic and rhythmic
instruments and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some of these drums are
beaten with the hand, while other are beaten with a stick or rubbed. Some are
single-headed and some double-headed and they are played in ensembles of
varying sizes. These include the ngoma kettledrums of South Africa, the West
African hourglass pressure drum, bompili clay pot drums usually played by
women, frame drums, and countless other drums are played throughout Africa.
CHORDOPHONES
Chordophone
are instruments that produce sounds with vibrating strings, sometimes plucked,
sometimes struck, sometimes with a bow. One of the simplest and the most
widespread of these instruments is the musical bow. Types of the musical bow
included the earth bow, the mouth bow, and the resonator bow. An earth bow is
made by planting one end of a flexible pole in the ground and bent it at an
angle to the ground. To the end of the pole, attach a string and on the other
end of the string attach a stone, or a small piece of wood which is planted in
the ground. The mouth bow is formed of a string that is attached to both ends a
flexible pole such that the pole is shape to form a bow with the string. The
string is held in the mouth and struck on a spot along its length. The mouth
will help alter the amplification of the original sound of the struck string.
The
resonator bow is a type of mouth bow, but with a calabash resonator fixed at
the middle.
The
kora, a multiple resonator bow, is one of the most important musical
instruments in West Africa, usually played by the griot, or village historian.
The kora is made from a natural calabash cut in half and partially covered with
cow skin, with a hardwood post running through it. Between twenty and
twenty-five strings run the length of the instrument, passing over a bridge
that rests on the stretched skin cover.
IDIOPHONES
Idiophones
are instruments that produce sound by vibrating themselves, without the aid of
a vibrating string, membrane or reed. These include the xylophone and many
kinds of shaken, struck and scraped percussion instruments. Idiophones include
both melodic and rhythm instruments, and the most abundant type of instrument
found in Africa.
Rattles
are shaken to create sound and are principally rhythm instruments. Of the many
rattles found in Africa, two categories may be observed: Those rattles that are
played by the hands and those that are worn on the body and shaken by the
movements of the player's body.
Those
rattles that are played by the hands include the gourd variety which may be
either container in nature (objects such as pieces of bone, bamboo shoots or
metal placed inside a gourd) or may be surrounded by nets of objects such as
sea shells or beads.
Friction
idiophones, such as pieces of notched bamboo, are played by scraping another
stick across the bamboo. Other idiophones such as bracelets of metal or a
notched stick being passed through a dried fruit shell also exist and are used
to create rhythmic sound. Stamped sticks and stamped tubes also form another
category of idiophones (in this case concussion idiophones). These sticks and
tubes are held in the player's hand and performed by being held at an angle and
striking the ground or a slab of stone at an angle. On occasion three tubes are
played at the same time each of which is playing a different rhythm. The
adenkum (a long gourd with one end cut open to allow for resonance) is a
stamped idiophone usually played in the vertical position by hitting the
ground.
All
of the above idiophones are rhythm instruments and play no melodic function.
They may, however, be tuned to a complex of pitches or even to a specific pitch
in some cases; for example, the adenkum. However, no attempt is made to use
these instruments melodically by creating a graduated scale of pitches.
There
are two basic types of tuned idiophones that can be used for playing melodies:
The mbira or sansa ("hand piano") and the xylophone and the marimba.
The mbira is made by arranging a graduated series of strips (wood or metal) on
a flat sounding board and placed inside a resonating gourd or box. A unique
quality is added to the instrument by the addition of rattling pieces of metal
or possibly a chain of sea shells or other small articles to create noise.
Mbiras may consist of from one to three manuals and range from five to twenty
keys per manual. The Keys are attached to a sound resonator, either a hollow
box, as in this case, or placed in an open large gourd to enhance the volume of
sound.
There
are three main forms of tuned xylophones and marimbas found in Africa: (1)
wooden slabs arranged in a graduated scale are mounted over a resonance box (a
pit, a clay pot or an open trough may be used). Iboland in Nigeria and the
Zaramo of Tanzania make xylophones of this type. (2) In the Kissi country in
Guinea and in the Ivory Coast, xylophones are made by laying keys over two
pieces of banana stems. (3) Gourd resonators are used to resonate keys placed
above the open gourd and mounted in a wooden frame. These gourd resonating
xylophones and marimbas are found in west, central and east Africa. Xylophones
and marimbas may be played by themselves or in combination with other
instruments. It is common among the Vatapa (Shona) of Zimbabwe to hear large
ensembles involving as many as ten to fifteen players performing in large
xylophone ensembles consisting of xylophones ranging in size from small (those
that are strapped over the back and carried) to large (those that are large
enough to have the player stand on a riser to reach).
AEROPHONES
African
instruments include a number of aerophones, which produce sound by vibrating
columns of air. The three broad categories of African aerophones are: (1)
Flutes, (2) reed pipes, and (3) trumpets and horns.
Although
flutes may be made from a husk of cane or the end of an animal horn or gourd,
the most common material in use to make flutes is bamboo. They may be
open-ended or closed, they may be played in the vertical or horizontal
(transverse) positions. Although most African flutes are made with a number of
holes (from two to six), some flutes are made with a single hole. A number of
these flutes are made so that the technique of melodic playing known as hocket
can be employed. Using the hocket technique melodies are formed by each flute
sounding single tones in a melodic chain.
Trumpets
and horns are made from the horns of many animals which include elephant tusks
and are used in various ensembles. Here again, instruments are often arranged
in families. Babembe horns are made in human likeness in the Congo. In the case
of the Babembe horns, a dorsal opening is cut in the back of each likeness and
the player buzzes his/her lips to create a single tone.
MUSICIANS
African
musicians can be divided into three categories: The non professional, the
semiprofessional, and the professional. Most African traditional music is a
participative performance. There is a perpetual give and take between the main
performer and the public, and the public is fully part of the performances.
Tradition and culture helped each participant to know how it should respond to
a particular rhythmic. Other people in the African society, even though not
fully musician, have music as one of the requirements to fulfill their social
responsibility. These include people like healers, who on certain occasions are
called upon to perform sacred songs. The last group of musicians are the full
time musicians. Often their position in the society is inherited. In the West
African Malinke region, historian Griots are full time musicians who used to
travel from village to village, singing for dignitaries and rich traders or
merchants.
REGIONAL
STYLES
As
has been mentioned, North Africa—Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco—has
a distinctive musical style, different from the southern regions; this music
bears a strong Arab and Islamic stamp thanks to medieval Islamic expansion.
Egypt,
in particular, has deep musical connections to the rest of the Arab world,
being one of the epicenters of Arab classical and popular music for hundreds of
years. While Arabic traditions are more preeminent, a Coptic musical tradition
adopted from the music of the ancient Egyptian is also existent. Coptic music
is characterized by a strong vocal and the use of cymbals and triangles.
Moroccan
classical music style is Arab-Andalusian, featuring an orchestra of traditional
stringed instrument such as the rabab (a bowed two-stringed instrument), oud
(Arab lute), and qanun (zither). Songs in Arabic often accompany this music.
West Africa, below the expanse of the Sahara Desert, is one of the most
musically fertile areas of the world, containing such musical powerhouses as
Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, and Guinea. Once the home to various Empires
that grew rich from trans-Saharan trade, the region is home to some of the most
sophisticated classical and court music traditions in sub-Saharan Africa.
For
thousands of years, professional musicians called griots played an important
role as historian in the kingdoms that developed in the Saharan region of west
Africa.
In
addition to the griot, music in Senegal is also characterized by the complex
drumming that often accompanies dance.
East
Africa also has deep musical ties to the Islamic world; from the
Egyptian-influenced taraab music of the Swahili coast to the oud-driven music
of the Nubian people of Northern Sudan. Additionally, Ethiopia and Eritrea have
their own ancient, unique, and interrelated musical cultures that date back
more than 1000 years. The khoisan (Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, South
Africa, Lesotho, and parts of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique) is the
anglicized name of two tribes, the Khoi and the San. The music of this area is
simpler than the music of other African cultures, both in types and variety of
instruments and stylistically. More prominent harmonically are vertical fifths
and octaves alongside rhythms less complex than those of Western Africa. In
fact, percussive instruments are not as prominent in the Khoisan area as they
are in other areas of Africa. Remarkable, however, is the presence in the music
of the "hocket" technique, where individual notes of a melody are
sung by different musicians, and a technique similar to yodeling. Because of
the nomadic nature of the people, the music is played throughout the day and
not associated with any rituals relating to the harvest.
MUSIC
AND CULTURE
RELATIONSHIP
TO LANGUAGE
Many
African languages are tonal languages, leading to a close connection between
music and language in many African cultures. In singing, the tonal pattern or
the text puts some constraints on the melodic patterns. On the other hand, in
instrumental music a native speaker of a language can often perceive a text or
texts in the music. This effect also forms the basis of drum languages (talking
drums).
RELATIONSHIP
TO DANCE
The
treatment of "music" and "dance" as separate art forms is a
European idea. In many African languages there is no concept corresponding
exactly to these terms. For example, in many Bantu languages, there is one concept
that might be translated as 'song' and another that covers both the semantic
fields of the European concepts of "music" and "dance." So
there is one word for both music and dance (the exact meaning of the concepts
may differ from culture to culture).
For
example, in Kiswahili, the word "ngoma" may be translated as
"drum," "dance," "dance event," "dance
celebration," or "music," depending on the context. Each of
these translations is incomplete. The classification of the phenomena of this
area of culture into "music" and "dance" is foreign to many
African cultures. Therefore, African music and African dance must be viewed in
very close connection.
POPULAR
MUSIC
The
popular African music refers to the music with compositions started during the
colonization and after the colonization era.
AFRICAN
MUSIC DURING COLONIZATION
The
colonization era saw the emergence of a new urbanization. The cities where
inhabited mostly by Africans who were working for members of the occupying
country, primarily as servants, clerks, or cooks. People closer to the occupier
where also ranked higher in the social ladder, and this precipitated the
beginning of the decline of traditional African music.
Traditional
African music lost its appeal as these new urban dwellers and the occupiers
brought new musical instruments and styles that were quickly adopted by
Africans. Musicians did their best to mimics songs and and musical genres from
the occupier’s country. One new genre of music, the Palm Wine, grew out the
Krou people of Liberia and Sierra Leone. It was a genre played on the guitar by
sailors while they enjoyed a glass of palm wine. As sailors, they traveled the
west coast of Africa up to the coastal regions of today’s DRC (Democratic
Republic of Congo) and on the way introduced the Palm Wine genre and the guitar
to these regions. With the appearance of recording studio and the radio in
1924, musicians were now able to reach a wider audience. This also allowed new
musical genres to spread more easily throughout the continent. The end of World
War II saw a new trend in the African musical sphere, the importation of music
from Latin America, like the rumba, chachas boleros, and the mambo. Musicians
easily adopted these styles of music. They were well appreciated by the occupiers
and also very close to their native musical style. This started a Latin craze,
especially in the French colonies and the Belgium colony of Congo.
This
Latin craze helped shape and give rise to other new musical genres. Highlife, a
new genre that originated in Ghana, holds E.T. Mensah as one of its hero. The
highlife was a truly popular musical genre with influence that spread across
the border of Ghana to other, mainly English speaking countries, like Nigeria.
Highlife is characterized by jazzy horns and multiple guitars. In Congo, the
melding of the palm wine style of playing the guitar with the Latin musical
genre, led to the appearance of a style known popularly as the Congolese Rumba
or Soukous with prominent figures like Antoine Kolossay (Papa Wendo), Joseph
Kabasele Tshamala (Grand Kale), and Francois Luambo Makiadi (Franco). This
style, like highlife, exerted a widespread influence in sub-Saharan colonized
Africa.
AFRICAN
MUSIC AFTER INDEPENDENCE
The
independence period, in the 1960s, was a vibrant period both politically and
culturally for the emergence of a free and proud Africa. The hopes and many
moments of disillusionment that followed were witnessed by African musicians.
African modern musician have incorporated more freedom into their musical
composition and begun to blend traditional music with foreign musical styles.
The African style that emerged during the occupation developed and gave rise to
new varieties and sub genres. Musicians reverted to the use local instruments
and sang in their local languages.
Thus,
the music itself made its own contribution to the liberation of the African
mind. In Guinea, Salif Keita, incorporating its electric kora, adapted and
blended old traditional songs and instruments with modern instruments. Fela
Kuti of Nigeria, around 1970, brought highlife to a new dimension and create a
new genre, the afrobeat. Afrobeat is a fusion of stylistic elements from its
own musical culture, afro-American pop music, and Latin American music, with a
prominent modal jazz. Some lyrics in afrobeat were very critical of the ruling
juntas, making some outspoken musicians into local folk heroes.
AFRICAN
MUSIC IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Modern
African music has developed further and national musical genres have emerged
throughout the continent. Global musical styles such as jazz, R&B, hip hop,
rock ’n' roll, country, and reggae have all make their impact on today's
African musicians. Successful musicians are usually the one who successfully
blend these foreign musical style with the musical traditions of their country.
Hip hop started in the 1970s, among the black youth of New York. The lyrics and
delivery style of hip hop borrow heavily, like most other African American
style of music, from African tradition.
Since
the 1980s and early 1990s, Hip hop has entered the African scene and is now
being adapted by African youth throughout the continent. At first, African hip
hop artists were mostly mimicking their American counterparts, which gave a bad
name to hip hop as a deculturalization and Americanization of the youth of
Africa. In those early days, hip hop was more a style of the youth in the upper
strata of the society. The second wave of hip hop artists took the musical
style closer to home, creating local flavors of the hip hop genre, and singing
in their local language. This period started in the mid 1990s, and can be
called the Africanization of hip hop, with distinct styles emerging from
country to country. In Ghana, the highlife merged with hip hop to create
"hiplife." In South Africa, hip hop lyrics have been used to express
the struggles of the youth in post apartheid society.
Reggae
music is well represented in Africa. The influence of reggae took firm root
sometime after Bob Marley's concert in support of Zimbabwean independence in
Harare in 1980. The main centers of reggae are South Africa, the Ivory Coast
and Nigeria. The sound is aligned with current trends in African music and
bands often experiment with the use of traditional musical instruments. Askia
Modibo, a native of Mali, merged reggae with the pentatonic music of the
region, the Wassoulou, on "Wass-Reggae" was released in 1995. The
lyrics follow the tradition laid by Bob Marley back in Zimbabwe, very concerned
with the society in which the artist is living and the problem of the world.
Alpha Blondy, a native of the Ivory Coast, released an album in 1986, with the
virulent title Apartheid is Nazism, asking for U.S. intervention to stop
apartheid in South Africa.
The
music of the independence, like highlife and rumba Congolese, have further
inspired and given rise to new local musical genres that are emerging in the
twenty-first century. "Ndombolo" is a fast-paced derivative of
"soukous." In contrast to the Congolese Rumba which has its origin in
the fusion of musical forms, Ndombolo has its origin in the dance of the same
name the Ndombolo (“Gorilla dance”). The dance was started as a satyr of the
late regime of Congolese president L.D. Kabilla and soon became a continental
craze. It is promoted by lead singers like Awilo Longomba, Aurlus Mabele, Koffi
Olomide, and groups like Extra Musica and Wenge Musica, among others.
In
the Ivory Coast, during the political riots of the 1990s, "zouglou,"
a new musical genre emerged with roots in the urban and the local youth
culture. Zouglou originates from small groups of youth that performed during
social get-togethers like football (soccer) competitions. Using traditional
percussive style, zouglou is especially popular with the Bete people of the
Ivory Coast, because it bears similarities to their own local style, Alloucou.
Zouglou groups formed bands, borrowing some elements from Congolese popular
music. Zouglou lyrics heavily emphasize humor, wordplay, and sharp social
commentary. This genre, which was promoted by bands like Les Garagistes, Magic
System, Soum Bill, among others, gave rise to other local styles. The now
famous coupe-decalle, mapouka, and gnakpa are all derived from Zouglou and can
be heard throughout Africa.
The
global movement of world music is also present in Africa. This movement
includes musicians who are experimenting with a wider usage of African musical
composition and instrument mixed with foreign style of music. Manu Dibengo,
jazz composer from Cameroon is one of the longest proponents of the fusion of
African and foreign style of music. He is well known for his “Africanized” jazz
composition since the 1960s. He will be renowned worldwide with its album “Soul
Makossa” in 1972. Renown vocalist Cesaria Evora is from Cap Verde. She has
popularized and brought to global recognition the Cape Verde traditional
musical genre of Morna. In 2003, her album Voz Amor received a Grammy Awards
for Best World Music Album.
INFLUENCE
ON AMERICAN MUSIC
African
music has been a major factor in the shaping of a number of American musical
styles, including what we know today as blues and jazz. These styles have all
borrowed from African rhythms and sounds, brought over the Atlantic ocean by
slaves. Paul Simon, on his album Graceland used African bands and music along
with his own lyrics.
As
the rise of rock 'n' roll music is often credited as having begun with 1940s
blues music, and with so many genres having branched off from rock—the myriad
sub genres of heavy metal, punk rock, pop music, and many more—it can be argued
that African music has been at the root of a very significant portion of all
contemporary music.
