Music Of Africa
Africa has over 1 billion people spanning across 1000s of tribes and over countless languages making it one of the most culturally diverse place in the world. Due to this music in Africa could also be seen as extremely diverse. In Africa music is more than just something that people listen to, it is considered a part of everyday life. Traditions in Africa has made music an integral part of their society and culture. In this blog I will be only scratching the surface of music in Africa and how important it is for the people of Africa. If you are interested in learning more I highly recommend looking through these websites. They help give you a direction to start learning more about African music. Enjoy!
Britannica
Moving on to mainland Africa I will be looking at music in Cameroon. Music in Cameroon is traditionally used to perform rituals and ceremonies much like most of Africa. Music in Cameroon is mostly passed down orally through generations and as such is very important to their cultures. For example the Bamoun people with over 200,000 people has a tradition where the queens of the royal court dance for princely weddings. This type of music is called the Djimassa dance. Usually the dancing would be accompanied by people playing drums and shakers in a polyrhythmic pattern. The women would be wearing very colorful outfits while dancing and would be each dancing individually. Nowadays these dances are less formal and used for when anyone in the tribe is getting married. (Source)
Britannica
Africa Guide
We begin our journey through Africa in the farthest south you can go, Madagascar. Malagasy is the name of the natives of Madagascar. Just like mainland Africa Madagascar is very diverse consisting of people from different tribes. Most traditional Malagasy music revolves around favorite dance rhythms. each tribe has there own way of doing this and the salegy is one of these styles which will be my focus. The salegy originated in the Sakalava tribe. Salegy is a music tradition that dates back to the 15th century and was used by the Sakalava tribe for ceremonies and rites. These ceremonies and rites would be used to connect to their ancestral gods. Salegy was originally played with flutes, an accordion and valiha. Later throughout the years It has evolved into a more modern form of music mixed with different cultures. (Source)
We begin our journey through Africa in the farthest south you can go, Madagascar. Malagasy is the name of the natives of Madagascar. Just like mainland Africa Madagascar is very diverse consisting of people from different tribes. Most traditional Malagasy music revolves around favorite dance rhythms. each tribe has there own way of doing this and the salegy is one of these styles which will be my focus. The salegy originated in the Sakalava tribe. Salegy is a music tradition that dates back to the 15th century and was used by the Sakalava tribe for ceremonies and rites. These ceremonies and rites would be used to connect to their ancestral gods. Salegy was originally played with flutes, an accordion and valiha. Later throughout the years It has evolved into a more modern form of music mixed with different cultures. (Source)
The Zulu is a tribe in South Africa that consists of 11 million people as of 2020. The Zulu tribe originated from the Nguni people of Bantu. Which encompasses several groups of tribes which originally migrated from the great lakes region of the north of Africa. In the Zulu language the word Zulu means heaven. They believe that there king came from heaven and were sent from the gods. All of the Zulu tribe Chiefs originate from the original founder. The Zulu created a unified language over the multiple tribes and was unified by there first king, Shaka. Shaka created a army of 40,000 trained troops to take over most of what we know now as South Africa. Shaka later faced internal disputes and was assassinated by his half brother who became the ruler. The Zulu people later were defeated by British Colonizers in 1883. The Zulu are one of the best craftsman in Africa and are known for their distinct art style. Today the Zulu people are run by an 20th century organization that self governs each tribe. (Source)
That's all this time! Thank you for reading and be sure to post a comment or watch the videos. Personally I really enjoyed learning about this and would love to hear your thoughts!
Your information on Madagascar was really to cool to read. It’s awesome that certain styles of music and dance date so far back. However, it’s also really cool to hear about how they morph through the years, like how you described with the Djimassa dancing. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI also travelled to Madagascar for part of my blog post! This is really interesting information on the history of the Salegy. I love your sources as always!
ReplyDeleteEthan - the way you travelled to madagascar was interesting to me because i feel like that country is always left out of african culture. So it was a nice spin to see.
ReplyDeleteIt was neat to read about and see the evolution of Salegy. I enjoyed the Dijmassa dance, it seems really fitting for a celebration like a wedding. There's a bit of seriousness to the tone, so as not to undermine the gravity of the event, but it's still free and moveable.
ReplyDeleteEthan- It was very interesting to learn about the music in Madagascar. The many influences on their music today is so diverse, especially from their Southeast Asian ancestors. Seeing the people perform in the video, it is evident in their features more so than the actual sound of the music of the mixture of cultures. The Salegy music form truly has a sound of its own.
ReplyDeleteEthan thank you for allowing me to travel with you through Africa! I thought your way of maneuvering through your blog was very interesting! I think it is so cool how different each place is as well as their music!
ReplyDelete