Africa: Across the Continent

# Africa: Across the Continent

![BGSU](/assets/bgsu.png)

### Christopher Witulski, Ph.D.

### College of Musical Arts

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# Outline

* Diversity of African musical production
* Background on the continent
* Major regional styles
* Mande social structure and music
* West African instruments and styles

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# What is African Music?

What do you think of when you think of African music?

Why? Where do those associations come from?

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### From when I was a kid...

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# How Big is Africa?

.image-60.center[![Africa](/assets/africa-map-countries.png)]

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# What is African Music?

* Africa is...
	* The second largest continent
	* 20% of the Earth’s surface
	* 25% of the population
	* The source of a vast diaspora
* Africa contains…
	* Thousands of musical traditions
	* A huge linguistic and cultural diversity
* Contrary to popular belief, it is not all drumming!

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# What is African Music?

* Diversity of African music
	* Africa is not a country. Period.
* Vocal ensemble traditions
	* BaAka hunting song, Cameroon
	* Isicathamiya: Ladysmith Black Mambazo, South Africa
	* Church hymns, all over the place
* String traditions
	* Especially East and West Africa

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# Some History

* Great Empires: supported arts
	* Mande, Ghana, Songhay, others
* Foreign intervention
	* 15th C: Early contact (Angola)
	* 17th-19th C: Slave trade
	* 19th-20th C: Colonization by British, French, Portuguese
	* 1884-5: Berlin Conference
* Post WW-II: Independence
	* Ghana first, 1957
	* Others follow, string of revolutions

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# Some History

* Indigenous religions
	* Deities, ancestors, nature
	* Often includes communal ritual
* Christianity
	* Spread through missionary work
	* Supports choral styles, hymns
	* Ghana, Kenya for example
* Islam/Sufism
	* Across North Africa, East coast
	* Heavily influenced by reformism

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# Regional Diversity

* North Africa
	* Egypt to Morocco
	* Influence of Sufism, Arabic music

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# Regional Diversity

* North Africa
* East Africa
	* Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda
	* The “Horn”
	* Remember that Ugandan track?
	* Arab styles thanks to trade routes

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### Kinobe demonstrates the endongo

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### Tim Winsey demonstrates the “musical bow” in Burkina Faso

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# Regional Diversity

* North Africa
* East Africa
* Southern Africa
	* Zimbabawe, South Africa
	* The mbira, vocal traditions

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### Shona mbira demonstration

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### As an ensemble: mbira, hosho, and ngoma

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### Isicathamiya competition in South Africa

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### Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo

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# Regional Diversity

* North Africa
* East Africa
* Southern Africa
* Central Africa
	* Cameroon, DRC
	* BaMbuti singing
	* Congolese rumba

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# Regional Diversity

* North Africa
* East Africa
* Southern Africa
* Central Africa
* West Africa
	* Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Ghana
	* Jeliya, Yoruba, drumming

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### Kwesi Adjei demonstrating Asante speech drumming on atumpan

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# Core Vimbuza Mode

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# What is Polymeter/Polyrhythm?

### Dawuro

Do you hear a beat? Where is it?
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# What is Polymeter/Polyrhythm?

### Dawuro

Six beats: triple meter, duple subdivision
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# What is Polymeter/Polyrhythm?

### Dawuro

Four beats: duple meter, triple subdivision
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### From, Atumpan (Eguankoba is like the *from* but shorter)

Start with *dawuro* and *atumpan*

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### Fontomfrom clip (not exactly the same rhythms)

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### Fela Kuti and Egypt 80: Live in Paris, 1984

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# Musical "Africanisms"

### After all this, what broad similarities come through despite my focus on diversities?

* Complex polyphonic textures
* Layered ostinatos with varied repetition
* Conversational element
* Improvisation
* Timbral complexity (like “buzzing”)
* Distinctive pitch systems and scales

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# Musical "USA-nisms"

### To think about what these mean…

### What would be some broad similarities across American music?

* What breaks the mold?

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# Africa: Across the Continent

![BGSU](/assets/bgsu.png)

### Christopher Witulski, Ph.D.

### College of Musical Arts