Swing, Africa, Swing!

In Africa, music is so integral a part of normal life that it is virtually impossible to separate the two. There is no word for “music” in general in most African languages but there are plenty of words to describe musical styles, dances and songs. The Cameroonian saxophonist, Manu Dibango(top photo), who has carved out a unique international niche for himself, explains the role of music and art in African societies: “What is special about African music that Africa has a long historical relationship with sound, and a communion with sound and the visual that is stronger than any other culture. The sound carries the rhythm and movement creates the images. The way an African moves compared with the environment is different from the Western conception.”

The environment is at the root of all African music. The vegetation determines the type of musical instruments that will be made - e g in forested areas, the drums will be made from large tree trunks, as in Burundi; in the drier savannah, drums will be smaller, or other material such as pots, turtle shells and so on will be used.

Tempo
The pace of life determines the tempo of the music and dance. The ancient craftsmen who created the famous Benin bronzes could tell the occupation of a person from the way he danced. Even today, an African can tell where a person comes from the way he or she dances. People form the forested areas, for example, will have more restricted leg movements than those from open savannah. Keen observers can even detect a dancer’s particular village. African dance, like African music is a form of vibrant language with its regional and local dialects.

In traditional African society, the concept of art for art’s sake does not exist. Manu Dibango: “An African’s spiritual home is his village. In the village, music is indivisible from life. There is no art. Art is a Western concept.” African music is rooted in its community’s way of life. It often expresses the inexpressible. It absorbs the changes to its society and reflects them in subtle alterations. Understand African music and you understand the contemporary African society. Music is also the conduit for spirituality. Thus music is both functional and scared.

The most traditional form of music, dating back thousands of years, is largely ceremonial. It celebrates rituals such as circumcision, initiation, weddings, naming, education, worship, funerals, the installation of chiefs and kings and also daily routines such as pounding maize, gathering crops, healing and so on. One of the most widespread uses of music, Ewen tells us, is to accompany the spirits of the recently deceased and celebrates their arrival in the land of the ancestors. Music is also used to release pent-up aggression and ill feeling. The akan people of Ghana, for example, still hold a weeklong ceremony during which the people are encouraged to express their grievances, frustrations and anger through song and dance. The ceremony acts as a form of collective psychotherapy. The Pende people of Zaire even conduct council meetings and criminal trials in song.

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (Baba Africa)

One of the most enduring forms of traditional music has been the praise song. Today the form has changed only slightly and musicians will sing the praise of wealthy people, sports stars and of course, Presidents, military leaders and political parties. Another form that has lasted virtually unchanged over the centuries has been the role of the griots. These wandering troubadours appear to have acquired a unique immunity from the wrath of the powers that be. They criticize or satirize powerful personalities or comment about the times through their witty lyrics. Even organizations like UNICEF has found that griots can carry their health messages more powerfully than all the modern musicians, such as Nigeria’s Fela Kuti have remained faithful to such traditional roles.

In many parts of Africa, traditional music has hardly changed at all. It not only provides a historical continuity with the past; it also gives people a sense of their identity in these changing times. The biggest explosion of African music, however, has come as a result of the tremendous changes that have gripped the African continent this century. Modern African music is the child of the cosmopolitan towns and cities. Here you get a living cross-section of Africa’s history and all the foreign influences that have impinged on it. It is in the cities that Africa’s multitudes of people come together and mingle; here Western and eastern influences intertwine with traditional African values and strange, exotic cultural fruits are borne. Here ideas flow and the modern is incorporated into the traditional. The cities attract the talented as much as the charlatans do; here the wealthy walk the same pavements as the destitute and the powerful extract tribute from the powerless. Every African City is a humming, chaotic, confusing melange of raw vitality.

Out of these towers of Babel, has emerged modern African music. It speaks with clear, powerful and sweet voice. It brings order to the chaos and logic to the seemingly mad. There are at least 2,000 languages in Africa and as many dialects. Manu Dibango: “Life has changed completely. People who moved to the towns have joined a multitude of strangers of different origins. The town provides a unity for these different people; a common language.” This common language is the genesis of African pop music. It has spread, very rapidly, from its village home today; the unique voice of African modern music can be heard in every corner of the world. African music, like African societies, has shown a remarkable ability to adapt and evolve whenever it has come into contact with other cultures. Guitars, for example, have been used in Africa.

Jazz
It ranges from Rhythm and Blues to Jazz to Soul, from Reggae to Rap in North America and the Caribbean; the Cuban Rumba and Son from Latin America were modifications of African music. Black music took contemporary Western music by the scruff of its neck and altered it forever around the 1950’s, Afro American music returned to Africa via the radio and EMI’s “GV” label discs. It received an instant and very warm welcome. In turn some Afro-American musicians went back to their roots. The Great Man, Louis Armstrong, staged a triumphal “homecoming” to Ghana; Dizzy Gillespie recorded in North Africa and the pianist Randy Weston worked in Morocco. Black music, especially, jazz, had a profound impact on the development of African pop music. But it was the rumba of Latin America that had the greatest early impact. The rumba later metamorphosed into the characteristic Sebene of Congolese and Zairean music

In the meanwhile, African cities were burgeoning. Africans returning from Europe came with fresh ideas that eventually led to the independence movements. People were beginning to think in national rather than in tribal or regional terms. French, English and Portuguese became common languages cutting across ethnic linguistic barriers. The British and the French encouraged the spread of their cultures which in turn opened up the rest of the world’s culture to Africans.

African music, already rooted in its traditions, began to incorporate other styles. In Ghana, no sooner had Western instruments arrived than a new style, which later became known as Highlife, was becoming popular.
Guinea’s Sekou Toure and Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko both embarked on campaigns of authenticity which were designed to unite the disparate peoples of their nations and focus on indigenous rather than foreign culture. Musicians were asked to educate and guide the people along party lines but the music had to appeal to both the urban sophisticates and the rural yokel. Thus the two most popular forms of African music were born - the Manding Swing in West

Africa and the Congo-Zairean rumba.
The great South African trumpeter, Hugh Masekela says, in Africa Oye: “Look at samba, look at salsa, look at Zairean music or highlife. It’s all Western influenced. The fulcrum is African - American.” African pop music, however, has never lost its traditional roots. Urban Africans, pining for their village home, can still feel the pulse of the soil, can still feel connected to their spiritual homes through pop music.

Although, by definition, pop music crosses over linguistic and ethnic boundaries, several very distinct forms of music have evolved in Africa. These forms tend to correspond roughly to geographical regions. In North Africa, the popular scene was dominated for a very long time by Egyptian music. Great legends such as Oum Khalsoum, Farid al Atrach and Abdul Wahab are revered to this day. More recently, the irreverent Rai music, with its origins in Bedouin lore, has become very popular among young people throughout the Arab world. It has also taken France by storm.

Sudanese music forms a bridge between the African sounds and those of the northern, more Arab ones. Sudanese music has the melody of the north and the rhythms of the south. Popular stars like Abdul Aaziz il Mubark use electric bass to internationalize their appeal. In West Africa music is dominated by Highlife in Ghana and Juju and Afrobeat in Nigeria. A form of African reggae was popularized by the Ivorian singer Alfa Blondy.

The Sahelian countries are the home of the phenomenally successful Manding Swing. Stars like Selif Keita, Youssou N’dour and Baaba Maal are genuine international celebrities. They have carried the pioneering work of the great Bembeya Jazz band to virtually every corner of the globe. Further south the distinctive, stringy sound of Congo rumba or soukous is king. The late Franco was an idol not only in his region but all over Eastern Africa as well. Eastern Africa music has made little impact on the rest of Africa but the gentle melody of the tarab, with its Arab and Persian influences has a dedicated following all along the coast and as far as the Gulf.

In South Africa, Mbaqanga is the dominant township theme although its highly commercial offshoot, Bubble-Gum pop is challenging for leadership. There is also liberation music of Interments, Mozambique and Zimbabwe which is beginning to travel well and acquiring new fans all over the continent and abroad. These are only the main streams of African musical styles. In between we have the extraordinary popularity of Gambian kora music.

African music has now emphatically broken out of its continental confines and is set to establish itself as a unique musical language that transcends not only national but also racial boundaries. It can become the language of the word. Manu Dibango, who has already crossed several barriers himself, has the last word: “Tradition will always be there, of course, but like a person it evolves, develops. Just as the fisherman still use canoes, they now have canoes fitted with outboard motors.”

This article first appeared in New African Life.