Savannah Miller Honors English 12

Due date: 11/5/13

Africas Musical Diversity

African is a continent that has caught peoples eyes and specifically their music has a traditional aspect for specific genres as well as the various instruments used to make their creativity blossom. The music in Africa plays in the peoples daily lives and is highly necessary in showing the power of music in each developing generation. Unlike many other cultures, the people of Africa incorporate the arts in their everyday life including the traditional dances, music, instruments, religious practices, and story-telling. Africa is the second largest continent in the entire world that has a population of about 1.033 billion people that speak over a thousand indigenous languages. There are many cities and villages in Africa where people express their individualities. This can be done by practicing dances, painting murals, singing songs, and even acting. Africa is many miles away, and can be hard to visit, but not that far to find out how diverse their world of music. The instruments are a big part to the world of music besides using our voice. Drums are very important to the bass of the music because they help carry the rhythm. There are many different kinds of drums that are used for various events like wedding ceremonies and even naming ceremonies. There is the Djembe which a chalice-shaped drum that was found among the mande-speaking people in West Africa. The Djembe is made from hardwood, rawhide, and

goatskin. Some people love the deep sound of a drum because the spirit within starts to move and eventually cannot stop dancing. Others automatically try to leave the sound of a drum and even cover their ears. The people that appreciate the rhythm of the drums are the ones that know how to use their spirituality. The sounds that are created by the drum isnt just a rhythm or melody, its the peoples tradition and way of life. Flutes gently sing in a sequence manner. There are is a wide group of Xylophones. Mbira is a tone-producing instrument, or thumb piano that is used by a single person. The Kudu Horn has a series of six horns that sends a rich and calm sound to the people. Flutes sing by gently blowing into the top hole that travels out through the small circular holes in a sequence manner. The harmonious instrument was played on by musicians right above the fire. They do this to set the mood for the emotion of the scene. The role of music in everyday life is portrayed in many different celebrations including birth, burial, and marriage. In the novel, Thing Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, there is The Feast of the New Yam that celebrates the end of the dry season and gives thanks to the earth goddess. This celebration goes on for two days and the first day is when families gets together and feast on yams. The second day, there are a series of matches and people of the villages come together to wrestle one another. In the festival, some people beat on the drums to keep rhythm for the wrestlers. According to the article, Funerals and Burials in Zambia by Mwizenge S. Tembos, When a person dies in Zambia, there are customs that are practiced that combine the traditional and the modern or urban that together make the funeral uniquely Zambian or African. When the person is announced dead, the body is directly sent to a morgue or a hospital mortuary. Eventually, the tragic news was passed to all the villagers. The closest relatives choose the house where the funeral will be held. There is a difference between usual crying and the loud cries for the mourning for the deceased. In Eastern Zambia, a males cry would be called

kukhuza which would be a very deep and loud cry. The womens cry is called chitengelo which is high pitched, soulful, and more of a rhythmic sound that can be heard miles away. When people from other areas hear the chitengelo, one supposes someone has passed because women dont cry like that at any other time. The burial is settled and then the service is over. After, some of the closest relatives return to the deceased house and mourn alone while they are not left alone until two weeks after the burial. Different types of music found throughout Africa have been orally passed down from generation to generation. In the 19th century, African slaves were brought to different parts of America, but this couldnt stop the creativity living within them. Their music and culture was taken with them and could never be taken away. Some slaves were limited to express their dancing and music, although they were able to practice music by singing while it was done secretly. Today, there are new forms of African music that are practiced and performed including Contemporary, Highlife, Kwaito, and Afrobeat. African music cannot be explained in one word. There is no way to categorize the African peoples music because its only their way of expressing themselves. It is no different than the rest of the worlds way of explaining why we make music or how we express our feelings through melodies and dance. According to the Columbia Chicago Colleges Traditional and Contemporary African music Article, Contemporary African music is also highly diverse, but it shares many characteristics of Western popular music in the mid-twentieth century. The Highlife genre is modern and is said to originate from Ghana in West Africa where the people speak English. Kwaito is a South African genre that is a series of African tones and house music.

Thanks to African music that influenced music around the world. American music involves a wide variety of music genres that are meant for the African people that include soul, gospel, jazz; blues, rock and roll, and hip hop music. Slaves needed some kind of company to keep them alive and they chose to use the power of song. Making music lets them release into a song and forget the negative around them. Many of the musical genres involved ragtime which is known as jazz nowadays. In the late 19 century, modern music was modified by a European style that mixed the original African music and is now used into all genres we know today.

Citing Page http://www.colum.edu/CBMR/Resources/Definitions_of_Styles_and_Genres/Traditional_and_Contempo rary_African_Music.php http://www.kalimba.co.za/old/african%20instruments.htm http://www.southafrica.info/about/arts/music.htm#.UmRSPPmkrrc http://people.bridgewater.edu/~mtembo/menu/zambia/funeralsburials.shtml http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Africa http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/teachers/curriculum/m13/notes.php http://blogs.longwood.edu/samiuah/2012/04/30/the-importance-of-music-in-the-african-culturemore-thanjust-a-song/ http://www.musicatschool.co.uk/year_9/african_worksheets/handout.pdf