Music of Sub-Saharan Africa

 Time for another Exploratory Blog! This time, we're going to Africa. A few quick parameters for  this week's blog topics:

  • All the rules from the Music of Indigenous Americans blog are still in play--three separate lines of inquiry, two of which must be explicitly about a musical topic; each item needs to include a hefty paragraph (at the very least) of description/explanation; you need to let me know where you got your information from
  • Please remember that your entire blog needs to be in your own words (unless you have a really specific quote that you just have to share). Paraphrase your sources, and then be sure to cite them.
  • Scope: You may go anywhere in Africa for your topics as long as you are South of the Sahara Desert. If you're just dying to dive into, say, Morocco or Egypt, don't worry--we'll consider those places when we get to Arabic music in a few weeks.
  • More Scope: Try to go beyond what we talk about in class. If you're just dying to explore further the tradition of the griot, or South Africa Isicathamiya, try to post new significantly new information, or present the topic from a different point of view.
  • Yet More Scope: You can consider any music of sub-Saharan Africa that you like. It can be traditional, modern, vocal, instrumental, formal, informal, and from any part of sub-Saharan Africa that you like. Wondering what goes on in Madagascar? Go find out! Wondering if they have any aerophones? Go find out! Want to see what other kinds of drums they have? Go find out! Want to learn about the music of the BaAka people in Central Africa? Please, someone, go find out!
On Thursday we'll be talking about the griot tradition in Western Africa, and one of the contemporary griots we'll meet is kora player Sona Jobarteh. I'm guessing that I won't be able to cover her as in-depth as I'd like, so I'm going to use her as my blog example this week. Also: these videos will be fair game for your Africa After quiz: please write down two things that you found interesting about these two videos, and there will be a question on the After Quiz where you upload those comments.

Sona Jobarteh is one of the pre-eminent kora-playing griots today, and she is fantastic! She comes from a griot family based in Gambia, one of the tiniest countries in Western Africa, and is an acknowledged kora virtuoso. We watched a video of a live performance of her song "Gambia" in class, but there's also a lovely professional music video fo the same song, in which she plays both kora and guitar.




In addition to her beautiful playing and singing, though, I'm both intrigued with and impressed by the way that she interprets her role as griot in the modern world. She travels the world giving lectures on her music, using them to shine the spotlight on aspects of her culture and the griot tradition. She's both rooted in her traditions and thoroughly modern. She's even started an Academy in Gambia that teaches culture through the arts, including music and dance. She's one of my new heroes. 



Finally, like many of us, she had to really restrict her travel and performance during the pandemic. She was at her home in London (she divides her time between London and Gambia) at the time. Here's a lovely example of how she spent her quarantine time. :-)


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