East Africa By Kellen McGee and Victoria Plutshack
East Africa!
History of the Main Countries of East Africa
Kenya History
From ancient civilizations to Arab settlements Kenya has had a very busy history. When Africa was colonized Portugal and Britain had their hands into the country. Arab traders also had settlements in the country. (Arab speaking traditions subsequently influenced some of the music of Kenya.) However, during the scramble for Africa it became a British colony. When it finally became independent it had a non-democratic one party state. Recently, however, Mwai Kibaki was elected president in 2002.
Uganda History
Bantu speaking people migrated there in around 500 BC. In 1844 Arab traders and Germans explored the area, which was given to Britain in the 19th century. Uganda was granted independence in 1962 but was downtrodden under bloody regimes until the 80s, when Yoweri Museveni came to power and re-stabilized the country. In 1996 a popular election was held and Museveni was elected president.
Tanzania History
Tanzania may have been the birthplace for some of the oldest civilizations on earth. Despite that, the country didn’t have a centralized political government until the 1800s. During the scramble for Africa Germany took hold of the country and used violence as a way of dealing with the African people. After World War II it was controlled by Britain. Tanzania was actually the first African nation to become independent. Since then the country has maintained democratic elections even though it may not be a very prosperous country.
Malawi History
About the size of Pennsylvania, Malawi is known as Nyasaland protectorate and is under British colonial rule. Currently, it is struggling to maintain a passable infrastructure and most of its population is subsistence farmers.
Swahili
The predominant language in East Africa is Swahili. The language has its origins in Bantu but has Arab and Asianic influences. The Arab influences came from Arab traders and settlers along the coast who brought the Quran to the East Coast of Africa. There is much dispute as to the age of Swahili, whether it was created when the Arabs and Persians settled or whether it was an older language that has merely been influenced by these cultures. Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya all have Swahili as their official language and many popular songs are sung in it.
Music in East Africa
In the past music has been held in high regard in East Africa. It was sung in royal courts and kings and chiefs of the region even carried drums, which symbolized their power. Royal court musicians were funded like in Europe. These royal musicians were well respected and sometimes given special privileges.
More recently there have been divided opinions on musicians and composers. Modern lyrics are often political and some of this music is censored or even banned. Some governments see music as an educational tool, which should be supported. One such example is the Ishi group, which is discussed in a later section, which tries to encourage the Kenyan youth to talk about, and be aware of, AIDS in the country.
Although since the 1930s western music and styles have become more popular in East Africa, mostly sung in Swahili and featuring the guitar, there is still plenty of traditional music. Some music is traditional or occasion oriented. One such example is the traditional wedding music of Islamic Swahili speaking people of east Africa – taarab. Taarab music speaks mostly about love and marriage but women’s taarab, which speaks about women’s troubles and concerns, are popular.
One type of traditional song unique to the Burundi people of East Africa is Whisper song, which is characterized by a wooden zither (inanga) with the vocalist whispering text over the zither’s notes.
IB Song Analysis
Theoretically, the link to the analyzed song can be found at:
http://0-internal.btpl2.classical.com.catalog.btpl.org:80/permalink/recording/3221321565/
Chief Gidiom Magak, Artist: Daudi Otuoma.
-Traditional Songs from the Luo people of Western Kenya-
Musical
• Instrumentation consists of traditional African instruments including the Thum (lyre-like stringed instrument), aluminum bells, and solo voice.
• A strong beat is maintained throughout by the shaken bells, but a specific, consistent meter is not used.
Structural
0:00 – 0:07 : Instrumental introduction, thum and bells are introduced. The rhythm established here stays the same for the entire piece, while the voice provides the melodic interest.
0:07 – Solo voice enters in local Luo dialect. The voice uses a smaller range of notes, but focuses attention on upper and lower neighbors not unlike some Middle Eastern traditional songs.
0:07- 0:11 : Voice’s first phrase, starts higher in register and moves lower in pitch and volume.
0:11 – 0:15 : Instrumental interlude with same rhythm as in rest in song.
0:15 – 0:18 : Extension of the first phrase that starts in low and quiet register that the last phrase ended in.
This pattern of instrumental interlude, voice, interlude continues throughout the whole piece with the same instrumental parts remaining consistent throughout the piece. The Voice’s part, semi-strophic repeats phrases with the same or similar inflections with different texts. The lengths of these phrases seem fairly balanced, with the longest one being around 0:35-0:45 (ten seconds) and the shortest being about five seconds.
The contour of the lines are consistently forte – pianissimo when they are not consistently pianissimo.
Context
The contextual information is included in the Luo Cultural Background section.
Luo Cultural Background, and Musical Instruments
This piece of music from the album Chief Gidion Magak, features artist Daudi Otuoma, whose music reflects the cultural traditions of the Luo people of Kenya. Music plays a large role in the transmission of the Oral history and literature of the Luo people, often used by performers when performing praise songs (a song glorifying whoever hired the performer), historical narratives, and stories (usually allegorical) which often include proverbs and riddles.
[Image would be here if server wasn't mean.]
Traditional instruments of the Luo people are all made by hand with materials that occur naturally where the Luo live and work. The instrument pictured above is called the nyatiti, and is usually used for accompaniment to the afore mentioned praise songs. In most music, it is treated as a lyre-like instrument. This is similar to the thum instrument, which was what the artist of the song analyzed here, Daudi Otuoma, is famous for performing with.
use your imagination
This one-stringed bowed instrument is the oruto. The bow is composed of a bent wooden stick with a single string, unlike the western many-stranded concept of the bow. Like a mandolin or orchestral string instrument, the pitch is changed by depressing the string at certain intervals with the left hand, or using harmonics.
another image here
This very large Luo wind instrument is known as the bu. Several different parts of large, dried gourds were assembled to create this instrument. A simple wind instrument, it is restricted to its natural harmonic frequencies.
DJ wearing Ishi merchandise.
AIDS, Music, and East Africa
In East Africa the AIDS carries a heavy social stigma. This is unfortunate because of the high rate at which the population with the virus is rising in East Africa. But in some areas music is helping to break down these barriers, spread awareness, and encourage people to talk to each other about AIDS. The group Ishi (meaning ‘live’ in Swahili) has created a bunch of songs that address the issue to the youth, such as “Usione Soo” (Don’t be Shy), which encourages young adults to talk about sex.
Much of the music available to the youth in East Africa is home grown hip hop, such as the Tanzanian artist X Plastaz. Ishi utilizes hip hop to spread their message about AIDS. There are also children’s institutions for orphaned children with AIDS who try to spread awareness through music, such as Nyumbani. Their children’s choir, called the Watoto wa Mungu (Children of God) choir actually recorded a song that was at the top of the charts for five weeks.
These artists are trying to help garner support for people living with AIDS as well as spread awareness to the youth, and they are making an impact. In Kenya there has begun a slight decline in AIDS infected individuals, although there are still 7% of people infected. Please visit these websites to learn more about the issue. The second link has music that you can listen to as much as you like.
The World article:
http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/401
Minnesota Public Radio In Depth Information:
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2005/11/aidsmusic/
Bibliography
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"Kenya."Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures. 1999.
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"Music and Song." Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students. Ed. John Middleton. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002.
"Singing in the Shadow of AIDS." Minnesota Public Radio. 3 Dec 2006 <http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2005/11/aidsmusic/>.
"Swahili History." Swahili Language and Culture. 4 Dec 2006 <http://www.glcom.com/hassan/swahili_history.html>.
"Tanzania." National Geographic World Music. National Geographic. 3 Dec 2006 <http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/country/content.country/tanzania_55>.
"The Countries." Singing in the Shadow of AIDS. May 30, 2006. Minnesota Public Radio. 3 Dec 2006
<http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2005/11/aidsmusic/countries.php>.
"Uganda." National Geographic World Music. National Geographic. 3 Dec 2006 <http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/country/content.country/uganda_435>.
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