Cool Stuff: African Music

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

• All the rules from the last Cool Stuff 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
• 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!

As I mentioned in class today, I'm going to use a video of Sona Jobarteh as my Cool African Music Stuff example this week. The one big difference here from previous blogs is that these particular videos are fair game for the Africa After quiz. 

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. :-)