Cool Stuff: Sub-Saharan Africa

 1. Dancing Pallbearers of Ghana

My absolute favorite meme that has ever existed on the internet is the "coffin dance" meme that made its first appearance in 2020. In this meme, there is usually some sort of fail video followed by this video of dancing pallbearers with the song Astronomia by Vicetone & Tony Igy playing. Feel free to check out the meme compilation here if you are not familiar with what I am talking about! As I watched dozens of these memes in 2020 I wanted to know more about the origin of these dancing pallbearers. The clip in the meme actually came from a short documentary created by BBC in 2017 about dancing pallbearers in Ghana (I have the documentary listed below). In this video, BBC features the celebratory nature of Ghanian funerals. While there are moments for mourning, there is also a time for celebration. As shown in the video, they have loud upbeat music playing with many gathered together. The funeral shown in the video was using drums, trumpets, and trombones, it basically looked like there was a full band! While the funerals in Ghana were celebratory, dancing pallbearers was not always a part of the tradition. Benjamin Aidoo is credited with being the leader of the dancing pallbearers. His goal was to create more jobs and opportunities for men and women to ease the high levels of unemployment in Ghana. The second video I have listed has an interview with Benjamin Aidoo starting at 3:47. Benjamin was greatly impacted by watching his father's death at 8 years old. He wanted to embrace a way that would help people move past their grief and celebrate the life rather than mourn the death. He is beyond thankful for the recognition that his company has gotten in the past year over this meme. He also encourages everyone to be safe during this time, otherwise, "you're going to be dancing with me". 

2. Instruments of Madagascar

I wanted to learn about the music of Madagascar since that is something we did not cover in class. As we discussed from our "before quiz" materials, Africa is very large and very diverse. Not to mention, Madagasgar is separated from the rest of Africa by water! There must be differences in their culture including their music. One instrument that is unique to Madagascar is the valiha. It is a chordophone with 21-24 strings on a piece of local bamboo. This instrument is further classified as a tube zither since it is tubular with the tube functioning as the instrument's neck and soundbox. The valiha has a similar timbre to the Imbabura harp and the kora but looks very different from both. Below I have a video of a woman playing the valiha, it sounds beautiful! In addition, the marovany was another harp-like instrument of Madagascar which was commonly used for rituals and spiritual gatherings. This instrument is classified as a box zither because it is a stringed instrument in the form of a rectangular hollow box. I have another video listed below of someone playing the marovany.

3. African Aerophones

While we did not study any aerophones in Africa, Western Africa is home to the tambin also known as the fula flute. The tambin is an aerophone that is constructed out of a hollow wood vine and was used in traditional West African music. The video below is an example of what the tambin sounds like. Fun fact! We learned that the African talking drum was used in the Marvel movie Black Panther, but so was the tambin! The composer Michale B. Jordan chose to incorporate the tambin into the soundtrack because "it sounded sad but also aggressive, energetic and impulsive". He even describes how the flute player speaking or screaming into the flute "resonated with the character" in the movie. Some of the speaking/singing playing style may be found towards the end of the video I have of the tambin player below. 

Resources

1. Dancing Pallbearers of Ghana

https://www.joincake.com/blog/ghana-funeral/#:~:text=As%20mentioned%2C%20Ghanaian%20funerals%20traditionally,week%20after%20the%20person's%20death.

2. Instruments of Madigascar 

https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/traditional-music-madagascar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_zither

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valiha

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marovany

3. African Aerophones

https://kassaflutes.com/about

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tambin

https://variety.com/2018/artisans/production/black-panther-score-1202697385/