Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides an excerpt of the Wikipedia page on griots and showcases two trailers of the documentary film entitled Griot.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, educational, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Volker Goetze, Ablaye Cissoko, and others who were affiliated with this film. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/05/ablaye-cissoko-volker-goetze-sira.html for the closely related pancocojams post about Senegalese griot Ablaye Cissoko's song "Sira".
****
INFORMATION ABOUT GRIOTS
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griot
"A griot ... jali or jeli (djeli or djéli in French spelling) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet and/or musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition and is often seen as a societal leader due to his or her traditional position as an advisor to royal personages. As a result of the former of these two functions, he or she is sometimes also called a bard. According to Paul Oliver in his book Savannah Syncopators, "Though [the griot] has to know many traditional songs without error, he must also have the ability to extemporize on current events, chance incidents and the passing scene. His wit can be devastating and his knowledge of local history formidable". Although they are popularly known as "praise singers", griots may use their vocal expertise for gossip, satire, or political comment.
Griots today live in many parts of West Africa and are present among the Mande peoples (Mandinka, Malinké, Bambara, etc.), Fulɓe (Fula), Hausa, Songhai, Tukulóor, Wolof, Serer, Mossi, Dagomba, Mauritanian Arabs and many other smaller groups. The word may derive from the French transliteration "guiriot" of the Portuguese word "criado", or masculine singular term for "servant". These story-tellers are more predominant in the northern portions of West Africa.
In African languages, griots are referred to by a number of names: jeli in northern Mande areas, jali in southern Mande areas, guewel in Wolof, gawlo in Pulaar (Fula), and iggawen in Hassaniyan."...
****
SHOWCASE VIDEOS:
Example #1: Griot - Trailer (Long Version)
Volker Goetze, Published on Aug 4, 2011
NEW THEATRICAL TRAILER CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://youtu.be/SkY6qmpaJJs
By tradition, griots are the living repositories of West Africa's oral epics — histories that are crucial for the preservation of West African social structures. The Griot, a documentary by Volker Goetze, uncovers the beauty of West African's traditional past and discovers that some revolutionary changes may be afoot — changes that could alter the cultural landscape forever.
Genre: Documentary
Production Company: Weitblick Media (USA)
Producer: Volker Goetze
Co-Producer: Sam Pollard
Director: Volker Goetze
Camera: Sanne Kurz
Editor: Victor Kanefsky
Additional Editing: Marie Planquois
Author: Leslie Mulkey
SuperDraw: Joshue Ott
Recorded Saint-Louis, Dakar (Senegal); New York (USA); Paris (France)
Duration: 82' 55"
-snip-
Subtitles [with my explanations in brackets]
[song clip “Sira”]
“Sira, Sira, Sira, Sira...
“The day Sira was born”
“The ocean was vibrant”
[song clip: "Coulon Coulon"]
“Mother, mother, mother...”
“The child calls his mother”
“When he is hungry”
“the child calls his mother.”
[Ablaye speaking]:
“My forefathers, they are my foundation.”
“They are the tree. I am the branch.”
“My father had 4 wives and 21 children.
Without exception, they are all musicians.”
[a statement given as a subtitle]
Mind full of knowledge and words full of solution.
[young man rapping on city street]- “I wonder why…for the economy, why Africa is always behind…”
[song clip- “Haiti”]
“The earth is breaking Haiti.”
“Despair arrived.”
“I do not know what the cause is.”
The earth trembled in Haiti.”
[woman speaking]
“The values of a griot are:
You play and you sing.
You love the people.
You respect the people.”
[Ablaye speaking]
“It is just like the rain falling down,
Here you are. You are thirsty…
You feel dirty…
And the water is falling down…
You drink a lot and you feel good.
You want a friend whom you can tell something...
you would not even tell your parents.
You can confide a secret.
[Another man speaking] -
It’s in the blood.
We did not learn music. It is in our blood.
[another man speaking] – The griot is Africa.
[another man speaking] – When you wake...
you leave...
not knowing...
where you are going.
You are Lost."
-snip-
That is the end of this trailer's sub-titles.
****
SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THAT VIDEO'S DISCUSSION THREAD
(numbers assigned for referencing purposes only)
1. Lili Baobab, 2014
Hi Volker ! when can i see the movie please ?
**
REPLY
2. Volker Goetze, 2017
Hi Lili, you can get a DVD here: https://volkergoetze.bandcamp.com/merch/griot-home-use-only
**
3. Amun Ankh-El, 2012
"what is the name of that song that he is singing when he speaks about the child calls for his mother when he's hungry"
**
REPLY
4. Volker Goetze, 2012
"It's . It will be available with a soundtrack CD once the film is being released. Thank you for asking! I can sent you the text in Mandinka with a French translation.
-snip-
This comment includes Volker Goetze’s email. However adhering to my policy for this blog, I don’t include commenter’s emails.
Also, that song isn’t found on YouTube.
**
5. Volker Goetze, 2012
"@WitnessTheDevine
N'nawo nawo nawo Mother, mother, mother,
dingdinwou ya n'aa kili the child calls his mother.
N'nawo nawo nawo Mother, mother, mother,
dingdinwou ya n'aa kili the child calls his mother.
-snip-
This reply to the commenter's request for lyrics for this song includes Mandinka words and their French translation. Those words above are translated to English by Google translate.
This is probably only a portion of this song’s lyrics as in his response, Volker Goetze wrote that YouTube didn’t allow longer text. He also gave his email address in his comment, but per my policy, I don't include personal email addresses on this blog.
**
6. TheDivineWitness, 2013
"@vgoetze Hello
I just watched the trailer "Griot" in youtube , and i would like to
know where i can buy the dvd here in Senegal?
I would also like to know the name of the griot sin ging in the
debut?(the one thats born in a family of 21kids.
I would also like the lyrics of the song coulon coulon ....i am
mandinka i think i don't need the translation...
Thank you
-snip-
From reading other discussion threads, I learned that this griot’s name is Ablaye Cissoko.
****
Example #2: GRIOT Theatrical Trailer
Volker Goetze, Published on Sep 26, 2013
-snip-
Selected comments:
1. Amun Ankh-El, 2014
"Volker Goetze....could you send to me the exact link so that i could by the song "Mother Mother"?"
**
REPLY
2. Volker Goetze, 2017
"https://volkergoetze.bandcamp.com/album/griot-soundtrack
**
3. BearClaw, 2014
"Looking forward to seeing the entire film!"
**
REPLY
4. Volker Goetze, 2017
"Hi, a DVD is now available here:
https://volkergoetze.bandcamp.com/merch/griot-home-use-only
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label gewel (griots). Show all posts
Showing posts with label gewel (griots). Show all posts
Friday, May 4, 2018
Thursday, May 3, 2018
2002 Article "Keepers of History" by Joanna Lott - an article about West African Griottess (Female Griots)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents a lengthy excerpt of a 2002 online article by Joanna Lott about West African Griottess (Female Griots).
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and educational purposes.
I showcase excerpts of hard to find or otherwise obscure articles or books as a means of increasing awareness of those articles and books, and as a way of encouraging people, when possible, to read the entire article or book.
All copyright remains with their owners.
Thanks to all West African griots and griottess (djelis) in the past and present. Thanks also to Joanna Lott for publishing this article and thanks to Thomas A. Hale, Aissata Sidikou-Morton, and all others who are mentioned in this article.
****
ARTICLE EXCERPT:
From http://news.psu.edu/story/140694/2002/05/01/research/keepers-history "Keepers of History" By Joanna Lott; May 1, 2002
"Who holds your history?
In West Africa, written history is something new. African history was written in European languages during the colonial era beginning in the late 1800s, and has been around in Arabic for centuries. But societies in the Sahel and Savanna regions of West Africa have long kept their own history, in their own languages, orally, in the form of epics.
Imagine relying on someone's memory to hold your people's history. In many parts of West Africa, this job is carried out by the griot.
Griots—masters of words and music, Tom Hale calls them in his book, Griots and Griottes—have been around for a millennium. Over time, the griots' function has changed as society evolved. Once, the male griots and female griottes were historians, genealogists, advisers to nobility, entertainers, messengers, praise singers—the list goes on. Today, they perform on television and radio and record CDs. Many are popular singers who reinterpret traditional songs, giving new meaning to old words—"time binding," Hale calls it. As performers, griots and griottes are in great demand, not only for ceremonies and parties in West Africa, where they have traditionally appeared, but all around the world. Here in the United States, they tour universities to give insight into West African culture. In a performance at Penn State in 1978, griotte Dionton Tounkara and her husband, Sekou Kouyaté performed a praise song naming some of the people in the audience, including Hale, who had invited the group.
Father of the poor people
Husband of beautiful ladies
At whose absence the city is not interesting
At whose absence the people are not happy
Be our mother
Be our father
Provide us with clothing
Be the salt we need for our gravy
Be the oil we need for our porridge
You are our eyes
You are our mirror
You are our hands and legs
That we use to walk.
Hale's career as a scholar of African literature began with a praise song like this one. From 1964 to 1966, after completing his B.A. in French at Tufts University, Hale volunteered with the United States Peace Corps and was sent to Niger, West Africa, to work with agricultural cooperatives in need of French speakers.
[...]
He began teaching African literature at Penn State in 1973. In 1980, realizing that very few instructors were teaching literature from before the colonial era, he returned to Niger to study and record griot songs. "Few people in the west seemed to know much about the many functions of the griot, and I thought this may be a way of deepening the understanding of African literature."
Hale, now holder of the Liberal Arts professorship in African, French, and Comparative Literature, and head of the French department at Penn State, has been studying the epics of West Africa ever since. He returned to Niger yet again in 1987 and then again in 1989 to interview griots and griottes and research the texts of these long poetic narratives. He believes that by studying these epics, we can learn much about the way people view their past and achieve an understanding of their society today.
Who holds your history? Who tells your story?
The griot profession is inherited, passed on from one generation to the next. "Griots are very different from the rest of society—almost a different ethnic group," says Hale. They are both feared and respected by people in West Africa for their wisdom and talent with words. They can sing your praises, but they can also sing your doom.
[...]
In return for their services, griots receive gifts. There is no set fee. They never know what they will get. Sometimes a few coins, sometimes a blanket, sometimes much more. In one reported case, a wealthy admirer gave the Malian griotte Kandia Kouyaté a small airplane so that she could fly directly to his airstrip whenever he wanted to hear the praise song she had written for him.
[...]
Good griots must have remarkable memories and be ever ready to recite or sing long histories, genealogies, and praise songs. They must also be musically talented. Hale describes their training as comparable to that of receiving a doctoral degree. To become a griot you must learn genealogies and histories, but not just the words, also the music. You can't separate the musical art from the vocal art without losing the overall effect. Griots often play a 21-stringed instrument called a kora. The kora is described as a bridge-harp with two rows of strings, one on either side of the meter-long neck, and a body made of a calabash. The sound of the kora has no American equivalent, and is as unusual as its structure. Hale describes it as sounding "a little bit like flamenco guitar," and in fact griot Keba Cissoko played the kora in this January's New York Guitar Festival's Guitar Marathon.
Training for a griot begins within the family unit, with boys and girls learning from their griot parents, and then moves on to a formal griot school, and then to an apprenticeship with a master griot. Both boys and girls can train to be griots, although griottes may have less freedom to travel and train because of family obligations.
Who holds your history? Who tells your story? Who is your voice?
Until Hale began researching the songs of the griotte in 1991, most research focused on the male griot, the assumption being that in patriarchal West Africa, the griotte played a lesser role, standing by while the griot recited, or perhaps singing only short choruses throughout a song.
It appeared that the women of West Africa had no voice. Hale and his former student, now colleague, Aissata Sidikou-Morton, believe that the reason we did not hear these female voices was that we weren't listening.
Sidikou-Morton, a native of Niger, came to Penn State to do her doctoral thesis on women singers in Niger, Senegal, and Gambia. "The West has said that African women never had a voice. They think that African women never had a voice because they never wrote it down," says Sidikou-Morton. She has been working to write down the songs of griottes and other female singers of West Africa because the people who know these songs are disappearing. "I want my children to know," she says. And she wants to show to the world the voice of African women.
"In African literature, orality is still the most important form of literature on the continent," Sidikou-Morton says, "because it is not everyone who can understand and read French and English. If you compare the oral literature here to the literature of other women in other cultures, you will see similarities. They are saying the same things about what it is like to be a woman, to be a human being.
"And the songs are beautiful and challenging—challenging to society, and challenging as a form of literature. With orality there is a lot women are saying. It is comparable to any written literature. It is expression, communication, and exchange."
Hale agrees. "The reality is that women do have voices in this region. If you study the texts of the songs women in these regions sing, you find that the songs reveal much about the women singing them. These women are empowered in what appears to be a male-dominated society. These songs are not simply entertainment," says Hale. "Women are saying something in these songs."
Griottes traditionally sing at ceremonies, celebrations, and special occasions. When a woman is to be married, griottes sing to her to prepare her for her new life. They sing to prepare her for the trouble she may encounter in the new marriage, and to reassure her that if it gets too bad, she can come home.
Stop crying, bride.
Stop crying and listen to me.
If your mother-in-law abuses you,
Just cry, but don't say anything.
If your sisters or brothers-in-law abuse you,
Just cry but don't say anything.
If your husband's mother abuses you,
Just cry, but don't say anything,
But leaving your house is not a crime.
Do griottes sing epics? It is widely believed that the African epic, a long (sometimes hours, even days long) narrative of history and genealogy, battles and political uprisings, is sung only by griots, by the men. Women joined in only to sing certain parts or to play musical accompaniment. But Sidikou-Morton has recorded a griotte performing an epic, and both Hale and Sidikou-Morton have found that modern griottes are composing their own epics for African women.
[...]
Another long poetic narrative form that West African women sing is called the saabi. The saabi reveals the nature of relationships between men and women. Sidikou-Morton describes the saabi as a "subversive epic," because it challenges male superiority.
In one saabi, called "The Wicked Man," a new bride, suspicious of her husband's intentions because he has divorced many women in the past, gets the jump on him before he can divorce her. She goes out to plant millet with him and as he walks in front of her digging holes for the seeds, she secretly throws the seeds away. When he believes the planting is done, he has no more use for his wife and so divorces her. But when he tells her to go, she tells him that she divorced him already.
She laughed and said,
"You did not divorce me first
"I first divorced you."
She said, "as for a woman, if a man can think of ten tricks,"
She said, "one trick from a woman will trump his."
She tells him to go to his farm in four days, and then he will know that she was the one who divorced him first. When he goes to his farm, he finds that, while all around him his neighbors have sprouts, he has none. The narrator explains the meaning:
It is said by Allah that whatever a man can do
A woman knows how to trick better
A deceiving and nasty man,
And whatever you do out of wickedness
A woman can definitely outdo you
Hale and Sidikou-Morton, now assistant professor of French at Princeton University, are working together on a project called "Women's Voices from West Africa" to collect and analyze praise songs, epics, and other poetic forms sung by women, not just griottes, but all women, in the West African Sahel and Savanna regions. West African women sing songs to give comfort, encouragement, and empowerment to other women, says Sidikou-Morton. They sing about independence and self-reliance. They sing about what it is like to be a woman in this society. They sing about relationships with husbands and with in-laws.
Many of the researchers involved in this project have come across women's songs in West Africa as a by-product of research on other features of the society. Others, like Sidikou-Morton, have studied the songs extensively. Out of their collaboration will come a volume of edited papers, a synthesis of all current research, an anthology of selected songs in English, Wolof, Bamana, and Hausa (languages of West Africa), and a Web site with the text of the songs, as well as video and audio snippets of griottes performing.
Hale believes that studying the texts of these songs, most of which are thus far untranslated and unpublished, could offer an understanding of what West African women are saying, and of how that reflects their role in society. "Women have always had power in society through singing. What we don't understand is the nature of that power. As we study all of the wedding songs across different regions, and if we find that they say the same thing, we may find that women collectively have far more power then anyone imagined." "
Thomas A. Hale, Ph.D., is holder of the Liberal Arts professorship in African, French, and Comparative Literature, and head of the French department, College of the Liberal Arts, 314 Burrowes Bldg., University Park PA 16802; 814-865-8481; tah@psu.edu. Aissata Sidikou-Morton, who received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Penn State in August of 1997, is assistant professor of French at Princeton University. "Women's Voices from West Africa" is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This pancocojams post presents a lengthy excerpt of a 2002 online article by Joanna Lott about West African Griottess (Female Griots).
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and educational purposes.
I showcase excerpts of hard to find or otherwise obscure articles or books as a means of increasing awareness of those articles and books, and as a way of encouraging people, when possible, to read the entire article or book.
All copyright remains with their owners.
Thanks to all West African griots and griottess (djelis) in the past and present. Thanks also to Joanna Lott for publishing this article and thanks to Thomas A. Hale, Aissata Sidikou-Morton, and all others who are mentioned in this article.
****
ARTICLE EXCERPT:
From http://news.psu.edu/story/140694/2002/05/01/research/keepers-history "Keepers of History" By Joanna Lott; May 1, 2002
"Who holds your history?
In West Africa, written history is something new. African history was written in European languages during the colonial era beginning in the late 1800s, and has been around in Arabic for centuries. But societies in the Sahel and Savanna regions of West Africa have long kept their own history, in their own languages, orally, in the form of epics.
Imagine relying on someone's memory to hold your people's history. In many parts of West Africa, this job is carried out by the griot.
Griots—masters of words and music, Tom Hale calls them in his book, Griots and Griottes—have been around for a millennium. Over time, the griots' function has changed as society evolved. Once, the male griots and female griottes were historians, genealogists, advisers to nobility, entertainers, messengers, praise singers—the list goes on. Today, they perform on television and radio and record CDs. Many are popular singers who reinterpret traditional songs, giving new meaning to old words—"time binding," Hale calls it. As performers, griots and griottes are in great demand, not only for ceremonies and parties in West Africa, where they have traditionally appeared, but all around the world. Here in the United States, they tour universities to give insight into West African culture. In a performance at Penn State in 1978, griotte Dionton Tounkara and her husband, Sekou Kouyaté performed a praise song naming some of the people in the audience, including Hale, who had invited the group.
Father of the poor people
Husband of beautiful ladies
At whose absence the city is not interesting
At whose absence the people are not happy
Be our mother
Be our father
Provide us with clothing
Be the salt we need for our gravy
Be the oil we need for our porridge
You are our eyes
You are our mirror
You are our hands and legs
That we use to walk.
Hale's career as a scholar of African literature began with a praise song like this one. From 1964 to 1966, after completing his B.A. in French at Tufts University, Hale volunteered with the United States Peace Corps and was sent to Niger, West Africa, to work with agricultural cooperatives in need of French speakers.
[...]
He began teaching African literature at Penn State in 1973. In 1980, realizing that very few instructors were teaching literature from before the colonial era, he returned to Niger to study and record griot songs. "Few people in the west seemed to know much about the many functions of the griot, and I thought this may be a way of deepening the understanding of African literature."
Hale, now holder of the Liberal Arts professorship in African, French, and Comparative Literature, and head of the French department at Penn State, has been studying the epics of West Africa ever since. He returned to Niger yet again in 1987 and then again in 1989 to interview griots and griottes and research the texts of these long poetic narratives. He believes that by studying these epics, we can learn much about the way people view their past and achieve an understanding of their society today.
Who holds your history? Who tells your story?
The griot profession is inherited, passed on from one generation to the next. "Griots are very different from the rest of society—almost a different ethnic group," says Hale. They are both feared and respected by people in West Africa for their wisdom and talent with words. They can sing your praises, but they can also sing your doom.
[...]
In return for their services, griots receive gifts. There is no set fee. They never know what they will get. Sometimes a few coins, sometimes a blanket, sometimes much more. In one reported case, a wealthy admirer gave the Malian griotte Kandia Kouyaté a small airplane so that she could fly directly to his airstrip whenever he wanted to hear the praise song she had written for him.
[...]
Good griots must have remarkable memories and be ever ready to recite or sing long histories, genealogies, and praise songs. They must also be musically talented. Hale describes their training as comparable to that of receiving a doctoral degree. To become a griot you must learn genealogies and histories, but not just the words, also the music. You can't separate the musical art from the vocal art without losing the overall effect. Griots often play a 21-stringed instrument called a kora. The kora is described as a bridge-harp with two rows of strings, one on either side of the meter-long neck, and a body made of a calabash. The sound of the kora has no American equivalent, and is as unusual as its structure. Hale describes it as sounding "a little bit like flamenco guitar," and in fact griot Keba Cissoko played the kora in this January's New York Guitar Festival's Guitar Marathon.
Training for a griot begins within the family unit, with boys and girls learning from their griot parents, and then moves on to a formal griot school, and then to an apprenticeship with a master griot. Both boys and girls can train to be griots, although griottes may have less freedom to travel and train because of family obligations.
Who holds your history? Who tells your story? Who is your voice?
Until Hale began researching the songs of the griotte in 1991, most research focused on the male griot, the assumption being that in patriarchal West Africa, the griotte played a lesser role, standing by while the griot recited, or perhaps singing only short choruses throughout a song.
It appeared that the women of West Africa had no voice. Hale and his former student, now colleague, Aissata Sidikou-Morton, believe that the reason we did not hear these female voices was that we weren't listening.
Sidikou-Morton, a native of Niger, came to Penn State to do her doctoral thesis on women singers in Niger, Senegal, and Gambia. "The West has said that African women never had a voice. They think that African women never had a voice because they never wrote it down," says Sidikou-Morton. She has been working to write down the songs of griottes and other female singers of West Africa because the people who know these songs are disappearing. "I want my children to know," she says. And she wants to show to the world the voice of African women.
"In African literature, orality is still the most important form of literature on the continent," Sidikou-Morton says, "because it is not everyone who can understand and read French and English. If you compare the oral literature here to the literature of other women in other cultures, you will see similarities. They are saying the same things about what it is like to be a woman, to be a human being.
"And the songs are beautiful and challenging—challenging to society, and challenging as a form of literature. With orality there is a lot women are saying. It is comparable to any written literature. It is expression, communication, and exchange."
Hale agrees. "The reality is that women do have voices in this region. If you study the texts of the songs women in these regions sing, you find that the songs reveal much about the women singing them. These women are empowered in what appears to be a male-dominated society. These songs are not simply entertainment," says Hale. "Women are saying something in these songs."
Griottes traditionally sing at ceremonies, celebrations, and special occasions. When a woman is to be married, griottes sing to her to prepare her for her new life. They sing to prepare her for the trouble she may encounter in the new marriage, and to reassure her that if it gets too bad, she can come home.
Stop crying, bride.
Stop crying and listen to me.
If your mother-in-law abuses you,
Just cry, but don't say anything.
If your sisters or brothers-in-law abuse you,
Just cry but don't say anything.
If your husband's mother abuses you,
Just cry, but don't say anything,
But leaving your house is not a crime.
Do griottes sing epics? It is widely believed that the African epic, a long (sometimes hours, even days long) narrative of history and genealogy, battles and political uprisings, is sung only by griots, by the men. Women joined in only to sing certain parts or to play musical accompaniment. But Sidikou-Morton has recorded a griotte performing an epic, and both Hale and Sidikou-Morton have found that modern griottes are composing their own epics for African women.
[...]
Another long poetic narrative form that West African women sing is called the saabi. The saabi reveals the nature of relationships between men and women. Sidikou-Morton describes the saabi as a "subversive epic," because it challenges male superiority.
In one saabi, called "The Wicked Man," a new bride, suspicious of her husband's intentions because he has divorced many women in the past, gets the jump on him before he can divorce her. She goes out to plant millet with him and as he walks in front of her digging holes for the seeds, she secretly throws the seeds away. When he believes the planting is done, he has no more use for his wife and so divorces her. But when he tells her to go, she tells him that she divorced him already.
She laughed and said,
"You did not divorce me first
"I first divorced you."
She said, "as for a woman, if a man can think of ten tricks,"
She said, "one trick from a woman will trump his."
She tells him to go to his farm in four days, and then he will know that she was the one who divorced him first. When he goes to his farm, he finds that, while all around him his neighbors have sprouts, he has none. The narrator explains the meaning:
It is said by Allah that whatever a man can do
A woman knows how to trick better
A deceiving and nasty man,
And whatever you do out of wickedness
A woman can definitely outdo you
Hale and Sidikou-Morton, now assistant professor of French at Princeton University, are working together on a project called "Women's Voices from West Africa" to collect and analyze praise songs, epics, and other poetic forms sung by women, not just griottes, but all women, in the West African Sahel and Savanna regions. West African women sing songs to give comfort, encouragement, and empowerment to other women, says Sidikou-Morton. They sing about independence and self-reliance. They sing about what it is like to be a woman in this society. They sing about relationships with husbands and with in-laws.
Many of the researchers involved in this project have come across women's songs in West Africa as a by-product of research on other features of the society. Others, like Sidikou-Morton, have studied the songs extensively. Out of their collaboration will come a volume of edited papers, a synthesis of all current research, an anthology of selected songs in English, Wolof, Bamana, and Hausa (languages of West Africa), and a Web site with the text of the songs, as well as video and audio snippets of griottes performing.
Hale believes that studying the texts of these songs, most of which are thus far untranslated and unpublished, could offer an understanding of what West African women are saying, and of how that reflects their role in society. "Women have always had power in society through singing. What we don't understand is the nature of that power. As we study all of the wedding songs across different regions, and if we find that they say the same thing, we may find that women collectively have far more power then anyone imagined." "
Thomas A. Hale, Ph.D., is holder of the Liberal Arts professorship in African, French, and Comparative Literature, and head of the French department, College of the Liberal Arts, 314 Burrowes Bldg., University Park PA 16802; 814-865-8481; tah@psu.edu. Aissata Sidikou-Morton, who received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at Penn State in August of 1997, is assistant professor of French at Princeton University. "Women's Voices from West Africa" is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Information About Senegalese Gewels (Griots), Mbalax, & Senegalese Hip Hop)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a three part series about Senegalese baby naming ceremonies/parties (ngentes; also found as nguentes and nguenté.
Part II provides information about gewel (griots), Mbalax, and Senegalese Hip Hop. These topics are larger than the subject of "ngentes". However, the information that is found in this post helps provide background for those non-Senegalese watching the video entitled "Nguente" that is showcased in Part III of this pancocojams series.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/02/descriptions-of-senegalese-baby-naming.html for Part I of this series. Part I presents excerpts from one book and two blog posts about Senegalese baby naming ceremonies/parties.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/02/fata-el-presidente-featuring-mbaye.html for Part III of this series. Part III showcases a Senegalese video of "Nguenté" by Fata (also known as "El Presidente") featuring Mbaye Dieye & Waly Seck.
Selected comments from that YouTube video's discussion thread are also included in that post. Many of those comments are written in French or in Spanish. Google translate translations to English of those comments are also given in this post.
The content of this post is presented for cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
DEFINITIONS OF THE WORDS GRIOTS & INFORMATION ABOUT GRIOTS (GEWELS) IN SENEGAL
From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/griot
"Origin of the word "griot" = "1955-60; < French, earlier guiriot, perhaps ultimately < Portuguese criado domestic servant, altered in W African coastal creoles" ** From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbalax
..."Senegalese songs are usually unwritten, and certain instruments or musical styles are reserved for specific genders or age groups. In the past, only griots could perform music. Their traditional role was transmitting oral history, genealogies and social rankings, diplomacy, and storytelling. Today, griots continue to participate in naming ceremonies, weddings, and funerals."...
**
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegalese_hip_hop
"History Of Griots
Prior to the wide spread of hip hop in Senegal, traditional music was transcended through pre-ordained griots. The term griot, also known as gewel, can be defined as, "… traditional praise-singer, musician, social go-between, counselors, or dancer and acrobat," [3] These individuals were born into, "endogamous, professionally specialized group often referred to as a 'caste'." [3] Their position in Senegal society was that of much importance for griots were are also known for their abilities as oral specialist who, "…had to guarantee not only the survival of their people as a culturally and historically defined group, but also the social status of the nobles they were attached to." [3] Griots were culturally responsible for knowing their genealogies in speaking and in song, to recite for the nobles.
Through they were not considered "upper-class", they were given food, clothing, jewels, land and slaves for their work. "While they could attain high individual status through their work and their social behaviors, their social status as a group was low. They depended economically on the nobles who paid them for their services, they could not attain positions of political power, and they were not allowed to bear arms…" [3] Understanding their role in society is understanding the importance of expression in Senegal. As historians, entertainers, and musicians, griots were influential in many ceremonies, such as weddings, funerals, births, religious parades, and politics, for they used song and speech to recite important information with the usage of praise songs."
-snip-
This excerpt is reformmated for this post to enhance reading clarity.
Note that the Wolof word for "griots" is "gewel". Also note that both males and females can be gewel (griots).
****
INFORMATION ABOUT MBALAX MUSIC
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbalax
"Mbalax (or Mbalakh) is the national popular dance music of Senegal and the Gambia. Mbalax is a fusion of popular Western music and dance such as jazz, soul, Latin, and rock blended with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of Senegal. The genre's name derived from the heavy use of accompanying rhythms used in sabar called mbalax.
History and influence
Mbalax (meaning rhythm in the Wolof language), is a type of music that traces some of its technique to the conservative and the religious Serer music tradition of Njuup (the progenitor of Mbalax), developed in Senegal in the early 1970s. Like many other francophone West African countries the Senegalese popular music scene was partially influenced by soul, blues, jazz, R&B, and rock from the United States, varieté from France, Congolese rumba, and Latin pop from the Caribbean and New York (e.g., pachanga, son, charanga, salsa, and Latin jazz) .[citation needed] In this mix of African diasporic sounds Senegalese fans and musicians wanted their own urban popular dance music so they began singing in Wolof (Senegal's lingua franca) instead of French, and incorporated rhythms of the indigenous sabar drum (see Mangin[1]). Dancers began using moves associated with the sabar, and tipping the singers as if they were traditional griots.
Among the bands that played this new style, Etoile de Dakar (starring Youssou N'Dour and El Hadji Faye), and Raam Daan (starring Thione Seck), Xalam II, and Super Diamono. Since becoming popular, both Mbalax and its associated dance have spread to other regions such as Mali, Mauritania, Ivory Coast and France. This dissemination has come about through radio, audio cassettes and televised video clips.
Mbalax instrumentation includes keyboards, synths and other electronic production methods. However, it is the Nder (lead drum), the Sabar (rhythm drum), and the Tama (talking drum) percussion, and widely influenced African and Arabic vocalistic stylings that continue to make Mbalax one of the most distinctive forms of dance music in west Africa and the diaspora"....
-snip-
Read the excerpt about griots above.
Thione Seck is the father of Waly Seck who is featured in the video that is showcased in Part III of this series.
Click the "Mbalax" tag below for pancocojams posts on that music genre. Among those posts is http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/10/youssou-ndour-serigne-mbacke-sokhna-lo.html and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/02/thione-ballago-seck-mbaakh-information.html
****
INFORMATION ABOUT SENEGALESE HIP HOP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegalese_hip_hop
"Senegalese hip hop began to emerge in the early 1980s. When hip hop first hit the scene in Africa, it went from merely being a fad, to a more social and political movement. Amongst the most influential leaders of this movement were artists from the country of Senegal. With the modernization of the country, and the rise in media, the youth of Senegal were able to embrace a new form of expression. One of the main reasons why hip hop has become preeminent in Senegal is due to its mixture of sound and culture. "Senegal's hip hop scene is distinctive and its artist extremely talented. The country has a history of strong musical traditions..." [1] Moreover, hip hop has not only become an aspect of life for the Senegalese people, but more importantly has translated to a way of life, gathering influence from the musical expression prior to its rise in Senegal, and understanding their past as it pertains heavily to its socially present state within music...
Modern Griots and Modern Music[edit]
After World War II, there was a rise in the night club scene where more diverse forms of music began to be played by foreigners. Coincidentally enough, Senegal became very much interested in the new form of fashion. However, this allowed non-griots the opportunity to capture persons which was once the job of the griots. While there was much competition between the two, modern day griots used their positions as a way to incorporate modern day music. While in modern-day Senegal, griots can be placed in three categories. "Those who have decided to refrain from practicing their hereditary profession and have taken up some other occupation; those who continue to perform, without innovation, and those who have managed to find or create a new kind of occupation that still seems to fit the traditional griots' ethos adapting the art of their ancestors to modern requirements and possibilities." [3] The griot's position in society, most relevant to modern day music, are those who use their song and dance as a new kind of occupation while still practicing the traditional legacies of past griots. These individuals are still highly respected for their responsibilities, and have also become incorporated in popular music culture. "Praise songs, far from being superseded, have instead become incorporated into popular music..." [3] Today, "griots have found new meaning for old customs, and new functions for old skills," [3] Although they originated from a caste which held no political power, modern griots still hold much power and status and are better off in life then modern families.
-snip-
Read the excerpt about griots above.
I've included a tag for "African Hip Hop" and intend to feature other videos of African Hip Hop artists, in addition to the video that is showcased in Part III of this series.
****
This concludes Part II of this series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This is Part II of a three part series about Senegalese baby naming ceremonies/parties (ngentes; also found as nguentes and nguenté.
Part II provides information about gewel (griots), Mbalax, and Senegalese Hip Hop. These topics are larger than the subject of "ngentes". However, the information that is found in this post helps provide background for those non-Senegalese watching the video entitled "Nguente" that is showcased in Part III of this pancocojams series.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/02/descriptions-of-senegalese-baby-naming.html for Part I of this series. Part I presents excerpts from one book and two blog posts about Senegalese baby naming ceremonies/parties.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/02/fata-el-presidente-featuring-mbaye.html for Part III of this series. Part III showcases a Senegalese video of "Nguenté" by Fata (also known as "El Presidente") featuring Mbaye Dieye & Waly Seck.
Selected comments from that YouTube video's discussion thread are also included in that post. Many of those comments are written in French or in Spanish. Google translate translations to English of those comments are also given in this post.
The content of this post is presented for cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
****
DEFINITIONS OF THE WORDS GRIOTS & INFORMATION ABOUT GRIOTS (GEWELS) IN SENEGAL
From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/griot
"Origin of the word "griot" = "1955-60; < French, earlier guiriot, perhaps ultimately < Portuguese criado domestic servant, altered in W African coastal creoles" ** From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbalax
..."Senegalese songs are usually unwritten, and certain instruments or musical styles are reserved for specific genders or age groups. In the past, only griots could perform music. Their traditional role was transmitting oral history, genealogies and social rankings, diplomacy, and storytelling. Today, griots continue to participate in naming ceremonies, weddings, and funerals."...
**
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegalese_hip_hop
"History Of Griots
Prior to the wide spread of hip hop in Senegal, traditional music was transcended through pre-ordained griots. The term griot, also known as gewel, can be defined as, "… traditional praise-singer, musician, social go-between, counselors, or dancer and acrobat," [3] These individuals were born into, "endogamous, professionally specialized group often referred to as a 'caste'." [3] Their position in Senegal society was that of much importance for griots were are also known for their abilities as oral specialist who, "…had to guarantee not only the survival of their people as a culturally and historically defined group, but also the social status of the nobles they were attached to." [3] Griots were culturally responsible for knowing their genealogies in speaking and in song, to recite for the nobles.
Through they were not considered "upper-class", they were given food, clothing, jewels, land and slaves for their work. "While they could attain high individual status through their work and their social behaviors, their social status as a group was low. They depended economically on the nobles who paid them for their services, they could not attain positions of political power, and they were not allowed to bear arms…" [3] Understanding their role in society is understanding the importance of expression in Senegal. As historians, entertainers, and musicians, griots were influential in many ceremonies, such as weddings, funerals, births, religious parades, and politics, for they used song and speech to recite important information with the usage of praise songs."
-snip-
This excerpt is reformmated for this post to enhance reading clarity.
Note that the Wolof word for "griots" is "gewel". Also note that both males and females can be gewel (griots).
****
INFORMATION ABOUT MBALAX MUSIC
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbalax
"Mbalax (or Mbalakh) is the national popular dance music of Senegal and the Gambia. Mbalax is a fusion of popular Western music and dance such as jazz, soul, Latin, and rock blended with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of Senegal. The genre's name derived from the heavy use of accompanying rhythms used in sabar called mbalax.
History and influence
Mbalax (meaning rhythm in the Wolof language), is a type of music that traces some of its technique to the conservative and the religious Serer music tradition of Njuup (the progenitor of Mbalax), developed in Senegal in the early 1970s. Like many other francophone West African countries the Senegalese popular music scene was partially influenced by soul, blues, jazz, R&B, and rock from the United States, varieté from France, Congolese rumba, and Latin pop from the Caribbean and New York (e.g., pachanga, son, charanga, salsa, and Latin jazz) .[citation needed] In this mix of African diasporic sounds Senegalese fans and musicians wanted their own urban popular dance music so they began singing in Wolof (Senegal's lingua franca) instead of French, and incorporated rhythms of the indigenous sabar drum (see Mangin[1]). Dancers began using moves associated with the sabar, and tipping the singers as if they were traditional griots.
Among the bands that played this new style, Etoile de Dakar (starring Youssou N'Dour and El Hadji Faye), and Raam Daan (starring Thione Seck), Xalam II, and Super Diamono. Since becoming popular, both Mbalax and its associated dance have spread to other regions such as Mali, Mauritania, Ivory Coast and France. This dissemination has come about through radio, audio cassettes and televised video clips.
Mbalax instrumentation includes keyboards, synths and other electronic production methods. However, it is the Nder (lead drum), the Sabar (rhythm drum), and the Tama (talking drum) percussion, and widely influenced African and Arabic vocalistic stylings that continue to make Mbalax one of the most distinctive forms of dance music in west Africa and the diaspora"....
-snip-
Read the excerpt about griots above.
Thione Seck is the father of Waly Seck who is featured in the video that is showcased in Part III of this series.
Click the "Mbalax" tag below for pancocojams posts on that music genre. Among those posts is http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/10/youssou-ndour-serigne-mbacke-sokhna-lo.html and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/02/thione-ballago-seck-mbaakh-information.html
****
INFORMATION ABOUT SENEGALESE HIP HOP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegalese_hip_hop
"Senegalese hip hop began to emerge in the early 1980s. When hip hop first hit the scene in Africa, it went from merely being a fad, to a more social and political movement. Amongst the most influential leaders of this movement were artists from the country of Senegal. With the modernization of the country, and the rise in media, the youth of Senegal were able to embrace a new form of expression. One of the main reasons why hip hop has become preeminent in Senegal is due to its mixture of sound and culture. "Senegal's hip hop scene is distinctive and its artist extremely talented. The country has a history of strong musical traditions..." [1] Moreover, hip hop has not only become an aspect of life for the Senegalese people, but more importantly has translated to a way of life, gathering influence from the musical expression prior to its rise in Senegal, and understanding their past as it pertains heavily to its socially present state within music...
Modern Griots and Modern Music[edit]
After World War II, there was a rise in the night club scene where more diverse forms of music began to be played by foreigners. Coincidentally enough, Senegal became very much interested in the new form of fashion. However, this allowed non-griots the opportunity to capture persons which was once the job of the griots. While there was much competition between the two, modern day griots used their positions as a way to incorporate modern day music. While in modern-day Senegal, griots can be placed in three categories. "Those who have decided to refrain from practicing their hereditary profession and have taken up some other occupation; those who continue to perform, without innovation, and those who have managed to find or create a new kind of occupation that still seems to fit the traditional griots' ethos adapting the art of their ancestors to modern requirements and possibilities." [3] The griot's position in society, most relevant to modern day music, are those who use their song and dance as a new kind of occupation while still practicing the traditional legacies of past griots. These individuals are still highly respected for their responsibilities, and have also become incorporated in popular music culture. "Praise songs, far from being superseded, have instead become incorporated into popular music..." [3] Today, "griots have found new meaning for old customs, and new functions for old skills," [3] Although they originated from a caste which held no political power, modern griots still hold much power and status and are better off in life then modern families.
-snip-
Read the excerpt about griots above.
I've included a tag for "African Hip Hop" and intend to feature other videos of African Hip Hop artists, in addition to the video that is showcased in Part III of this series.
****
This concludes Part II of this series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Descriptions Of Senegalese Baby Naming Ceremonies/Parties (Ngentes)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a three part series about Senegalese baby naming ceremonies/parties (ngentes; also found as nguentes and nguenté.)
Part I presents excerpts from one book and excerpts from two blog posts about Senegalese baby naming ceremonies/parties.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/02/information-about-senegalese-gewels.html for Part II of this series. Part II provides information about gewel (griots), Mbalax, and Senegalese Hip Hop.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/02/fata-el-presidente-featuring-mbaye.html for Part III of this series. Part III showcases a Senegalese video of "Nguenté" by Fata (also known as "El Presidente") featuring Mbaye Dieye & Waly Seck
Selected comments from that YouTube video's discussion thread are also included in that post.
The content of this post is presented for anthropological and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Update: February 8, 2016- I just found this article on 2013 informative and well written blog post about Senegalese "ngentes": http://senegalesekathryn.blogspot.com/2013_07_01_archive.html
****
FEATURED EXCERPTS
EXCERPT #1:
This excerpt is from pages 137-138 of the Google books portion of the 2007 book Masters of the Sabar: Wolof Griot Percussionists of Senegal By Patricia Tang (Temple University Press). Here's some information about this book from http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Sabar-Percussionists-Senegal-Soundscapes-ebook/dp/B0037CFDN2#customerReviews
"Masters of the Sabar" is the first book to examine the music and culture of Wolof griot percussionists, masters of the vibrant sabar drumming tradition. Based on extensive field research in Senegal, this book is a biographical study of several generations of percussionists in a Wolof griot (gewel) family, exploring and documenting their learning processes, repertories, and performance contexts-from life-cycle ceremonies to sporting events and political meetings. Patricia Tang examines the rich history and changing repertories of sabar drumming, including dance rhythms and bakks, musical phrases derived from spoken words. She notes the recent shift towards creating new bakks which are rhythmically more complex and highlight the virtuosity and musical skill of the percussionist. She also considers the burgeoning popular music genre called mbalax. The compact disc that accompanies the book includes examples of the standard sabar repertory, as well as bakks composed and performed by Lamine Toure and his family drum troupe."
-snip-
Excerpts of pages 137-138.
Note that the words given in italic were given as they appeared in this book excerpt for accent marks in the spelling of many of those words.
Masters of the Sabar: Wolof Griot Percussionists of Senegal By Patricia Tang
"At both weddings and naming ceremonies, sabars take place in the afternoon, after the rituals and ceremonies are completed and the celebrations is to begin.
At a ngente or marriage a large tarp or open-sided tent with chairs under it is usually set up in the street outside the house. The tent symbolizes a sort of extension of the household, keeping the event an essentially private affair, despite it being in the “public” street. This distinguishes it from a tannibeer, which never takes place under a tent, and is always an open, public event.
A ngente is usually an all-day affair. In the morning the men (male relatives and other distinguished friends of the head of the household), come to pay their respects and praise the baby. It is in the morning that the baby is named as well. Laax which is served at Korite (A Muslim holiday to be discussed later), is traditionally served on the morning of a ngente. Lunch will be ceebu yapp, a rice and meat dish, cooked with the sacrificial sheep. The men slaughter the sheep in the morning, after which the women griots busily prepare cooking it.
Although all sorts of friends and family visit the household throughout the day, the men primarily come in the morning, whereas the afternoon is the time for women (and, not so coincidentally, is also when the sabar takes place.). All guests bring a small monetary gift (ndawtal) to the mother to congratulate her and to help with the cost of the ngente (which can be a very expensive affair, between renting chairs, the sabar group, and providing food and drink for everyone).
In contrast to its role at a tannibeer, which is a dance event which is also an occasion for drummers to show off their virtuosity and showcase bakks, the sabar’s role at an ngente (and marriage) is purely functional: to accompany dance. The drummers play dance rhymes*... Normally they play a set for an hour or so, break for a big late lunch, then resume playing later in the later afternoon. Naturally, the drummers engage in woyang, praising the mother or whatever other prominent people are around, thus eliciting money for them”...
*The word "rhythms" here probably means "rhythms". The names of various rhythms are given in this passage.
[page 138]
"A Special Ngente Ceremony: “Bekete”
In addition to the naming, dancing, and other festivities common to all Senegalese baptisms, people of the Lebou origin, descendant from Diagne Ndoye and Diagne Mbaye, celebrate a special ngente ritual called bekete. Since Mbayes are of gewel** origin, the Mbaye family considers bekete to be an important gewel tradition and performs it every time a new baby is born into the family.
Bekete is a ritual of protection. As Macheikh Mbaye explains
'Bekete is a means of protecting the child. When the child is eight days old, we will celebrate bekete in order to protect him. We will protect him from the evil spirits, from any type of accident, from evil tongue (caat)- because some tongues will destroy anything when they talk about it. We will protect him/her also from the evil eye; that’s what bekete is all about- to protect the survival of the child, that’s all.' (3/9/98)
-snip-
Gewels = griots. Information about gewels (griots) is given in Part II of this series.
****
EXCERPT #2:
This 2005 blog post was written by a White woman from the United Sates. In her 2005 profile she described herself as a teacher living in Dakar, Senegal for nine years with her husband. The blog post describes the amended form of a ngente (Senegalese baby naming ceremony/party) that the couple held for their two month old daughter.
This excerpt focuses on the blogger's descriptions of the baby naming ceremony/party. I reformatted this excerpt for this post to enhance reading clarity.
From http://birds-nest5.blogspot.com/2005/11/what-is-ngente.html [written by] Lisa, Saturday, November 12, 2005
"What is an ngente?
Well, we are busy preparing for Mariama's ngente. What is an ngente you say? It is what the people here in Senegal call a naming ceremony. It is typically held on the eightth day after a child is born. Until that time, the child's name is not spoken by the parents to anyone.
Typically the ceremony takes place about ten in the morning which includes a prayer of sorts, shaving the head as part of their tradition, and the announcing of the name. At about this time is when the sheep is killed, out of sacrifice or celebration, it is unclear. Before the ceermony takes place though, they begin to serve the laax. Laax is a grain that is made into powder and then formed into the consistency of oatmeal and then served with a sweet milky yogurt over it. It is really delicious! After the sheep has been killed, cooking of lunch begins, which is always "ceebu yap" (rice and meat), which is a signature Senegalese dish. This is generally served about 2:00, since they will serve the laax to anyone who comes until about noon. The lunch is served on large platters around which about 6 people will eat, in Senegalese fashion...
After lunch, guests are served some drink, generally cokes, frozen juice from a store, or one of the homemade Senegalese jus, which are not like anything we drink in the states, but they are delicious. This is finished about three or four o'clock. Often for the Senegalese, the day does not end here. They may serve leftovers of lunch to those who come around 5:00, and then will serve a dinner around 8:00. But also around 6:00, there is the exchanging of gifts between the families. The family of the mother of the baby and the family of the father of the baby essentially compete to outgive gifts to the other side of the family. If good enough gifts are not given by one side, not only does it insult the other side of the family, but it also causes the side who gives inadequately to be looked down on by all the neighbors because everyone is watching this event. Yeah, no pressure here!!!...
The mother of the baby is called the "boroom ngente", meaning lord of the ngente. The boroom generally wears a different outfit for every meal, getting more expensive as the day goes on. I will wear a nice outfit I already have for the morning but am getting a new outfit for the afternoon lunch time. Her hair and makeup are very fixed and very heavy generally."...
****
EXCERPT #3:
This 2012 blog post was written by a White woman from the United States who identified herself as a Peace Corp volunteer. The nguenté that this blogger attended was held for the fifth born child of her (Senegalese) host mother.
This excerpt focuses on the blogger's descriptions of the baby naming ceremony/party.
From https://lesvoyagesdejulia.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/a-senegalese-ngente/ Posted on October 18, 2012 by juliaschroer
"Yesterday, I had the pleasure of experiencing my first Senegalese ‘ngente’ or naming ceremony. An ngente is a special day where family, friends, and neighbors gather to celebrate the birth of a new baby by enjoying yummy food, presenting gifts, and attending the Islamic naming ceremony. The affair seems to be a cross between a Christian baptism and an American baby shower. The ngente happens exactly a week after the baby is born. The baby girl was born on October 10th, so the party was yesterday, October 17th. During those first seven days, my host mom didn’t leave the house and tended the new baby 24/7. I am really impressed by how self-reliant my host-mom is and how she handled the pregnancy (I moved into when she was in her 7th month) and delivery with such a cool head and calm disposition!
Yesterday, everyone gathered at our house early in the morning and the women started to prepare breakfast – lahk (millet and yogurt deliciousness). At some point in the morning, the father of the child and his posse of friends meet with the Imam (religious leader) to discuss the child’s name for the naming ceremony. The mom gets to put in her request for the name, but ultimately the dad decides the official name (though the mom might still call the baby what she wants).
After surviving a morning full of anticipation, the Imam and father announce the name of the child, Miriam! The name is very important. Every child is named after someone, called a homonym or namesake. The person who the baby is named after becomes like the Christian idea of a godparent. It is a huge honor for a child to be named after you and you play a special role in the child’s life, like taking a particular interest in their well-being and giving gifts and helping out if ever something happens to the parents...
At one point in the day, I realized the baby’s hair was all gone. She was born with a lovely amount of fuzz giving pretty full head coverage. Then I remembered reading in our cross cultural manuals that there is a Senegalese tradition of shaving the baby’s head on the day of the ngente. My cross cultural notes explain “the ceremony is composed of shaving the hair of the baby, then the Imam or a learned man rubs his hand over the child’s head, prays and spits in its ears the name by starting from the right. Finally, a sheep is killed in its honor.” Another Senegalese tradition I’ve observed involving a new baby, or small children in general, is to make sure they are always wearing “binbins”. A binbin is a string with special beads worn around the stomach, arm, or throat, to ward off evil spirits and protect health of the child.
After the announcement, it is time to kill the sheep! Everyone gravitated towards the backyard at this point where the sheep was killed – the men did the dirty work and the women generally don’t watch, but may take a fleeting glance to see the progress. As soon as the deed is done, breakfast is distributed and the women get down to business and start preparing lunch (this happened around 10:30/11 am)...
-snip-
This blog post continues with a description of the lunch and evening meal, as well as some other comments. The blogger indicates that she was concerned about having to give a monetary gift for the ngente, but no collection was taken. She speculates that maybe this was because her host mother was well off and this was her fifth child. The blogger also indicates that there was no band for this ngente.
****
This concludes Part I of this post.
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This is Part I of a three part series about Senegalese baby naming ceremonies/parties (ngentes; also found as nguentes and nguenté.)
Part I presents excerpts from one book and excerpts from two blog posts about Senegalese baby naming ceremonies/parties.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/02/information-about-senegalese-gewels.html for Part II of this series. Part II provides information about gewel (griots), Mbalax, and Senegalese Hip Hop.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/02/fata-el-presidente-featuring-mbaye.html for Part III of this series. Part III showcases a Senegalese video of "Nguenté" by Fata (also known as "El Presidente") featuring Mbaye Dieye & Waly Seck
Selected comments from that YouTube video's discussion thread are also included in that post.
The content of this post is presented for anthropological and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Update: February 8, 2016- I just found this article on 2013 informative and well written blog post about Senegalese "ngentes": http://senegalesekathryn.blogspot.com/2013_07_01_archive.html
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FEATURED EXCERPTS
EXCERPT #1:
This excerpt is from pages 137-138 of the Google books portion of the 2007 book Masters of the Sabar: Wolof Griot Percussionists of Senegal By Patricia Tang (Temple University Press). Here's some information about this book from http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Sabar-Percussionists-Senegal-Soundscapes-ebook/dp/B0037CFDN2#customerReviews
"Masters of the Sabar" is the first book to examine the music and culture of Wolof griot percussionists, masters of the vibrant sabar drumming tradition. Based on extensive field research in Senegal, this book is a biographical study of several generations of percussionists in a Wolof griot (gewel) family, exploring and documenting their learning processes, repertories, and performance contexts-from life-cycle ceremonies to sporting events and political meetings. Patricia Tang examines the rich history and changing repertories of sabar drumming, including dance rhythms and bakks, musical phrases derived from spoken words. She notes the recent shift towards creating new bakks which are rhythmically more complex and highlight the virtuosity and musical skill of the percussionist. She also considers the burgeoning popular music genre called mbalax. The compact disc that accompanies the book includes examples of the standard sabar repertory, as well as bakks composed and performed by Lamine Toure and his family drum troupe."
-snip-
Excerpts of pages 137-138.
Note that the words given in italic were given as they appeared in this book excerpt for accent marks in the spelling of many of those words.
Masters of the Sabar: Wolof Griot Percussionists of Senegal By Patricia Tang
"At both weddings and naming ceremonies, sabars take place in the afternoon, after the rituals and ceremonies are completed and the celebrations is to begin.
At a ngente or marriage a large tarp or open-sided tent with chairs under it is usually set up in the street outside the house. The tent symbolizes a sort of extension of the household, keeping the event an essentially private affair, despite it being in the “public” street. This distinguishes it from a tannibeer, which never takes place under a tent, and is always an open, public event.
A ngente is usually an all-day affair. In the morning the men (male relatives and other distinguished friends of the head of the household), come to pay their respects and praise the baby. It is in the morning that the baby is named as well. Laax which is served at Korite (A Muslim holiday to be discussed later), is traditionally served on the morning of a ngente. Lunch will be ceebu yapp, a rice and meat dish, cooked with the sacrificial sheep. The men slaughter the sheep in the morning, after which the women griots busily prepare cooking it.
Although all sorts of friends and family visit the household throughout the day, the men primarily come in the morning, whereas the afternoon is the time for women (and, not so coincidentally, is also when the sabar takes place.). All guests bring a small monetary gift (ndawtal) to the mother to congratulate her and to help with the cost of the ngente (which can be a very expensive affair, between renting chairs, the sabar group, and providing food and drink for everyone).
In contrast to its role at a tannibeer, which is a dance event which is also an occasion for drummers to show off their virtuosity and showcase bakks, the sabar’s role at an ngente (and marriage) is purely functional: to accompany dance. The drummers play dance rhymes*... Normally they play a set for an hour or so, break for a big late lunch, then resume playing later in the later afternoon. Naturally, the drummers engage in woyang, praising the mother or whatever other prominent people are around, thus eliciting money for them”...
*The word "rhythms" here probably means "rhythms". The names of various rhythms are given in this passage.
[page 138]
"A Special Ngente Ceremony: “Bekete”
In addition to the naming, dancing, and other festivities common to all Senegalese baptisms, people of the Lebou origin, descendant from Diagne Ndoye and Diagne Mbaye, celebrate a special ngente ritual called bekete. Since Mbayes are of gewel** origin, the Mbaye family considers bekete to be an important gewel tradition and performs it every time a new baby is born into the family.
Bekete is a ritual of protection. As Macheikh Mbaye explains
'Bekete is a means of protecting the child. When the child is eight days old, we will celebrate bekete in order to protect him. We will protect him from the evil spirits, from any type of accident, from evil tongue (caat)- because some tongues will destroy anything when they talk about it. We will protect him/her also from the evil eye; that’s what bekete is all about- to protect the survival of the child, that’s all.' (3/9/98)
-snip-
Gewels = griots. Information about gewels (griots) is given in Part II of this series.
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EXCERPT #2:
This 2005 blog post was written by a White woman from the United Sates. In her 2005 profile she described herself as a teacher living in Dakar, Senegal for nine years with her husband. The blog post describes the amended form of a ngente (Senegalese baby naming ceremony/party) that the couple held for their two month old daughter.
This excerpt focuses on the blogger's descriptions of the baby naming ceremony/party. I reformatted this excerpt for this post to enhance reading clarity.
From http://birds-nest5.blogspot.com/2005/11/what-is-ngente.html [written by] Lisa, Saturday, November 12, 2005
"What is an ngente?
Well, we are busy preparing for Mariama's ngente. What is an ngente you say? It is what the people here in Senegal call a naming ceremony. It is typically held on the eightth day after a child is born. Until that time, the child's name is not spoken by the parents to anyone.
Typically the ceremony takes place about ten in the morning which includes a prayer of sorts, shaving the head as part of their tradition, and the announcing of the name. At about this time is when the sheep is killed, out of sacrifice or celebration, it is unclear. Before the ceermony takes place though, they begin to serve the laax. Laax is a grain that is made into powder and then formed into the consistency of oatmeal and then served with a sweet milky yogurt over it. It is really delicious! After the sheep has been killed, cooking of lunch begins, which is always "ceebu yap" (rice and meat), which is a signature Senegalese dish. This is generally served about 2:00, since they will serve the laax to anyone who comes until about noon. The lunch is served on large platters around which about 6 people will eat, in Senegalese fashion...
After lunch, guests are served some drink, generally cokes, frozen juice from a store, or one of the homemade Senegalese jus, which are not like anything we drink in the states, but they are delicious. This is finished about three or four o'clock. Often for the Senegalese, the day does not end here. They may serve leftovers of lunch to those who come around 5:00, and then will serve a dinner around 8:00. But also around 6:00, there is the exchanging of gifts between the families. The family of the mother of the baby and the family of the father of the baby essentially compete to outgive gifts to the other side of the family. If good enough gifts are not given by one side, not only does it insult the other side of the family, but it also causes the side who gives inadequately to be looked down on by all the neighbors because everyone is watching this event. Yeah, no pressure here!!!...
The mother of the baby is called the "boroom ngente", meaning lord of the ngente. The boroom generally wears a different outfit for every meal, getting more expensive as the day goes on. I will wear a nice outfit I already have for the morning but am getting a new outfit for the afternoon lunch time. Her hair and makeup are very fixed and very heavy generally."...
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EXCERPT #3:
This 2012 blog post was written by a White woman from the United States who identified herself as a Peace Corp volunteer. The nguenté that this blogger attended was held for the fifth born child of her (Senegalese) host mother.
This excerpt focuses on the blogger's descriptions of the baby naming ceremony/party.
From https://lesvoyagesdejulia.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/a-senegalese-ngente/ Posted on October 18, 2012 by juliaschroer
"Yesterday, I had the pleasure of experiencing my first Senegalese ‘ngente’ or naming ceremony. An ngente is a special day where family, friends, and neighbors gather to celebrate the birth of a new baby by enjoying yummy food, presenting gifts, and attending the Islamic naming ceremony. The affair seems to be a cross between a Christian baptism and an American baby shower. The ngente happens exactly a week after the baby is born. The baby girl was born on October 10th, so the party was yesterday, October 17th. During those first seven days, my host mom didn’t leave the house and tended the new baby 24/7. I am really impressed by how self-reliant my host-mom is and how she handled the pregnancy (I moved into when she was in her 7th month) and delivery with such a cool head and calm disposition!
Yesterday, everyone gathered at our house early in the morning and the women started to prepare breakfast – lahk (millet and yogurt deliciousness). At some point in the morning, the father of the child and his posse of friends meet with the Imam (religious leader) to discuss the child’s name for the naming ceremony. The mom gets to put in her request for the name, but ultimately the dad decides the official name (though the mom might still call the baby what she wants).
After surviving a morning full of anticipation, the Imam and father announce the name of the child, Miriam! The name is very important. Every child is named after someone, called a homonym or namesake. The person who the baby is named after becomes like the Christian idea of a godparent. It is a huge honor for a child to be named after you and you play a special role in the child’s life, like taking a particular interest in their well-being and giving gifts and helping out if ever something happens to the parents...
At one point in the day, I realized the baby’s hair was all gone. She was born with a lovely amount of fuzz giving pretty full head coverage. Then I remembered reading in our cross cultural manuals that there is a Senegalese tradition of shaving the baby’s head on the day of the ngente. My cross cultural notes explain “the ceremony is composed of shaving the hair of the baby, then the Imam or a learned man rubs his hand over the child’s head, prays and spits in its ears the name by starting from the right. Finally, a sheep is killed in its honor.” Another Senegalese tradition I’ve observed involving a new baby, or small children in general, is to make sure they are always wearing “binbins”. A binbin is a string with special beads worn around the stomach, arm, or throat, to ward off evil spirits and protect health of the child.
After the announcement, it is time to kill the sheep! Everyone gravitated towards the backyard at this point where the sheep was killed – the men did the dirty work and the women generally don’t watch, but may take a fleeting glance to see the progress. As soon as the deed is done, breakfast is distributed and the women get down to business and start preparing lunch (this happened around 10:30/11 am)...
-snip-
This blog post continues with a description of the lunch and evening meal, as well as some other comments. The blogger indicates that she was concerned about having to give a monetary gift for the ngente, but no collection was taken. She speculates that maybe this was because her host mother was well off and this was her fifth child. The blogger also indicates that there was no band for this ngente.
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This concludes Part I of this post.
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