1.
Musical instrument classification
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Throughout history, various methods of musical instrument classification have been used. The most commonly used system divides instruments into string instruments, woodwind instruments, brass instruments and percussion instruments, the oldest known scheme of classifying instruments is Chinese and dates from the 3rd millennium BC. It grouped instruments according to the materials they are made of. However, the Chou-Li, an anonymous treatise compiled from sources in about the 2nd century BC, had the following order, metal, stone, clay, leather, silk, wood, gourd. The same order was presented in the Tso Chuan, attributed to Tso Chiu-Ming, more usually, instruments are classified according to how the sound is initially produced. The modern system divides instruments into wind, strings and percussion, the scheme was later expanded by Martin Agricola, who distinguished plucked string instruments, such as guitars, from bowed string instruments, such as violins. Classical musicians today do not always maintain this division, but distinguish between wind instruments with a reed and those where the air is set in motion directly by the lips, many instruments do not fit very neatly into this scheme. The serpent, for example, ought to be classified as a brass instrument, however, it looks more like a woodwind instrument, and is closer to one in many ways, having finger-holes to control pitch, rather than valves. Keyboard instruments do not fit easily into this scheme, for example, the piano has strings, but they are struck by hammers, so it is not clear whether it should be classified as a string instrument or a percussion instrument. Ottoman encyclopedist Hadji Khalifa also recognized the three classes in his Kashf al-Zunun an Asami al-Kutub wa al-Funun, a treatise on the origin. The division pervades Tboli thought about cosmology, social characters of men and women, victor-Charles Mahillon later adopted a system very similar to this. This scheme was taken up by Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs who published an extensive new scheme for classication in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie in 1914. Their scheme is used today, and is most often known as the Hornbostel-Sachs system. Electrophones, such as the guitar or electric bass, which produce sound through electricity and is required to be plugged in to an amplifier. Later Sachs added a category, electrophones, such as theremins. Modern synthesizers and electronic instruments fall in this category, within each category are many subgroups. The system has been criticised and revised over the years, in 1932, comparative musicologist André Schaeffner developed a new classification scheme that was exhaustive, potentially covering all real and conceivable instruments. The Kpelle of West Africa also use this system and they distinguish the struck, including both beaten and plucked, and the blown
2.
Musical instrument
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A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument, the history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture. Early musical instruments may have used for ritual, such as a trumpet to signal success on the hunt. Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for entertainment, Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications. The date and origin of the first device considered an instrument is disputed. The oldest object that some refer to as a musical instrument. Some consensus dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago, many early musical instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials. Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world, however, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the Middle Ages, instruments from Mesopotamia were in maritime Southeast Asia, development in the Americas occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America shared musical instruments. By 1400, musical instrument development slowed in areas and was dominated by the Occident. Musical instrument classification is a discipline in its own right, Instruments can be classified by their effective range, their material composition, their size, etc. However, the most common method, Hornbostel-Sachs, uses the means by which they produce sound. The academic study of instruments is called organology. Once humans moved from making sounds with their bodies—for example, by using objects to create music from sounds. Primitive instruments were designed to emulate natural sounds, and their purpose was ritual rather than entertainment. The concept of melody and the pursuit of musical composition were unknown to early players of musical instruments. A player sounding a flute to signal the start of a hunt does so without thought of the notion of making music. Musical instruments are constructed in an array of styles and shapes
3.
Marimba
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The marimba is a percussion instrument consisting of a set of wooden bars struck with mallets to produce musical tones. Resonators suspended underneath the bars amplify their sound and this instrument is a type of idiophone, but with a more resonant and lower-pitched tessitura than the xylophone. The marimba was developed in Central America by African slaves, and descended from its ancestral balafon instrument, Marimba is now the national instrument of Guatemala and Costa Rica. Modern uses of the marimba include solo performances, woodwind and brass ensembles, marimba concertos, jazz ensembles, marching band, drum and bugle corps, contemporary composers have used the unique sound of the marimba more and more in recent years. A player of the marimba can be called a marimbist or a marimba player, xylophones are widely used in music of west and central Africa. The name marimba stems from Bantu marimba or malimba, xylophone, the instrument itself is present, but is called balafon or heri in Mali and/or Guinea, while its known as gyil among the Akan peoples in and around Ghana. The word marimba and derivative words is used widely in East, other sources credit the creation of the marimba and the kalimba to Queen Marimba of the Wakambi people, who live south of Lake Victoria. In the Swahili language imba means song, Marimba, is said to be the mother of song and the creator of all the instruments, including the marimba. Mama means mother in Kiswahili, so it makes sense that the word mother would be combined with the word for song. The karimba is also said to have created by Queen Marimba. In much of East & Central Africa the karimba is seen as a version of the marimba. Diatonic xylophones were introduced to Central America in the 16th or 17th century, the first historical record of Mayan musicians using gourd resonator marimbas in Guatemala was made in 1680, by the historian Domingo Juarros. It became more widespread during the 18th and 19th centuries, as Mayan, in 1821, the marimba was proclaimed the national instrument of Guatemala in its independence proclamation. The gourd resonators were later replaced by harmonic wooden boxes, variants with slats made of steel, glass or bamboo instead of wood appeared during the 19th century. In 1892, Corazón de Jesús Borras Moreno, a musician from Chiapas, expanded marimba to include the chromatic scale by adding another row of sound bars, the name marimba was later applied to the orchestra instrument inspired by the Latin American model. In the United States, companies like Deagan and Leedy company adapted the Latino American instruments for use in western music, metal tubes were used as resonators, fine-tuned by rotating metal discs at the bottom, lowest note tubes were U-shaped. The marimbas were first used for music and dance, such as Vaudeville theater. Clair Omar Musser was a proponent of marimba in the United States at the time
4.
Xylophone
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The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. The term xylophone may be used generally, to all such instruments such as the marimba, balafon. The term is popularly used to refer to similar instruments of the lithophone and metallophone types. The bars of metal sound more high pitched than the wooden ones, the modern western xylophone has bars of rosewood, padauk, or various synthetic materials such as fiberglass or fiberglass-reinforced plastic which allows a louder sound. Some can be as small a range as 2½ octaves but concert xylophones are typically 3½ or 4 octaves, the xylophone is a transposing instrument, its parts are written one octave below the sounding notes. Xylophones should be played with hard rubber, polyball, or acrylic mallets. Sometimes medium to hard rubber mallets, very hard core, or yarn mallets are used for softer effects, lighter tones can be created on xylophones by using wooden-headed mallets made from rosewood, ebony, birch, or other hard woods. Concert xylophones have tube resonators below the bars to enhance the tone, frames are made of wood or cheap steel tubing, more expensive xylophones feature height adjustment and more stability in the stand. In other music cultures some versions have gourds that act as Helmholtz resonators, others are trough xylophones with a single hollow body that acts as a resonator for all the bars. Old methods consisted of arranging the bars on tied bundles of straw, ancient mallets were made of willow wood with spoon-like bowls on the beaten ends. The instrument has obscure, ancient origins, according to Nettl, it originated in southeast Asia and came to Africa c. AD500 when a group of Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples migrated to Africa, one piece of evidence for this is the similarity between East African xylophone orchestras and Javanese and Balinese gamelan orchestras. This, however has been questioned by ethnomusicologist and linguist Roger Blench who posits an independent origin in Africa, the xylophone-like ranat was used in Hindu regions. Java and Bali use xylophones in gamelan ensembles and they still have traditional significance in Africa, Malaysia, Melanesia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, and regions of the Americas. The term marimba is also applied to traditional folk instruments such as the West Africa balafon. Early forms were constructed of bars atop a gourd, the wood is first roasted around a fire before shaping the key to achieve the desired tone. A skilled maker can produce startling amplification, the mallets used to play dibinda and mbila have heads made from natural rubber taken from a wild creeping plant. This usually doubles an already rapid rhythmic pulse that may also co-exist with a counter-rhythm, the Mbila is associated with the Chopi people of the Inhambane Province, in southern Mozambique
5.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
6.
Percussion
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A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater, struck, scraped or rubbed by hand, or struck against another similar instrument. The percussion family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments, the percussion section of an orchestra most commonly contains instruments such as timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle and tambourine. However, the section can also contain non-percussive instruments, such as whistles and sirens, percussive techniques can also be applied to the human body, as in body percussion. On the other hand, keyboard instruments, such as the celesta, are not normally part of the percussion section, Percussion instruments may play not only rhythm, but also melody and harmony. Percussion is commonly referred to as the backbone or the heartbeat of an ensemble, often working in close collaboration with bass instruments. In jazz and other popular ensembles, the pianist, bassist, drummer. Most classical pieces written for full orchestra since the time of Haydn and Mozart are orchestrated to place emphasis on the strings, woodwinds, however, often at least one pair of timpani is included, though they rarely play continuously. Rather, they serve to provide additional accents when needed, in the 18th and 19th centuries, other percussion instruments have been used, again generally sparingly. The use of percussion instruments became more frequent in the 20th century classical music, in almost every style of music, percussion plays a pivotal role. In classic jazz, one almost immediately thinks of the rhythm of the hi-hats or the ride cymbal when the word swing is spoken. Because of the diversity of instruments, it is not uncommon to find large musical ensembles composed entirely of percussion. Rhythm, melody, and harmony are all represented in these ensembles, music for pitched percussion instruments can be notated on a staff with the same treble and bass clefs used by many non-percussive instruments. Music for percussive instruments without a pitch can be notated with a specialist rhythm or percussion-clef. The word percussion has evolved from Latin terms, percussio, as a noun in contemporary English it is described in Wiktionary as the collision of two bodies to produce a sound. Hornbostel–Sachs has no high-level section for percussion, Most percussion instruments are classified as idiophones and membranophones.1 Concussion idiophones or clappers, played in pairs and beaten against each other, such as zills and clapsticks. 111.2 Percussion idiophones, includes many percussion instruments played with the hand or by a mallet, such as the hang, gongs and the xylophone. 21 Struck drums, includes most types of drum, such as the timpani, snare drum, (Included in most drum sets or 412. Stringed instruments played with such as the hammered dulcimer
7.
Idiophone
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An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the instrument as a whole vibrating—without the use of strings or membranes. It is the first of the four divisions in the original Hornbostel–Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification. The early classification of Victor-Charles Mahillon called this group of instruments autophones, most percussion instruments that are not drums are idiophones. Hornbostel–Sachs divides idiophones into four main sub-categories, the first division is the struck idiophones. This includes most of the percussion instruments familiar in the West. They include all idiophones made to vibrate by being struck, either directly with a stick or hand or indirectly, various types of bells fall into both categories. The other three subdivisions are rarer, other classifications use six main sub-categories, Concussion idiophones are instruments that produce sound by being struck against one another. Percussion idiophones produce sound by being struck with a foreign object. Examples of non-vibrating objects are mallets, hammers, and sticks, scraper idiophones are instruments that are scraped with a stick or other foreign objects to give off a sound. Plucked idiophones produce sound by plucking a flexible tongue from within the instrument itself, lastly, friction idiophones are rubbed to increase vibration and sound intensity. Idiophones are made of materials that give off unique sounds, the majority of idiophones are made out of glass, metal, ceramics, and wood. Idiophones are considered part of the section in an orchestra. A number of idiophones that are struck, such as vibraphone bars and cymbals
8.
Griot
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A griot, jali or jeli is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet and/or musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition and is 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 two functions, he or she is sometimes also called a bard. 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 parts of West Africa and are present among the Mande peoples, Fulɓe, Hausa, Songhai, Tukulóor, Wolof, Serer, Mossi, Dagomba, Mauritanian Arabs. The word may derive from the French transliteration guiriot of the Portuguese word criado and 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, and iggawen in Hassaniyan. Griots form a caste, meaning that most of them only marry fellow griots. Francis Bebey writes about the griot in his book African Music, A Peoples Art, The West African griot is a troubadour, the griot knows everything that is going on. He is an archive of the peoples traditions. The virtuoso talents of the griots command universal admiration and this virtuosity is the culmination of long years of study and hard work under the tuition of a teacher who is often a father or uncle. The profession is by no means a male prerogative, there are many women griots whose talents as singers and musicians are equally remarkable. The Manding term jeliya is sometimes used for the knowledge of griots, jali comes from the root word jali or djali. This word is also the given to griots in areas corresponding to the former Mali Empire. Though the usage griot is far more common in English, some griot advocates such as Bakari Sumano prefer the term jeli, the Mali Empire, at its height in the middle of the 14th century, extended from central Africa to West Africa. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita, whose exploits remain celebrated in Mali today, in the Epic of Sundiata, King Naré Maghann Konaté offered his son Sundiata a griot, Balla Fasséké, to advise him in his reign. Balla Fasséké is considered the founder of the Kouyaté line of griots that exists to this day, each aristocratic family of griots accompanied a higher-ranked family of warrior-kings or emperors, called jatigi. In traditional culture, no griot can be without a jatigi, and no jatigi can be without a griot, however, the jatigi can accept a loan of his griot to another jatigi
9.
Mali Empire
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The Mali Empire, also historically referred to as the Manden Kurufaba, was an empire in West Africa from c.1230 to c. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, the Manding languages were spoken in the empire. The Mali Empire was the largest in West Africa and profoundly influenced the culture of West Africa through the spread of its language, laws and customs. Rock art in the Sahara suggests that northern Mali has been inhabited since 10,000 BC, by 300 BC, large organised settlements had developed, most notable near Djenné, one of West Africas oldest cities. By the 6th century AD, the lucrative trade in gold, salt and slaves had begun. There are a few references to Mali in early written literature and this area was composed of mountains, savannah and forest providing ideal protection and resources for the population of hunters. Those not living in the mountains formed small city-states such as Toron, Ka-Ba, yet African Muslim scholars like the London-based Nigerian-British cleric, Sheikh Dr. Adelabu. During the height of Sundiatas power, the land of Manden became one of its provinces, the Manden city-state of Ka-ba served as the capital and name of this province. From at least the beginning of the 11th century, Mandinka kings known as faamas ruled Manden from Ka-ba in the name of the Ghanas, wagadous control over Manden came to a halt after internal instability lead to its decline. The Kangaba province, free of Soninké influence, splintered into twelve kingdoms with their own maghan or faama, Manden was split in half with the Dodougou territory to the northeast and the Kri territory to the southwest. The tiny kingdom of Niani was one of several in the Kri area of Manden, in approximately 1140 the Sosso kingdom of Kaniaga, a former vassal of Wagadou, began conquering the lands of its old masters. By 1180 it had even subjugated Wagadou forcing the Soninké to pay tribute, in 1203, the Sosso king Soumaoro of the Kanté clan came to power and reportedly terrorized much of Manden stealing women and goods from both Dodougou and Kri. According to Nianes version of the epic, during the rise of Kaniaga and he was the son of Nianis faama, Nare Fa. Sundiatas mother was Maghan Kon Fattas second wife, Sogolon Kédjou and she was a hunchback from the land of Do, south of Mali. The child of this received the first name of his mother. Combined in the spoken language of the Mandinka, the names formed Sondjata, Sundjata or Sundiata Keita. The anglicized version of this name, Sunjata, is also popular, in Ibn Khalduns account, Sundjata is recorded as Mari Djata with Mari meaning Amir or Prince. He also states that Djata or Jatah means lion, Prince Sundjata was prophesized to become a great conqueror
10.
Manding languages
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The Manding languages are mutually intelligible dialects or languages in West Africa of the Mande family. The Manding languages, and what distinguishes one from the rest, in addition, the nomenclature - being a mixture of indigenous terms and words applied by English and French speakers since before colonization - makes the picture complex and even confusing. The Mandinka people speak varieties from the first two groups, the differences between the western and eastern branches manifest themselves primarily phonetically. The Manding languages have an oral tradition, but also have written forms - adaptations of Arabic and Latin alphabets. Arabic was introduced into the region with Islam, and the writing was adapted to write in the Manding languages, Arabic script or Ajami is still commonly used for Mandinka. The Latin alphabet was introduced into the region following European conquest and it is used fairly widely, with official versions in many countries, for teaching, literacy and publication. The NKo alphabet, developed in 1949 by Solomana Kante, is designed to write Manding using a common literary standard comprehensible to speakers of all these varieties, a lesser-known alphabet for Bambara was developed in the early 20th century but is not used. Mande languages NKo PanAfrican L10n page on Manding
11.
Sierra Leone
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Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north-east, Liberia to the south-east, Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with a diverse environment ranging from savannah to rainforests. Sierra Leone has an area of 71,740 km2. Sierra Leone is divided into four regions, the Northern Province, Eastern Province, Southern Province and the Western Area. Freetown is the capital, largest city and its economic and political centre, Bo is the second largest city. The other major cities are Kenema, Makeni and Koidu Town, Sierra Leone is a constitutional republic with a directly elected president and a unicameral legislature. Sir Milton Margai built his government based on democratic principles. Throughout his time in power, Sir Milton Margai was very popular across Sierra Leone, the main opposition APC, led by its leader Siaka Stevens, narowly defeated the ruling SLPP under the leadership of Albert Margai in the 1964 general elections. Stevens ruled for eighteen years in a government, in which his critics. Soldiers and politicians convicted of plotting a coup to topple Stevens were executed, under president Stevens, the APC was made the only legal political party in Sierra Leone, and all other political parties were banned, including the main opposition. Stevens handpicked successor, retired major general Joseph Saidu Momoh, lacked the political dominance of Stevens, Momoh reestablished the country as a multi party democracy in 1991. The current constitution of Sierra Leone was adopted in 1991 during the presidency of Joseph Saidu Momoh, the rebels started the civil war in 1991 in the eastern part of the country during Momohs presidency. Momoh was very unpopular, and Public anger against the Momoh government increasingly grew due to corruption, poor economy. In 1992 a group of officers in the army led by a 25-year-old captain, Valentine Strasser. In 1996 during the war, another military coup of soldiers within Strassers inner circle, led by a 32 year old Brigadier General Julius Maada Bio, toppled Strasser. Since independent to present, Sierra Leones politics has been dominated by two political parties, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party and the All Peoples congress. From 1991 to 2002, the Sierra Leone civil war was fought and this proxy war left more than 50,000 people dead, much of the countrys infrastructure destroyed, and over two million people displaced as refugees in neighbouring countries. In January 2002, then Sierra Leones president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, fulfilled his promise by ending the civil war, with help by the British Government, ECOWAS
12.
Balafon
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The balafon is a kind of wooden xylophone or percussion idiophone which plays melodic tunes, and usually has between 16 and 27 keys. It has been played in Africa since the 14th century, it originated in Mali, according to the Manding history narrated by the griots. Balafon is a Manding name, but variations exist across West Africa, including the balangi in Sierra Leone, similar instruments are played in parts of Central Africa, with the ancient Kingdom of Kongo denoting the instrument as palaku. Records of the balafon go back to at least the 12th century CE, in 1352 CE, Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta reported the existence of the ngoni and balafon at the court of Malian ruler Mansa Musa. European visitors to West Africa described balafons in the 17th century largely identical to the modern instrument, the Atlantic Slave Trade brought some balafon players to the Americas. The Virginia Gazette records African-Americans playing a barrafoo in 1776, which appears to be a balafon, other North American references to these instruments die out by the mid-19th century. The balafon has seen a resurgence since the 1980s in the growth of African Roots Music, most famous of these exponents is the Rail Band, led by Salif Keita. Even when not still played, its sound and traditional style has been exported to western instruments. Maninka from eastern Guinea play a type of music that adapts balafon playing style to the imported instrument. In the Malinké language balafon is a compound of two words, balan is the name of the instrument and fô is the verb to play, Balafon therefore is really the act of playing the bala. Bala still is used as the name of a large bass balafon in the region of Kolokani and these bala have especially long keys and huge calabashes for amplification. Balani is then used as the name of the high pitched, small balafon with small calabashes, the balani is carried with a strap and usually has 21 keys, while the number of keys on a bala vary with region. A balafon can be either fixed-key or free-key, the balafon usually has 17-21 keys, tuned to a tetratonic, pentatonic or heptatonic scale, depending on the culture of the musician. The balafon is generally capable of producing 18 to 21 notes, Balafon keys are traditionally made from béné wood, dried slowly over a low flame, and then tuned by shaving off bits of wood from the underside of the keys. Wood is taken off the middle to flatten the key or the end to sharpen it, in a fixed-key balafon, the keys are suspended by leather straps just above a wooden frame, under which are hung graduated-size calabash gourd resonators. As the balafon cultures vary across West Africa, so does the approach to the instrument itself, in many areas the balafon is played alone in a ritual context, in others as part of an ensemble. In Guinea and Mali, the balafon is often part of an ensemble of three, pitched low, medium and high, in Cameroon, six balafon of varying size perform together in an orchestra, called a komenchang. An Igbo variation exists with one large tuned key for each player
13.
Lobi people
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The Lobi are an ethnic group that originated in what is today Ghana. Starting around 1770, any of the Lobi migrated into southern Burkina Faso, currently, the group consists of around 160,000 people. Lobiri is the name of the language spoken by the Lobi people, the Mouhoun is important in Lobi myth and symbolizes a dividing line between this world and the next, similar to the River Styx of Roman mythology. The Lobi crossed the Mounhoun centuries ago from east to west and settled in the lands and brought with them deep animist beliefs, according to Lobi legend, the spirits of the deceased must return across the river to rejoin their honorable ancestors in the ancient world. The banks of the Mounhoun are used in rites and fish. The Lobi inhabit parts of southern Burkina Faso, according to the director of the museum in Gaoua which is considered to be the capital of the Lobi, The Lobi is a farmer, a hunter and a herder, but above all he is a warrior. Bakary Ouattara, brother of the founder of the Guiriko empire led an offensive against the Lobi in 1815, and despite setting fire to several villages he was eventually killed by a poisoned arrow. He was succeeded by Karakara who continued with the leading up to the devastating attack in 1850 where they suffered heavily. In June 1898, the French and the British made an agreement that the Lobi country would go under French jurisdiction, attempts at controlling the peoples was difficult and the Lobi became known for their resistance using poisoned arrows in attempting to thwart the French colonial invasion. During the twentieth century some migrated into Côte dIvoire, the Lobi are well documented for their animist beliefs. The worshipping of ancestors and fetishes is distinct in Lobi culture. As he turned his back on the traditions, the fetishes leapt out of the lake onto his back again to reclaim him, Lobi people who convert to Christianity or Islam now usually burn their fetishes. In Lobi animism, Thagba is the creator of all living things and they have no direct contact with Thagba, but are dependent on nature spirits known as thila, invisible intermediaries which can harness their supernatural powers towards good or evil. They set rules zosar which dictate how a Lobi should behave in all aspects of life, in Lobi society there is often a village diviner, a thildar which acts as a village priest in interpreting the rules of the spirits. A particularly intuitive and receptive thildar is capable of interpreting as many as 50 spirits at a time, villages typically have several priests, often individuals which specialize in the interpretation of singular spirits rather than multiple, as a chief thildar may. Lobi dwellings are characterized as large rectangular or polygonal compounds known as maison soukala and they are spaced well from each other and are composed of a single vast mud banco wall and a small entrance. An entrance to a Lobi house is a recent development, traditionally there were ladders constructed from notched branches leading up to the roof. Only the chief of the household can give permission to enter, the roof is broad and flat and forms a terrace which was often used as a lookout point but can also be used as a dormitory
14.
Ghana
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Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a unitary presidential constitutional democracy, located along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in the subregion of West Africa. Spanning a land mass of 238,535 km², Ghana is bordered by the Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, Togo in the east, Ghana means Warrior King in the Soninke language. The territory of present-day Ghana has been inhabited for a millennium, numerous kingdoms and empires emerged over the centuries, of which the most powerful was the Kingdom of Ashanti. Beginning in the 15th century, numerous European powers contested the area for trading rights, following over a century of native resistance, Ghanas current borders were established by the 1900s as the British Gold Coast. On 6 March 1957, it became the first sub-Saharan African nation to become independent of European colonisation, a multicultural nation, Ghana has a population of approximately 27 million, spanning a variety of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. Five percent of the population practices traditional faiths,71. 2% adhere to Christianity and 17. 6% are Muslim and its diverse geography and ecology ranges from coastal savannahs to tropical jungles. Ghana is a country led by a president who is both head of state and head of the government. Ghanas economy is one of the strongest and most diversified in Africa, following a century of relative stability. Ghanas growing economic prosperity and democratic political system have made it a power in West Africa. It is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, Group of 24, Ghana was already recognized as one of the great kingdoms in Bilad el-Sudan by the ninth century. Ghana was inhabited in the Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery by a number of ancient predominantly Akan kingdoms in the Southern and this included the Ashanti Empire, the Akwamu, the Bonoman, the Denkyira, and the Mankessim Kingdom. Until the 11th century, the majority of modern Ghanas territorial area was unoccupied and uninhabited by humans. Although the area of present-day Ghana in West Africa has experienced many population movements, by the early 11th century, the Akans were firmly established in the Akan state called Bonoman, for which the Brong-Ahafo Region is named. From the 13th century, Akans emerged from what is believed to have been the Bonoman area, to create several Akan states of Ghana and these states included Bonoman, Ashanti, Denkyira, Mankessim Kingdom, and Akwamu Eastern region. By the 19th century, the territory of the part of Ghana was included in the Kingdom of Ashanti. The Kingdom of Ashanti government operated first as a loose network, prior to Akan contact with Europeans, the Akan Ashanti people created an advanced economy based on principally gold and gold bar commodities then traded with the states of Africa. The earliest known kingdoms to emerge in modern Ghana were the Mole-Dagbani states, the Mole-Dagombas came on horseback from present-day Burkina Faso under a single leader, Naa Gbewaa. The death of Naa Gbewaa caused civil war among his children, some of whom broke off and founded separate states including Dagbon, Mamprugu, Mossi, Nanumba, Akan trade with European states began after contact with Portuguese in the 15th century
15.
Burkina Faso
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Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in Africa around 274,200 square kilometres in size. It is surrounded by six countries, Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, in 2014 its population was estimated at just over 17.3 million. Burkina Faso is a country and French is an official language of government. Formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta, the country was renamed Burkina Faso on 4 August 1984 by then-President Thomas Sankara, residents of Burkina Faso are known as Burkinabé. Before the conquest of what is now Burkina Faso by the French, after gaining independence from France in 1960, the country underwent many governmental changes. Blaise Compaoré was the most recent president and ruled the country from 1987 until he was ousted from power by the popular youth upheaval of 31 October 2014 and this resulted in a semi-presidential republic which lasted from October 2014 to September 2015. On 17 September 2015 the provisional government was in turn toppled by an apparent military coup carried out by the Regiment of Presidential Security. On 24 September 2015, after pressure from the African Union, ECOWAS, and the forces, the military junta agreed to step down. Formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta, the country was renamed Burkina Faso on 4 August 1984 by then-President Thomas Sankara, the bé suffix added onto Burkina to form the demonym Burkinabé comes from the Fula language and means men or women. The northwestern part of todays Burkina Faso was populated by hunter-gatherers between 14,000 and 5000 BC and their tools, including scrapers, chisels and arrowheads, were discovered in 1973 through archeological excavations. Agricultural settlements were established between 3600 and 2600 BC, the Bura culture was an Iron-Age civilization centered in the southwest portion of modern-day Niger and in the southeast part of contemporary Burkina Faso. Iron industry, in smelting and forging for tools and weapons, had developed in Sub-Saharan Africa by 1200 BC, historians began to debate about the exact dates when Burkina Fasos many ethnic groups arrived to the area. During the Middle Ages the Mossi established several kingdoms including those of Tenkodogo, Yatenga, Zandoma. Sometime between 1328 and 1338 Mossi warriors raided Timbuktu but the Mossi were defeated by Sonni Ali of Songhai at the Battle of Kobi in Mali in 1483, during the early 16th century the Songhai conducted many slave raids into what is today Burkina Faso. During the 18th century the Gwiriko Empire was established at Bobo Dioulasso and ethnic groups such as the Dyan, Lobi, starting in the early 1890s a series of British, French and German military officers made attempts to claim parts of what is today Burkina Faso. At times these colonialists and their armies fought the local peoples, at times they forged alliances with them, the colonialist officers and their home governments also made treaties amongst themselves. Through a complex series of events what is Burkina Faso eventually became a French protectorate in 1896, the eastern and western regions, where a standoff against the forces of the powerful ruler Samori Ture complicated the situation, came under French occupation in 1897. By 1898, the majority of the corresponding to Burkina Faso was nominally conquered, however
16.
Ivory Coast
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Ivory Coast or Côte dIvoire, officially the Republic of Côte dIvoire, is a country located in West Africa. Ivory Coasts political capital is Yamoussoukro, and its economic capital and its bordering countries are Guinea and Liberia in the west, Burkina Faso and Mali in the north, and Ghana in the east. The Gulf of Guinea is located south of Ivory Coast, prior to its colonization by Europeans, Ivory Coast was home to several states, including Gyaaman, the Kong Empire, and Baoulé. Two Anyi kingdoms, Indénié and Sanwi, attempted to retain their identity through the French colonial period. Ivory Coast became a protectorate of France in 1843–1844 and was formed into a French colony in 1893 amid the European scramble for Africa. Ivory Coast achieved independence in 1960, led by Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the country maintained close political and economic association with its West African neighbors while at the same time maintaining close ties to the West, especially France. Since the end of Houphouët-Boignys rule in 1993, Ivory Coast has experienced one coup détat, in 1999, the first took place between 2002 and 2007 and the second during 2010-2011. As a result, in 2000, the adopted a new Constitution. Ivory Coast is a republic with an executive power invested in its President. Through the production of coffee and cocoa, the country was a powerhouse in West Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. Ivory Coast went through a crisis in the 1980s, contributing to a period of political and social turmoil. Changing into the 21st-century Ivorian economy is largely market-based and still heavily on agriculture. The official language is French, with indigenous languages also widely used, including Baoulé, Dioula, Dan, Anyin. In total there are around 78 languages spoken in Ivory Coast, popular religions include Islam, Christianity, and various indigenous religions. Originally, Portuguese and French merchant-explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries divided the west coast of Africa, very roughly, there was also a Pepper Coast also known as the Grain Coast, a Gold Coast, and a Slave Coast. Like those, the name Ivory Coast reflected the major trade occurred on that particular stretch of the coast. One can find the name Cote de Dents regularly used in older works and it was used in Ducketts Dictionnaire and by Nicolas Villault de Bellefond, for examples, although Antoine François Prévost used Côte dIvoire. In the 19th century, usage switched to Côte dIvoire and it retained the name through French rule and independence in 1960
17.
Central Africa
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Central Africa is the core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda. All of the states in the UN subregion of Middle Africa, plus those otherwise commonly reckoned in Central Africa, since its independence in 2011, South Sudan has also been commonly included in the region. The Central African Federation, also called the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, was made up of what are now the nations of Malawi, Zambia and these states are now typically considered part of Southern Africa. Archeological finds in Central Africa have been discovered dating back over 100,000 years, according to Zangato and Holl, there is evidence of iron-smelting in the Central African Republic and Cameroon that may date back to 3000 to 2500 BCE. Extensive walled settlements have recently found in Northeast Nigeria, approximately 60 km southwest of Lake Chad dating to the first millennium BCE. Trade and improved agricultural techniques supported more sophisticated societies, leading to the civilizations of Sao, Kanem, Bornu, Shilluk, Baguirmi. Around 1000 BCE, Bantu migrants had reached the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa, halfway through the first millennium BCE, the Bantu had also settled as far south as what is now Angola. The Sao civilization flourished from ca. the sixth century BCE to as late as the sixteenth century CE in northern Central Africa, the Sao lived by the Chari River south of Lake Chad in territory that later became part of Cameroon and Chad. They are the earliest people to have clear traces of their presence in the territory of modern Cameroon. Today, several groups of northern Cameroon and southern Chad. Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze, copper, finds include bronze sculptures and terra cotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewelry, highly decorated pottery, and spears. The largest Sao archaeological finds have been south of Lake Chad. The Kanem-Bornu Empire was centered in the Chad Basin and it was known as the Kanem Empire from the 9th century CE onward and lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu until 1900. The history of the Empire is mainly known from the Royal Chronicle or Girgam discovered in 1851 by the German traveller Heinrich Barth, Kanem rose in the 8th century in the region to the north and east of Lake Chad. The Kanem empire went into decline, shrank, and in the 14th century was defeated by Bilala invaders from the Lake Fitri region, the Kanuri people led by the Sayfuwa migrated to the west and south of the lake, where they established the Bornu Empire. By the late 16th century the Bornu empire had expanded and recaptured the parts of Kanem that had been conquered by the Bulala, satellite states of Bornu included the Damagaram in the west and Baguirmi to the southeast of Lake Chad. The Shilluk Kingdom was centered in South Sudan from the 15th century from along a strip of land along the bank of White Nile. The capital and royal residence was in the town of Fashoda, the kingdom was founded during the mid-fifteenth century CE by its first ruler, Nyikang
18.
Kingdom of Kongo
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At its greatest extent, it reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. From c.1390 to 1891 it was mostly an independent state, from 1891 to 1914 it was a vassal state of the Kingdom of Portugal. In 1914, the monarchy was forcibly abolished, following Portuguese victory against a Kongo revolt. The remaining territories of the kingdom were assimilated into the colony of Angola, the modern-day Bundu dia Kongo sect favors reviving the kingdom through secession from Angola, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Gabon. According to Kongo tradition, the origin lies in the very large. A dynasty of rulers from this small polity built up its rule along the Kwilu valley, traditions from the 17th century allude to this sacred burial ground. According to the missionary Girolamo da Montesarchio, an Italian Capuchin who visited the area from 1650 to 1652, seventeenth century subjects of Mpemba Kasi called their country Mother of the King of Kongo in respect of the territorys antiquity. At some point around 1375, Nimi a Nzima, ruler of Mpemba Kasi, made an alliance with Nsaku Lau and this alliance guaranteed that each of the two allies would help ensure the succession of their allys lineage in the others territory. The first king of the Kingdom of Kongo Dya Ntotila was Lukeni lua Nimi. The name Nimi a Lukeni appeared in later oral traditions and some historians, notably Jean Cuvelier. Lukeni lua Nimi or Nimi a Lukeni, became the founder of Kongo when he conquered the kingdom of the Mwene Kabunga and he transferred his rule to this mountain, the Mongo dia Kongo or mountain of Kongo, and made Mbanza Kongo, the town there, his capital. Two centuries later the Mwene Kabungas descendants still symbolically challenged the conquest in an annual celebration, the rulers that followed Lukeni all claimed some form of relation to his kanda, or lineage and were known as the Kilukeni. The Kilukeni kanda or house as it was recorded in Portuguese documents, after the death of Nimi a Lukeni, his brother, Mbokani Mavinga, took over the throne and ruled until approximately 1467. He had two wives and nine children and his rule saw an expansion of the Kingdom of Kongo to include the neighbouring state of Loango and other areas now encompassed by the current Republic of Congo. The Mwene Kongos often gave the governorships to members of their family or its clients, the high concentration of population around Mbanza Kongo and its outskirts played a critical role in the centralization of Kongo. The capital was a settled area in an otherwise sparsely populated region where rural population densities probably did not exceed 5 persons per square kilometer. Early Portuguese travelers described Mbanza Kongo as a city, the size of the Portuguese town of Évora as it was in 1491. By the end of the century, Kongos population was probably close to half a million people in a core region of some 130,000 square kilometers. By the early seventeenth century the city and its hinterland had a population of around 100,000 and this concentration allowed resources, soldiers and surplus foodstuffs to be readily available at the request of the king
19.
Ibn Battuta
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He is known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in his Travels. Over a period of thirty years, Ibn Battuta visited most of the known Islamic world as well as many non-Muslim lands and his journeys included trips to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Africa, Middle East, India, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China. He claimed descent from a Berber tribe known as the Lawata, as a young man he would have studied at a Sunni Maliki madhhab, the dominant form of education in North Africa at that time. Maliki Muslims requested Ibn Battuta serve as their religious judge as he was from an area where it was practiced. In June 1325, at the age of twenty-one, Ibn Battuta set off from his hometown on a hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca and he would not see Morocco again for twenty-four years. So I braced my resolution to quit my dear ones, female and male and my parents being yet in the bonds of life, it weighed sorely upon me to part from them, and both they and I were afflicted with sorrow at this separation. He travelled to Mecca overland, following the North African coast across the sultanates of Abd al-Wadid and Hafsid, the route took him through Tlemcen, Béjaïa, and then Tunis, where he stayed for two months. For safety, Ibn Battuta usually joined a caravan to reduce the risk of being robbed and he took a bride in the town of Sfax, the first in a series of marriages that would feature in his travels. In the early spring of 1326, after a journey of over 3,500 km, Ibn Battuta arrived at the port of Alexandria and he met two ascetic pious men in Alexandria. One was Sheikh Burhanuddin who is supposed to have foretold the destiny of Ibn Battuta as a world traveller saying It seems to me that you are fond of foreign travel and you will visit my brother Fariduddin in India, Rukonuddin in Sind and Burhanuddin in China. Another pious man Sheikh Murshidi interpreted the meaning of a dream of Ibn Battuta that he was meant to be a world traveller and he spent several weeks visiting sites in the area, and then headed inland to Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk Sultanate and an important city. After spending about a month in Cairo, he embarked on the first of many detours within the safety of Mamluk territory. Of the three routes to Mecca, Ibn Battuta chose the least-travelled, which involved a journey up the Nile valley. Upon approaching the town, however, a local rebellion forced him to turn back, Ibn Battuta returned to Cairo and took a second side trip, this time to Mamluk-controlled Damascus. During his first trip he had encountered a man who prophesied that he would only reach Mecca by travelling through Syria. Without this help many travellers would be robbed and murdered, after spending the Muslim month of Ramadan in Damascus, he joined a caravan travelling the 1,300 km south to Medina, site of the tomb of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. After four days in the town, he journeyed on to Mecca, rather than returning home, Ibn Battuta instead decided to continue on, choosing as his next destination the Ilkhanate, a Mongol Khanate, to the northeast. On 17 November 1326, following a month spent in Mecca, the group headed north to Medina and then, travelling at night, turned northeast across the Najd plateau to Najaf, on a journey that lasted about two weeks
20.
Xalam
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Xalam, also spelled khalam, is the Wolof name for a traditional stringed musical instrument from West Africa. The xalam is thought to have originated from modern-day Mali, but some believe that, in antiquity, many believe that it is an ancestor to the African American banjo. Someone who plays the xalam is called a xalamkat, the xalam, in its standard form, is a simple lute chordophone with one to five strings. The wooden body membranophone of the instrument is oval-shaped and covered with the hide of cattle, by moving these strips, the instruments tune can be adjusted. The xalam usually has two melody strings that are fingered by the left hand and two to three supplementary strings of fixed pitch. Most xalam players construct their own xalams, although they call on woodworkers to carve the body, neck. In most Wolof-speaking parts of Senegal, the xalam has three principal tunings, all of which involve tuning the two strings a perfect fourth apart. In the first tuning, the strings are tuned 1 and 4. In the third tuning, the fundamental is a third above the lowest main string. The third supplementary string is ignored or is tuned to 6 or 2´. In most areas the xalam is played by griots, or praise singers who are born into the profession. It most often acts as a solo or duo instrument to accompany praise songs and historical recitations, and in areas it may form part of a larger group including kora, drums. It is traditionally heard at weddings, infant naming ceremonies, and is now a member of folklore ensembles, popular mbalax groups. Important past and present Senegalese xalam masters include Sàmba Jabare Sàmb, Ama Njaay Sàmb, Abdulaay Naar Sàmb, Abdulaay Soose, the best known Malian ngoni players are Banzumana Sissoko, Bassekou Kouyate, Mama Sissoko, Moriba Koïta, Sayan Sissoko, and Fuseini Kouyate. Akonting Cheick Hamala Diabate Kora Ngoni Cosaan, Senegalese Culture—Xalam and Virtual Xalam Video of Cheick Hamala Diabate performances from Kennedy Center Millennium Stage site
21.
Atlantic slave trade
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The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th through the 19th centuries. This was crucial to those western European countries which, in the late 17th and 18th centuries, were vying with each other to create overseas empires, the Portuguese were the first to engage in the New World slave trade in the 16th century. In 1526, the Portuguese completed the first transatlantic voyage from Africa to the Americas. The first Africans imported to the English colonies were classified as indentured servants, like coming from England. By the middle of the 17th century, slavery had hardened as a caste, they and their offspring were legally the property of their owners. As property, the people were considered merchandise or units of labour, the major Atlantic slave trading nations, ordered by trade volume, were, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Spanish, and the Dutch Empire. Several had established outposts on the African coast where they purchased slaves from local African leaders and these slaves were managed by a factor who was established on or near the coast to expedite the shipping of slaves to the New World. Slaves were kept in a factory while awaiting shipment, current estimates are that about 12 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic, although the number purchased by the traders is considerably higher, as the passage had a high death rate. Near the beginning of the century, various governments acted to ban the trade. In the early twenty-first century, several governments issued apologies for the slave trade. The Atlantic slave trade arose after trade contacts were first made between the continents of the Old World and those of the New World, between 1600 and 1800, approximately 300,000 sailors engaged in the slave trade visited West Africa. In doing so, they came into contact with societies living along the west African coast, historian John Thornton noted, A number of technical and geographical factors combined to make Europeans the most likely people to explore the Atlantic and develop its commerce. That leadership later gave rise to the myth that the Iberians were the leaders of the exploration. Slavery was practiced in parts of Africa, Europe, Asia. There is evidence that people from some African states were exported to other states in Africa, Europe. The African slave trade provided a number of slaves to Europeans. The Atlantic slave trade was not the slave trade from Africa, although it was the largest in volume. As Elikia M’bokolo wrote in Le Monde diplomatique, The African continent was bled of its resources via all possible routes
22.
Folk music
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Folk music includes both traditional music and the genre that evolved from it during the 20th century folk revival. The term originated in the 19th century, but is applied to music older than that. Some types of music are also called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways, as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers and it has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. Starting in the century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is called contemporary folk music or folk revival music to distinguish it from earlier folk forms. Smaller, similar revivals have occurred elsewhere in the world at other times and this type of folk music also includes fusion genres such as folk rock, folk metal, electric folk, and others. Even individual songs may be a blend of the two, a consistent definition of traditional folk music is elusive. The terms folk music, folk song, and folk dance are comparatively recent expressions and they are extensions of the term folklore, which was coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian William Thoms to describe the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes. Traditional folk music also includes most indigenous music, however, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still no certain definition of what folk music is. Some do not even agree that the term Folk Music should be used, Folk music may tend to have certain characteristics but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely musical terms. One meaning often given is that of old songs, with no known composers, the fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by the community that give it its folk character. Such definitions depend upon processes rather than abstract musical types, one widely used definition is simply Folk music is what the people sing. For Scholes, as well as for Cecil Sharp and Béla Bartók, Folk music was already. seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear, particularly in a community uninfluenced by art music and by commercial and printed song. In these terms folk music may be seen as part of a schema comprising four types, primitive or tribal, elite or art, folk. Music in this genre is often called traditional music. Although the term is only descriptive, in some cases people use it as the name of a genre
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World music
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The term was popularized in the 1980s as a marketing category for non-Western traditional music. Globalization has facilitated the expansion of world musics audiences and scope and it has grown to include hybrid subgenres such as world fusion, global fusion, ethnic fusion, and worldbeat. To enhance the process of learning, he invited more than a dozen visiting performers from Africa and Asia, the term became current in the 1980s as a marketing/classificatory device in the media and the music industry. There are several conflicting definitions for world music, one is that it consists of all the music in the world, though such a broad definition renders the term virtually meaningless. The term also is taken as a classification of music that combines Western popular music styles with one of many genres of music that are also described as folk music or ethnic music. However, world music is not exclusively traditional folk music and it may include cutting edge pop music styles as well. Succinctly, it can be described as music from out there. It is a nebulous term with an increasing number of genres that fall under the umbrella of world music to capture musical trends of combined ethnic style and texture. As a result, definitions of the genre have become particularly varied, similar terminology between distinctly different sub-categories under primary music genres, such as world, rock and pop can be as ambiguous and confusing to industry moguls as it is to consumers. In a report on the 2014 globalFEST National Public Radios Anastasia Tsioulcas said Even within the music community. Whats more, I believe that in peoples imaginations, world music means a kind of fairly awful, gloppy, hippy-ish. Its a problematic, horrible term that satisfies absolutely no one, the Breton musician Alan Stivell pioneered the connection between traditional folk music, modern rock music and world music with his 1972 album Renaissance of the Celtic Harp. At this time, Stivells contemporary, Welsh singer-songwriter Meic Stevens popularised Welsh folk music, more recently, other Welsh-language bands such as Calan and 9 Bach have achieved international acclaim. The broad category of music includes isolated forms of ethnic music from diverse geographical regions. These dissimilar strains of music are commonly categorized together by virtue of their indigenous roots. World fusion / Worldbeat / Ethnic fusion / Global fusion can also blend specific indigenous sounds with more blatant elements of Western pop. Depending on style and context, world music can sometimes share the music genre. Good examples are Tibetan bowls, Tuvan throat singing, Gregorian chant or Native American flute music, World music blended with new-age music is a sound, loosely classified as the hybrid genre, ethnic fusion
24.
Salif Keita
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Salif Keïta is an afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali. He is notable not only because of his reputation as the Golden Voice of Africa, salif Keita was born in the village of Djoliba. He was cast out by his family and ostracized by the community because of his albinism, in 1967, he left Djoliba for Bamako, where he joined the government sponsored Super Rail Band de Bamako. In 1973 Keita joined the group, Les Ambassadeurs, Keita and Les Ambassadeurs fled political unrest in Mali during the mid-1970s for Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and subsequently changed the groups name to Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux. The reputation of Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux rose to the level in the 1970s. He is the father of niece Paralympian athlete Nantenin Keita. Keita moved to Paris in 1984 to reach a larger audience and his music combines traditional West African music styles with influences from both Europe and the Americas. Musical instruments that are featured in Keitas work include balafons, djembes, guitars, koras, organs, saxophones. He performed at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in 1988 to call for Nelson Mandelas release from prison, in 1990, Keita contributed Begin the Beguine to the Cole Porter tribute/AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Blue, produced by the Red Hot Organization. Keita found success in Europe as one of the African stars of world music, however, shortly after the turn of the millennium he returned to Bamako in Mali to live and record. Guest artists on his albums have included Weather Report founders Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, drummer Paco Sery, guitarist Carlos Santana, Keitas album La Différence was produced around the end of 2009. La Différence was recorded between Bamako, Beirut, Paris, and Los Angeles and this unique musical feel is reinforced by soulful pitches in the track Samigna emanating from the trumpet of the great Lebanese jazzman Ibrahim Maalouf. La Différence won Keita one of the biggest musical awards of his career, in 2013, after what he described as threats from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, he cancelled a performance in Israel
25.
Guinea
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Guinea /ˈɡɪni/, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a country on the West coast of Africa. Guinea has a population of 10.5 million and an area of 245,860 square kilometres, the president is directly elected by the people and is head of state and head of government. The unicameral Guinean National Assembly is the body of the country. The judicial branch is led by the Guinea Supreme Court, the highest, the country is named after the Guinea region. Guinea is a name for the region of Africa that lies along the Gulf of Guinea. It stretches north through the tropical regions and ends at the Sahel. Guinea is a predominantly Islamic country, with Muslims representing 85 percent of the population, Guineas people belong to twenty-four ethnic groups. French, the language of Guinea, is the main language of communication in schools, in government administration, and the media. Guineas economy is dependent on agriculture and mineral production. It is the second largest producer of bauxite, and has rich deposits of diamonds. The country was at the core of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, human rights in Guinea remain a controversial issue. In 2011 the United States government claimed that torture by security forces, the land that is now Guinea belonged to a series of African empires until France colonized it in the 1890s, and made it part of French West Africa. Guinea declared its independence from France on 2 October 1958, from independence until the presidential election of 2010, Guinea was governed by a number of autocratic rulers. What is now Guinea was on the fringes of the major West African empires, the Ghana Empire is believed to be the earliest of these which grew on trade but contracted and ultimately fell due to the hostile influence of the Almoravids. It was in period that Islam first arrived in the region. The Mali Empire was ruled by Mansa, the most famous being Kankou Moussa, shortly after his reign the Mali Empire began to decline and was ultimately supplanted by its vassal states in the 15th century. The most successful of these was the Songhai Empire, which expanded its power from about 1460 and it continued to prosper until a civil war over succession followed the death of Askia Daoud in 1582. The weakened empire fell to invaders from Morocco at the Battle of Tondibi just three years later, the Moroccans proved unable to rule the kingdom effectively, however, and it split into many small kingdoms
26.
Guitar
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The guitar is a musical instrument classified as a fretted string instrument with anywhere from four to 18 strings, usually having six. The sound is projected either acoustically, using a wooden or plastic and wood box, or through electrical amplifier. It is typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers, the guitar is a type of chordophone, traditionally constructed from wood and strung with either gut, nylon or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its construction and tuning. There are three types of modern acoustic guitar, the classical guitar, the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of a guitar is produced by the strings vibration, amplified by the hollow body of the guitar. The term finger-picking can also refer to a tradition of folk, blues, bluegrass. The acoustic bass guitar is an instrument that is one octave below a regular guitar. Early amplified guitars employed a body, but a solid wood body was eventually found more suitable during the 1960s and 1970s. As with acoustic guitars, there are a number of types of guitars, including hollowbody guitars, archtop guitars and solid-body guitars. The electric guitar has had a influence on popular culture. The guitar is used in a variety of musical genres worldwide. It is recognized as an instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul. The term is used to refer to a number of chordophones that were developed and used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas. The modern word guitar, and its antecedents, has applied to a wide variety of chordophones since classical times. Many influences are cited as antecedents to the modern guitar, at least two instruments called guitars were in use in Spain by 1200, the guitarra latina and the so-called guitarra morisca. The guitarra morisca had a back, wide fingerboard. The guitarra Latina had a sound hole and a narrower neck. By the 14th century the qualifiers moresca or morisca and latina had been dropped, and it had six courses, lute-like tuning in fourths and a guitar-like body, although early representations reveal an instrument with a sharply cut waist
27.
Bass (sound)
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Bass describes tones of low frequency, pitch and range from 16-256 Hz. In musical compositions, such as songs and pieces, these are the lowest parts of the harmony, in choral music without instrumental accompaniment, the bass is supplied by adult male bass singers. In an orchestra, the lines are played by the double bass and cellos, bassoon or contrabassoon, low brass such as the tuba and bass trombone. In many styles of music such as Bluegrass, folk, and in styles such as Rockabilly and Big Band and Bebop jazz. In most rock and pop bands and in jazz fusion groups, in some 20th and 21st century pop genres, such as 1980s pop, hip hop music and Electronic Dance Music, the bass role may be filled with a bass synthesizer. In popular music, the part, which is called the bassline. The bass player is a member of the section in a band, along with the drummer, rhythm guitarist, and, in some cases. The bass player plays the root or fifth of the chord. The bass differs from other voices because of the role it plays in supporting and defining harmonic motion. It does so at levels ranging from immediate, chord-by-chord events to the harmonic organization of a entire work. Basso continuo was an approach to writing music during the Baroque music era, keyboard bass Bass drum Double bass Bass guitar Washtub bass Bassoon Bass clarinet Bass saxophone Tuba Bass trombone Euphonium Sub bass Treble Bass clef Figured bass
28.
Bobo-Dioulasso
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Bobo-Dioulasso is a city in Burkina Faso with a population of about 537,728, it is the second largest city in the country, after Ouagadougou, Burkina Fasos capital. The local Bobo-speaking population refers to the city simply as Sia, there are two distinct dialects spoken of Jula, based on the origins of different peoples who speak this language. The city is situated in the southwest of the country, in the Houet Province, Bobo-Dioulasso is significant both economically and culturally, as it is a major center of culture and music. Three small satellite villages were located beyond this natural border, a number of other independent villages in the surroundings have been absorbed by the developing city and are now within its municipal boundaries and incorporated as part of the city. The two main villages were occupied by the French on September 25,1897 after a brief, soon afterward the French created an administrative settlement near them, on the east side of the We river. This became the headquarters of a district of the same name, during the 1915-16 anti-colonial war, the population in the north and east of district Bobo-Dioulasso took up arms against the French colonial government. The French based their activities in the city in an effort to suppress the insurrection, a colonial military base was established in the southern sector of the city, adding to its growing importance. In 1927 the French razed the old village of Tunuma and the other settlements and it was made available for redevelopment as a residential neighborhood. Sia proper, which today as the Dioulasoba neighborhood, was partly spared this total destruction. It was dramatically modified in 1932 when a large road artery was built through it and this established the framework for the modern city center. The Abidjan Railway reached Bobo-Diouolasso in 1934, increasing its access to markets, transportation, and communications. But the growth of the city as an industrial center halted because of the world economic crisis during the Great Depression. The city started expanding again after World War II, reorganization of the colony of Upper Volta in 1947 attracted business to Bobo-Dioulasso, although Ouagadougou had been selected as the capital. An early industrial center, Bobo-Dioulasso is also the hub of an agricultural zone, which produces food grains, fruits and seedlings. Due to its economic contributions, following the nations gaining independence in 1960. Bobo-Dioulassos economic advantage vis-à-vis the capital has declined following decades of government policy favoring Ouagadougou, little new industry arrived in the city during the 1980s and 1990s. Some enterprises either closed down or relocated to the capital, economic life was primarily reduced to commerce grounded in the agriculture of the region and services. Since 2000 the city of Bobo-Dioulasso has engaged in a new growth spurt, gaining in population, residents have returned home following the internal crisis in neighboring Ivory Coast, and the economy has been stimulated by new demands for its goods
29.
Calabash
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The fresh fruit has a light-green smooth skin and a white flesh. Rounder varieties are called calabash gourds and they grow in a variety of shapes, they can be huge and rounded, small and bottle shaped, or slim and serpentine, more than a metre long. The gourd was one of the first cultivated plants in the world, grown not primarily for food, but for use as water containers. The bottle gourd may have carried from Africa to Asia, Europe. It has been proven to be in the New World prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and it is a commonly cultivated plant in tropical and subtropical areas of the world, now believed by some to have spread or originated from wild populations in southern Africa. Stands of L. siceraria, which may be source plants and this apparent domestication source plant produces thinner-walled fruit that, when dried, would not endure the rigors of use on long journeys as a water container. Todays gourd may owe its tough, waterproof wall to selection pressures over its history of domestication. Gourds were cultivated in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas for thousands of years before Columbus discovery of America. Historically, in Europe, Walahfrid Strabo, abbot and poet from Reichenau and advisor to the Carolingian kings and this study showed that gourds found in American archaeological finds appeared closer to Asian variants than to African ones. In February 2014, the hypothesis was revived based on a more thorough genetic study. Nowadays, bottle gourds are grown by sowing of seeds or transplanting 15- to 20-day-old seedlings. It prefers well-drained, moist, rich soil and it requires plenty of moisture in the growing season and a warm sunny position sheltered from the wind. It is cultivated in places such as in a pot. In rural areas, many houses with thatched roofs are covered with the gourd vines. Bottle gourds grow very rapidly and their stems can reach a length of 9 m in the summer, if planted under a tall tree, the vine can grow up to the top of the tree. To get more fruit, sometimes cut off the tip of the vine when it has grown to 6–8 feet long. This forces the plant to produce side branches that produce much sooner and more flowers. The male flowers have long peduncles and the females have short ones with an ovary of the shape of the fruit, sometimes, the female flowers drop off without growing into a gourd due to the failure of pollination if no bee activity occurs in the garden area
30.
Scale (music)
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In music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is a scale. Some scales contain different pitches when ascending than when descending, for example, the Melodic minor scale. Due to the principle of equivalence, scales are generally considered to span a single octave. A musical scale represents a division of the space into a certain number of scale steps. A measure of the width of each scale step provides a method to classify scales, based on their interval patterns, scales are put into categories including diatonic, chromatic, major, minor, and others. A specific scale is defined by its interval pattern and by a special note. The tonic of a scale is the selected as the beginning of the octave. Typically, the name of the scale specifies both its tonic and its interval pattern, for example, C major indicates a major scale with a C tonic. Scales are typically listed from low to high, most scales are octave-repeating, meaning their pattern of notes is the same in every octave. An octave-repeating scale can be represented as an arrangement of pitch classes. The distance between two notes in a scale is called a scale step. The notes of a scale are numbered by their steps from the root of the scale, for example, in a C major scale the first note is C, the second D, the third E and so on. Two notes can also be numbered in relation to other, C and E create an interval of a third. A single scale can be manifested at many different pitch levels, for example, a C major scale can be started at C4 and ascending an octave to C5, or it could be started at C6, ascending an octave to C7. As long as all the notes can be played, the octave they take on can be altered, the pitch distances or intervals among the notes of a scale tell us more about the sound of the music than does the mere number of tones. The notes of a scale form intervals with each of the notes of the chord in combination. A 5-note scale has 10 of these intervals, a 6-note scale has 15, a 7-note scale has 21
31.
Pentatonic scale
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A pentatonic scale is a musical scale or mode with five notes per octave in contrast to a heptatonic scale such as the major scale and minor scale. Pentatonic scales are common and are found all over the world. They are divided into those with semitones and those without, examples of its use include Chopins Etude in G-flat major, op. 5, the Black Key etude, in the major pentatonic, musicology commonly classifies pentatonic scales as either hemitonic or anhemitonic. Hemitonic scales contain one or more semitones and anhemitonic scales do not contain semitones, for example, in Japanese music the anhemitonic yo scale is contrasted with the hemitonic in scale. Hemitonic pentatonic scales are also called ditonic scales, because the largest interval in them is the ditone and this should not be confused with the identical term also used by musicologists to describe a scale including only two notes. Anhemitonic pentatonic scales can be constructed in many ways, the major pentatonic scale may be thought of as a gapped or incomplete major scale. However, the scale has a unique character and is complete in terms of tonality. Another construction works backward, It omits two pitches from a diatonic scale, if one were to begin with a C major scale, for example, one might omit the fourth and the seventh scale degrees, F and B. The remaining notes then makes up the major scale, C, D, E, G. Omitting the third and seventh degrees of the C major scale obtains the notes for another transpositionally equivalent anhemitonic pentatonic scale, omitting the first and fourth degrees of the C major scale gives a third anhemitonic pentatonic scale, G, A, B, D, E. The black keys on a piano keyboard comprise a G-flat major pentatonic scale, G-flat, A-flat, B-flat, D-flat, and E-flat and it may also be considered a gapped blues scale. The C minor pentatonic is C, E-flat, F, G, the A minor pentatonic, the relative minor of C, comprises the same tones as the C major pentatonic, starting on A, giving A, C, D, E, G. This minor pentatonic contains all three tones of an A minor triad, because of their simplicity, pentatonic scales are often used to introduce beginners to music. The five pentatonic scales found by running up the keys on the piano are. This may be derived by proceeding with the principle that gives the Pythagorean diatonic and chromatic scales. Considering the anhemitonic scale as a subset of a just diatonic scale, assigning precise frequency proportions to the pentatonic scales of most cultures is problematic as tuning may be variable. Composer Lou Harrison has been one of the most recent proponents, Harrison and William Colvig tuned the slendro scale of the gamelan Si Betty to overtones 16,19,21,24,28
32.
Heptatonic scale
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A heptatonic scale is a musical scale that has seven pitches per octave. Indian classical theory postulates seventy-two seven-tone scale types, whereas others postulate twelve or ten seven-tone scale types collectively called thaat, several heptatonic scales in Western, Roman, Spanish, Hungarian, and Greek music can be analyzed as juxtapositions of tetrachords. All heptatonic scales have all intervals present in their interval vector analysis, there is a special affinity for heptatonic scales in the Western key signature system. In Western music, there are seven such scales, and they are known as the modes of the major scale. In traditional classical theory, the minor scale has two forms, as noted above, an ascending form and a descending form. Although each of these forms of itself comprises seven pitches, together they comprise nine, in certain twentieth-century music, however, it became common systematically to use the ascending form for both ascending and descending passages. Such a use has been ascribed to the works of Béla Bartók. The traditional descending form of the minor scale is equivalent to the natural minor scale in both pitch collection and tonal center. The harmonic minor scale is so called because in music of the common practice period chords or harmonies are derived from it more than from the natural minor scale or the melodic minor scale. The A♭ in the middle voice does not ascend to B, the names heptatonia prima and heptatonia secunda apply to various seven-note scales that can be formed using tones and semitones, but without two semi-tones in succession. The less common series is While the diatonic modes have two and three tones between each semitone, the heptatonia secunda modes have one and four. g, if the interval of the augmented second is used, many other scales become possible. These include Gypsy I-♭II-III-IV-V-♭VI-VII Hungarian I-II-♭III-♯IV-V-♭VI-VII The scales are symmetrical about the tonic and dominant respectively, Phrygian major or dominant harmonic minor I-♭II-III-IV-V-♭VI-♭VII This differs from the Phrygian in having a major third. It may also be considered built on the dominant of the minor scale. Verdis Scala Enigmatica I-♭II-III-♯IV-♯V-♯VI-VII i. e. G A♭ B C♯ D♯ E♯ F♯, melakarta is a South Indian classical method of organizing Raagas based on their unique heptatonic scales. The postulated number of melakarta derives from arithmetical calculation and not from Carnatic practice, seven-pitch melakarta are considered subsets of a twelve-pitch scale roughly analogous to the Western chromatic scale. The second and third melakarta tones can be picked from the 4 chromatic tones, arithmetically this produces 25, or thirty-two, possibilities, but Hindustani theory, in contradistinction to Carnatic theory, excludes scale forms not commonly used. Gongche notation heptatonic scale gives a do, re, mi, sol, la, diatonic and chromatic Modes of the ancohemitonic heptatonic scales and the key signature system
33.
Flat (music)
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In music, flat, or bemolle means lower in pitch. In music notation, the symbol, ♭, derived from a stylised lowercase b. Intonation or tuning is said to be flat when it is below the true pitch, the order of flats in the key signatures of music notation, following the circle of fifths, is B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭, and F♭. A mnemonic for this is, Before Eating A Doughnut Get Coffee First, the Unicode character ♭ can be found in the block Miscellaneous Symbols, its HTML entity is ♭. Under twelve tone equal temperament, C♭ for instance is the same as, or enharmonically equivalent to, B♮, in any other tuning system, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist. To allow extended just intonation, composer Ben Johnston uses a sharp as an accidental to indicate a note is raised 70.6 cents, double flats also exist, which look like and lower a note by two semitones, or a whole step. Less often one will encounter half, or three-quarter, or otherwise altered flats, the Unicode character
34.
Sharp (music)
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In music, sharp, dièse, or diesis means higher in pitch. More specifically, in musical notation, sharp means higher in pitch by a semitone, and has a sharp symbol, ♯. Sharp is contrasted with flat, which refers to a lowering of pitch, intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously. Under twelve-tone equal temperament, B♯, for instance, sounds the same as, or is equivalent to, C natural. In other tuning systems, such enharmonic equivalences in general do not exist, to allow extended just intonation, composer Ben Johnston uses a sharp to indicate a note is raised 70.6 cents, or a flat to indicate a note is lowered 70.6 cents. In tuning, sharp can also slightly higher in pitch. If two simultaneous notes are out of tune, the higher-pitched one is said to be sharp with respect to the other. Furthermore, the verb sharpen means raise the frequency of a note, double sharps also exist, these are denoted by the symbol and raise a note by two semitones, or one whole tone. They should not be confused with a ghost note, less often one will encounter other sharps. A half sharp raises a note by a quarter tone =50 cents, a sharp and a half raises a note by three quarter tones =150 cents and may be denoted. Although very uncommon, a triple sharp can sometimes be found and it raises a note by three semitones. The sharp symbol may be confused with the number sign, both signs have two sets of parallel double-lines. However, a correctly drawn sharp sign must have two slanted parallel lines which rise from left to right, to avoid being obscured by the staff lines, the number sign, in contrast, has two compulsory horizontal strokes in this place. In addition, while the sharp also always has two vertical lines, the number sign may or may not contain perfectly vertical lines. The order of sharps in key signature notation is F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯, B♯, each extra sharp being added successively in the sequence of major keys. Similarly the order of flats is based on the natural notes in reverse order, B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭, F♭, encountered in the following series of major keys. In the above progression, key C♯ may be conveniently written as the harmonically equivalent key D♭
35.
Gourd
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A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly Cucurbita and Lagenaria or the fruit of the two genera of Bignoniaceae calabash tree, Crescentia and Amphitecna. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, likely one of the earliest domesticated types of plants, subspecies of the bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, have been discovered in archaeological sites dating from as early as 13,000 BC. Gourds have had numerous uses throughout history, including as tools, musical instruments, objects of art, film, gourd is occasionally used to describe crop plants in the family Cucurbitaceae, like pumpkins, cucumbers, squash, luffa, and melons. More specifically, gourd refers to the fruits of plants in the two Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita, or also to their hollow, dried-out shell, a gourd can also have a hard shell when dehydrated. There are many different gourds worldwide, the main plants referred to as gourds include several species from the Cucurbita genus, Crescentia cujete and Lagenaria siceraria. The bitter melon/balsam apple/balsam pear is also referred to as a gourd. L. siceraria was brought to Europe and the Americas very early in history, being found in Peruvian archaeological sites dating from 13,000 to 11,000 BC and Thailand sites from 11,000 to 6,000 BC. The gourds found in the Americas appear to have come from the Asian subspecies, very early in history, a new study now indicates Africa. The archaeological and DNA records show it likely that the gourd was among the first domesticated species, gourds continued to be used throughout history, in almost every culture throughout the world. European contact in North America found extensive use, including the use of bottle gourds as birdhouses to attract purple martins. Almost every culture had musical instruments made of gourds, including drums, stringed instruments common to Africa and wind instruments and these include Teasle gourd, Spine gourd, Sweet gourd, balsam apple and Momordica sahyadrica. Cultures from arid regions often associated gourds with water, and they appear in creation myths. Since the beginning of their history, they have had a multitude of uses, including food, kitchen tools, toys, musical instruments and decoration. Today, gourds are used for a wide variety of crafts, including jewelry, furniture, dishes, utensils. The Chinese developed a technique of tying a two-part mould around young gourds, or a part of them, so that the gourd grew into the mould, shaped gourds had various decorative uses, especially as boxes, bottles and other containers. The Luffa gourds, Luffa aegyptiaca and Luffa acutangula, have been used throughout recent history as scrubbing sponge and this is prepared by removing the skin and pulp from the gourd, and bleaching the fibers. A güiro is a Latin American percussion instrument made from a gourd, maracas are percussion instruments often made from gourds. A sitar is a stringed instrument, parts of which are made from gourds
36.
Igbo people
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The Igbo people, also erroneously known as the Ibo people, are an indigenous linguistic and cultural people of southern Nigeria. Geographically, the Igbo homeland is divided into two sections by the Niger River – an eastern and a western section. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects, the Igbo homeland is almost surrounded on all sides by other ethnic peoples of southern and central Nigeria namely, the Ijaw, Edo, Isoko, Ogoni, Igala, Tiv, Yako, Idoma and Ibibio. The Igbo people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa, in rural Nigeria, Igbo people work mostly as craftsmen, farmers and traders. The most important crop is the yam, celebrations take place annually to celebrate its harvesting, other staple crops include cassava and taro. Before British colonial rule, the Igbo were a politically fragmented group, there were variations in culture such as in art styles, attire and religious practices. Various subgroups were organized by clan, lineage, village affiliation, there were not many centralized chiefdoms, hereditary aristocracy, or kingship customs except in kingdoms such as those of the Nri, Arochukwu, Agbor and Onitsha. This political system changed significantly under British colonialism in the early 20th century, the Igbo became overwhelmingly Christian under colonization. Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart is one of the most popular novels to depict Igbo culture, by the mid-20th century, the Igbo people developed a strong sense of ethnic identity. Certain conflicts with other Nigerian ethnicities led to Igbo-densely populated Eastern Nigeria seceding to create the independent state of Biafra, the Nigerian Civil War or the Nigerian-Biafran War broke out shortly after. With their defeat, the Republic of Biafra once again was part of Nigeria, MASSOB, a sectarian organization formed in 1999, continues a non-violent struggle for an independent Igbo state. Due to the effects of migration and the Atlantic slave trade, there are descendant ethnic Igbo populations in such as Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. Their exact population outside Africa is unknown, but today many African Americans, according to Liberian historians the fifth president of Liberia Edward James Roye was of Igbo descent. The Igbo people have had fragmented and politically independent communities, before knowledge of Europeans and full exposure to other neighbouring ethnic groups, the Igbo did not have a strong identity as one people. As in the case of most ethnic groups, the British, Chinua Achebe, among other scholars, challenged this because of its negative connotations and possible wrong definition. He suggested defining the Igbo people as a nation although the Igbo do not have an officially recognized state of their own. The most common name for the Igbo in English was formerly Ibo and they have also been known as the Iboe, Ebo, Eboe, Eboans, or Heebo. Their territory and main settlement have also been known by their name
37.
Mandinka people
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The Mandinka is a West African ethnic group with an estimated global population of eleven million. The Mandinka are the descendants of the Mali Empire, which rose to power under the rule of the Malinké/Maninka king Sundiata Keita, the Mandinka are a one ethnic group within the larger linguistic family of the Mandé peoples, who account for more than twenty million people. Originally from Mali, the Mandinka gained their independence from previous empires in the 13th century and they migrated west from the Niger River in search of better agricultural lands and more opportunities for conquest. Through a series of conflicts, the Fula jihads, particularly the Fula-led Imamate of Futa Jallon, over 99% of Mandinka in contemporary Africa are Muslim. The Mandinka people live primarily in West Africa, particularly in The Gambia, major populations of the Mandinka people also live in Mali, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Mauritania. Although widespread, in most countries, the Mandingo are not the largest ethnic group, most Mandingos live in family-related compounds in traditional rural villages, their traditional society has featured socially stratified castes. Mandinka communities have been fairly autonomous and self-ruled, being led by a chief, Mandingo has been an oral society where mythologies, history and knowledge is verbally transmitted from one generation to next. Between the 16th and 19th century, many Muslim and non-Muslim Mandinka people and these intermixed, creating a Creole culture, with the Mandika people significantly influencing the African heritage peoples now found in the Caribbean, Brazil and the southern United States. The Mandés were initially a part of many fragmented kingdoms that formed after the collapse of Ghana empire in the 11th century, during the rule of Sundiata Keita, these kingdoms were consolidated, and the Mandinka expanded west from the Niger River basin under Sundiatas general Tiramakhan Traore. This expansion was a part of creating a region of conquest and this migration began in the later part of the 13th century. Another group of Mandinka people, under Faran Kamara – the son of the king of Tabou – expanded southeast of Mali, with the migration, many gold artisans and metal working Mandinka smiths settled along the coast and in the hilly Fouta Djallon and plateau areas of West Africa. Their presence and products attracted Mandika merchants and brought trading caravans from north Africa and it also brought conflicts with other ethnic groups, such as the Wolof people, particularly the Jolof Empire. The caravan trade to North Africa and Middle East brought Islamic people into Mandinka peoples original, the Muslim traders sought presence in the host Mandinka community, and this likely initiated proselytizing efforts to convert the Mandinka from their traditional religious beliefs into Islam. In Ghana, for example, the Almoravids had divided its capital into two parts by 1077, one part was Muslim and other non-Muslim, the Muslim influence from North Africa had arrived in the Mandinka region before this, via Islamic trading diasporas. In 1324, Sultan Mansa Musa who ruled Mali, went on Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca with caravan carrying gold. Shihab al-Umari, the Arabic historian, described his visit and stated that Musa built mosques in his kingdom, established Islamic prayers and took back Maliki school of Sunni jurists with him. According to Richard Turner – a professor of African American Religious History, Musa was highly influential in attracting North African, the Mandinka people of Mali converted early, but those who migrated to the west did not convert and retained their traditional religious rites. One of the legends among the Mandingo of western Africa is that the general Tiramakhan Traore led the migration, because people in Mali had converted to Islam, another legend gives a contrasting account, and states that Traore himself had converted and married Muhammads grand daughter
38.
Mali
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Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of just over 1,240,000 square kilometres, the population of Mali is 14.5 million. The countrys economy centers on agriculture and fishing, some of Malis prominent natural resources include gold, being the third largest producer of gold in the African continent, and salt. About half the population lives below the poverty line of $1.25 a day. A majority of the population are Muslims, present-day Mali was once part of three West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade, the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, and the Songhai Empire. During its golden age, there was a flourishing of mathematics, astronomy, literature, at its peak in 1300, the Mali Empire covered an area about twice the size of modern-day France and stretched to the west coast of Africa. In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France seized control of Mali, French Sudan joined with Senegal in 1959, achieving independence in 1960 as the Mali Federation. Shortly thereafter, following Senegals withdrawal from the federation, the Sudanese Republic declared itself the independent Republic of Mali. After a long period of one-party rule, a coup in 1991 led to the writing of a new constitution and the establishment of Mali as a democratic, multi-party state. In January 2012, a conflict broke out in northern Mali, in which Tuareg rebels took control of by April and declared the secession of a new state. The conflict was complicated by a coup that took place in March. In response to Islamist territorial gains, the French military launched Opération Serval in January 2013, a month later, Malian and French forces recaptured most of the north. Presidential elections were held on 28 July 2013, with a second round held on 11 August. The name Mali is taken from the name of the Mali Empire, the name was originally derived from the Mandinka or Bambara word mali, meaning “hippopotamus”, but it eventually came to mean the place where the king lives. The word carries the connotation of strength, D. Niane suggests in Sundiata, An Epic of Old Mali that it is not impossible that Mali was the name given to one of the capitals of the emperors. 14th century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta reported that the capital of the Mali Empire was indeed called Mali and this name could have formerly been that of a city. In old Mali there is one village called Malikoma which means “New Mali. ”Another theory suggests that Mali is a Fulani pronunciation of the name of the Mande peoples. It is suggested that a sound shift led to the change, whereby in Fulani the alveolar segment /nd/ shifts to /l/, Mali was once part of three famed West African empires which controlled trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, slaves, and other precious commodities
39.
Senegal
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Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country in West Africa. Senegal is bordered by Mauritania in the north, Mali to the east, Guinea to the southeast, and Guinea-Bissau to the southwest. Senegal also borders The Gambia, a country occupying a narrow sliver of land along the banks of the Gambia River, Senegal also shares a maritime border with Cape Verde. Senegals economic and political capital is Dakar and it is the westernmost country in the mainland of the Old World, or Afro-Eurasia, and owes its name to the Senegal River, which borders it to the east and north. The name Senegal comes from the Wolof Sunuu Gaal, which means Our Boat, Senegal covers a land area of almost 197,000 square kilometres and has an estimated population of about 15 million. The climate is Sahelian, but there is a rainy season, the territory of modern Senegal has been inhabited by various ethnic groups since prehistory. Organized kingdoms emerged around the century, and parts of the country were ruled by prominent regional empires such as the Jolof Empire. The present state of Senegal has its roots in European colonialism, which began during the mid-15th century, the establishment of coastal trading posts gradually led to control of the mainland, culminating in French rule of the area by the 19th century, albeit amid much local resistance. Senegal peacefully attained independence from France in 1960, and has since been among the politically stable countries in Africa. Senegals economy is centered mostly on commodities and natural resources, major industries are fish processing, phosphate mining, fertilizer production, petroleum refining, construction materials, and ship construction and repair. As in most African nations, agriculture is a sector, with Senegal producing several important cash crops, including peanuts, sugarcane, cotton, green beans, tomatoes, melons. Owing to its stability, tourism and hospitality are also burgeoning sectors. A multiethnic and secular nation, Senegal is predominantly Sunni Muslim with Sufi, French is the official language, although many native languages are spoken and recognized. Since April 2012 Senegals president has been Macky Sall, Senegal has been a member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie since 1970. Senegal is named after the Senegal River, the etymology of which is contested, one popular theory is that it stems from the Wolof phrase sunu gaal, which means our canoe, resulting from a miscommunication between 15th-century Portuguese sailors and Wolof fishermen. The our canoe theory has been embraced in modern Senegal for its charm. It is frequently used in appeals to national solidarity, frequently heard in the media, modern historians believe the name probably refers to the Sanhaja, Berbers who lived on the northern side of the river. A competing theory is that it derives from the town of Sanghana
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The Gambia
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The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa that is entirely surrounded by Senegal except for its coastline on the Atlantic Ocean at its western end. It is the smallest country in mainland Africa, the Gambia is situated on either side of the Gambia River, the nations namesake, which flows through the centre of The Gambia and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Its area is 10,689 square kilometres with a population of 1,882,450 at the April 2013 census, Banjul is the Gambian capital, and the largest cities are Serekunda and Brikama. Later, on 25 May 1765, The Gambia was made a part of the British Empire when the government formally assumed control, in 1965, The Gambia gained independence under the leadership of Dawda Jawara, who ruled until Yahya Jammeh seized power in a bloodless 1994 coup. Adama Barrow became The Gambias third president in January 2017, after defeating Jammeh in December 2016 elections, Jammeh initially refused to accept the results, which triggered a constitutional crisis and military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States, resulting in his exile. The Gambias economy is dominated by farming, fishing, and especially tourism, in 2008, about a third of the population lived below the international poverty line of US$1.25 per day. The name Gambia is derived from the Mandinka term Kambra/Kambaa, meaning Gambia river, upon independence as a Commonwealth realm, the country used the name The Gambia. Following the proclamation of a republic in 1970, the name of the country became Republic of The Gambia. The administration of Yahya Jammeh changed the name to Islamic Republic of The Gambia in December 2015. On 29 January 2017 the new President Adama Barrow said the name will go back to Republic of The Gambia. Arab traders provided the first written accounts of the Gambia area in the ninth and tenth centuries, during the tenth century, Muslim merchants and scholars established communities in several West African commercial centres. Both groups established trans-Saharan trade routes, leading to an export trade in slaves, gold and ivory. At the beginning of the 14th century, most of what is today called Gambia was part of the Mali Empire, the Portuguese reached this area by sea in the mid-15th century, and began to dominate overseas trade. In 1588, the claimant to the Portuguese throne, António, Prior of Crato, letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I confirmed the grant. In 1618, King James I of England granted a charter to an English company for trade with the Gambia, between 1651 and 1661, some parts of the Gambia were under the rule of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, and were bought by Prince Jacob Kettler. The British Empire occupied the Gambia when an expedition led by Augustus Keppel landed there following the Capture of Senegal in 1758. The 1783 First Treaty of Versailles gave Great Britain possession of the Gambia River and this was finally ceded to the United Kingdom in 1856. As many as three million slaves may have taken from this general region during the three centuries that the transatlantic slave trade operated
Claude Luisier
