AFRICAN MUSIC IN THE NEW WORLD

by Tom Faigin

In the last article on American folk music, we discussed how the struggle for religious freedom and freedom of musical expression went hand in hand. In the early 1800’s, hundreds of new folk spirituals offering hope in this world and a better life in the next were created by settlers, restless for new land arid new religious experiences. Often, this restlessness channeled itself into a new form of frontier worship service with emotional sermons, singing, shouting and even rolling on the ground as each person tried to seek God in his own personal way. This freedom of expression was far removed from the watchful eyes of the Eastern seaboard conservatives who kept a tight rein over their own flocks.

Meanwhile in Africa, another way of using music had evolved. Many African tribes had participated for centuries in communal musical life much more thoroughly than many European villagers. The Bahutu of Central Africa alone had 24 different types of social songs that were created for drinking beer, honoring their chief, celebrating a birth or warning lazy or immoral tribesmen. Some types of songs were even subdivided, making them more complex and subtle. There were canoeing songs for paddling against the current while others were sung with the current.

The Watusi tribe built their lives and their music around cattle, their main form of livelihood. There were songs in praise of cattle, songs for drawing water for the cattle, songs for taking cattle home in the evening, and songs for milking them in the morning. Also there were even special children’s songs in praise of the king’s cattle or songs that told of how cattle were used during certain historical events.

All of these social songs helped create a sense of community awareness and cooperation that was very important to the survival and well—being of each individual. African religious music called on various gods for help in ending a drought or having a successful hunt. If the prayers were answered, there were songs of thanks and praise for the gods of the wind, rain, the sun and the river as well as food offerings. There were many types of communal work songs that required full tribal cooperation in order to remove a tree, clear a jungle patch, hunt for meat or prepare a feast.

All of this religious and work—oriented music was thoroughly integrated into the community’s very fiber so that individuals felt little self—consciousness about singing, dancing or playing musical instruments. It was not considered out of the ordinary or special because everyone sang and danced. When this music traveled to the New World on the slave ships, it was not forgotten. The use of the English language and even the institution of slavery could not change its essentially African musical character.

Most African songs depend on short melodic phrases in which a leader sings first and the group repeats the phrase in a slightly different way. Although the phrases are short, they lend themselves to many forms of rhythmic and melodic variations. There’s also lots of emphasis on the weak beats of a musical phase, giving it a jumpy, bouncy quality. The African pentatonic or five-tone scale gives the music its unique sound and has become the very essence of blues and jazz.

In 1619 the first Dutch slave ship arrived and by the 1660’s, slavery began in the United States on a large scale. From the very start, repression, violence and fear of retaliation became a way of life in the Southern colonies where strong backs, nimble fingers, and docile minds were needed to build and maintain the Southern plantations. No attempts were made to teach slaves to read or write; passes were required of all slaves travelling between plantations and severe punishments were meted out to those caught without them, especially after the Nat Turner Rebellion of 1832. Out of the suffering and neglect of slavery, a whole body of original and powerful emotional music was created.

TOM FAIGIN is a guitar and banjo teacher in the San Fernando Valley since 1960 and is on staff of many schools, music organizations, and colleges. He lectured on American Folk Music from 1982-1985 at Cal. State Los Angeles.