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Archive for the ‘Malian culture’ CategoryThe balafon is a bit like a xylophone or marimba and is played in many parts of West Africa, including Mali.
I was recently in Southern Mali, working with the Jo people and had the privilege of recording the instrument you see above. Underneath the wooden bars hang several gourds; these serve as resonators to amplify the sound of the instrument. Ingenious! Here’s what it sounded like: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Great sound and a lovely instrument! However, it may come as a surprise to you if I tell you that this is by no means an indigenous instrument for the Jo people. What you see here is the kind of balafon played by the Bambara. The Jo have their own balafon, known as the saba, but for the time being, churches are not playing it – maybe one day…
Time for a lesson from one of our timeless pioneers in the field of ethnodoxology: Roberta King, who worked with the Nyarafolo (Senufo) in northern Cote d’Ivoire and successfully reclaimed their balafon. The local folks decided to use only their local percussion instruments because (she says): “They claimed this provided a truly indigenous sound and an authentic rhythm that fit the message of their song [...] Such a sophisticated development came only after many years of working together toward worship songs that would speak meaningfully to them.” Wow! So there’s hope for me yet then! Download and read Roberta’s full article here – it’s very interesting. For example, less than an hour ago, I saw THIS:
Wow – a Touareg man riding dromedary camel!!! Now, you may think this is perfectly normal in a country which contains a significant proportion of the Sahara Desert, but here in Bamako you really don’t see them that much. Goats, sheep, donkeys, zebus, chickens – of course! But not camels! He was happy enough for me to take his photo but – like most men riding camels I’ve come across – he wanted some monetary recompense for the privilege! Other interesting happenings in my neighbourhood include the African Wedding celebration I blogged about last October (read it here).
Thanks for reading! The second most popular face in Bamako is this one:
A sticker seen on board a SOTRAMA, a window sticker in a taxi, an entire hair-dressing salon painted Obama-style and, on the market, there is no end of Obama shirts, belts and other merchandise! It is fair to say that, in recent times, the media have associated the predominant religion of Mali with a degree of anti-American sentiment. Well, there’s little evidence of this in Bamako – where there are almost as many stars and stripes to be seen as in Washington! My friend Clive, on his recent visit, made the most of this and got himself an Obama shirt. I, as you can see, remain faithful to my own country!!!
Don’t forget that I also found Obama goods for sale on St Albans market last year (post here), so it’s not just a Mali thing! And finally… I said that Obama’s face is only the SECOND most popular face around the city. So, QUIZ TIME! Whose face is seen even more often than Obama’s?? Folk who live in Bamako are barred from answering – the rest of you, have a guess (tricky one, though). Clue: Revolutionary. If you buy a turkey in Africa, beware – you may get more than you bargained for… Picture it if you will: It’s Christmas morning and Lois takes our supermarket-bought turkey out of the fridge and removes the plastic wrapping to reveal THIS:
Eeek! I know we ordered a ‘whole turkey’, but this is not quite what we wanted to gobble up! Needless to say, Lois vacated the kitchen with some haste and called for reinforcements (ie her husband) who was less frightened by this sight:
After 20 minutes of twisting, dislocating and chopping, Rob managed to make it look like a British supermarket turkey, rather than a meal fit for ‘Santa Claws’. There was actually a reasonable amount of meat on it (though not considering we paid for 2.5kilos of ‘turkey’).
Of course, in Africa folk eat the whole shabang and even crunch the bones with their teeth to suck out the marrow. In fact, when our cook returned after Christmas, he saw the discarded limbs & head in the outside bin and complained “Why didn’t you save them for me?” Maybe next year… My good friend Clive Rahn visited for Christmas and had a whale of a time! Here are some of the highlights of his visit (chosen entirely by me!)
(From top left to bottom right in the most logical way:) 1. A New Year’s Day boat trip on the Niger River. Wow – all that and more in just three weeks! Such fun! Clive is a seasoned globe-trotter and also came to Benin for Christmas 3 years ago (proof here) although we know him from England (see here). Hope you’re enjoying the cooler British weather again now, mate!! …is almost over!
But for weeks the roadsides of Bamako have been laden with piles of these green giants. Pretty tasty, but personally I can’t be bothered with spitting out all those black seeds and they are – as the name suggests – pretty watery too! I’m more looking forward to mango season!
…and it all happened just down my street!!
Yes, on Friday evening, there was a wedding celebration just down the road. I heard it from my house, so ventured out to investigate and ended up dancing with the ladies and playing one of the drums! (Some of those trees in the distance are in my garden!) Wehay, just like the old days in Benin, but without all the driving first! Here are the musicians: two djembes, a small barrel drum and a HUGE double-headed barrel drum (played horizontally):
There was also a boy playing a pressure drum:
Anyway, I’m sure you’d rather hear what it sounded like than look at photos, so here are three short extracts for you: Of course, a toubab can’t get his camera out in public without this happening:
Also, remember to click here to read about the African funeral, which happened down my street in Benin. Thanks for reading – that’s all for now. |
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