Ntama – Journal of African Music and Popular Culture

Dialogue or Juxtaposition. The Narrative of Saint Louis Art Museum

African Art in an Art Museum

Title of the catalogue of the St. Louis exhibition: „Narrative Wisdom and African Arts“
Edited by Nichole N. Bridges

The catalog of the exhibition “Narrative Wisdom and African Arts” by the Saint Louis Art Museum in the United States of America. The exhibition commenced in October of the previous year and concluded on February 16, 2025.

The exhibition’s accompanying catalog, published by the Saint Louis Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and the German company “Hirmer” from Munich, offers a comprehensive exploration of the intersection of narrative, African arts, and global cultural expression. The volume is under the editorship of Nichole N. Bridges. The book is 240 pages in length and features a visually appealing layout and artistic design, including pull-out pages. The publication is structured into 13 chapters, which are further divided into three overarching categories: “TEMP/ORALITIES; LEADERS; DESTINIES.

The exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum in the United States of America connects traditional with modern African art using narration as a bracket. Traditionally, these two fields of study have been quite separate. The exhibition establishes a connection through the use of narratives, serving as a unifying element. It is important to note that this does not encompass the entirety of the African continent, nor does it include all its regions. Undertaking such a task would undoubtedly be a colossal endeavor. However, connections are established across modern state boundaries, where colonial borders have been drawn through ethnic and/or cultural entities.

Cape Town’s Hip Hop Scene

(This article was originally published in 2002.)

Post-Apartheid South Africa as a crime and violence ridden society is still trying to overcome the racial-segregation and its discontents. Hip hop music of the early nineties represented by so-called gangsta rappers glorified a violent lifestyle. Both images can be found widely in the international media and in South African news papers as well. What they have in common is that they relate the ghetto life to a lifestyle of crime and violence. Hip hop music in this context is perceived as the sound track of an environment of violence, dictating every aspect of growing-up and socialisation.

Just as this concept of the violated South African society, especially in townships, is well-known outside the country, the international perception of rap music has reached South Africa as well. Gang warfare’s and ghetto crime’s global fame is due to its articulation within rap music. But it is not only restricted to US inner city ghettos. One can find this as well in the townships of the urban South Africa. With the growing popularity of US-hip hop, e.g. gangsta rap, the youth in the townships allegedly got something that they could relate to. On the other hand the public argued that rap music was not only a reflection of violence but also encouraged it.

Àbíkú Songs in Yorùbá Land

(This article was originally published in 2005.)

This ethnographical work examines the Yorùbá concept of “Àbíkú” (lit. born-to-die)¹ by analysing their songs. The study begins with the analyses various “Àbíkú” names seen in their songs by looking at their interpretations from sociological perspective. It delves into classification of àbíkú among Yorùbá drawing line of demarcation from varying attributes given as their characteristics for categorization. The paper discusses the social context of àbíkú songs in the Yorùbá indigenous religious system. It proves that regardless of Western scientific medical justification that proves the non-existence of àbíkú, The Yorùbá still believe in its existence up to the moment. Though the context of àbíkú songs and rituals associated with it had given way to modernization and foreign religions. Still, the practices of domesticated religions-Islam and Christianity authenticate the Yorùbá belief in àbíkú syndrome. This work concludes with the examination of some àbíkú songs by categorizing them into Propitiatory, Incantatory, Satirical and Praise.

HipHop-Revolution in Senegal

(Dieser Artikel erschien zum ersten Mal 1998.)

Ende 1979 kam mit “Rapper’s Delight” von Sugarhill Gang das erste Rap-Lied überhaupt auf den Markt, das mit seinem großem Erfolg eine längst überfällige, nicht nur musikalische Revolution ausbrechen ließ. Von New York aus ging die neue Musikrichtung und die damit verbundene Kultur HipHop (Musik, Bekleidung, Tanz, Graffitie, DJing etc.) rund um die Welt und brachte ein neues Lebensgefühl und seine verschiedenen Formen mit sich. Vorläufiger Höhepunkt dieser Bewegung: “The Message” von Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. Ein Lied, das 1984 mit seinem Inhalt (das erste Mal wird das Leben im Ghetto auf drastisch-realistische Art berschrieben) und seinem kommerziellen Erfolg (meistverkauftes Lied des Jahres in England!) wesentlich zum Durchbruch des HipHops beiträgt. Außerhalb New Yorks, sogar außerhalb der Vereinigten Staaten beginnen junge Leute, es selbst zu versuchen.
In Europa waren die Vorreiter (selbstverständlich nach England) die Franzosen (ab 1980 mit Dee Nasty u.a.), gefolgt von den Deutschen, den Italienern und den Spaniern. Die Entwicklungen in diesen Ländern liefen sehr isoliert, was u.a. auch daran lag, daß sie kaum eigene Produktionen machen konnten und deshalb keine Basis für einen Austausch hatten (ab 1988 verbesserte sich die Lage rapide). Deshalb orientierte sich der HipHop in Afrika an US-HipHop und nicht an die Europäer; ein Grund, warum Afro-HipHop dem Europäischen im Rahmen seiner Möglichkeiten kaum nachsteht.
Die erste größere HipHop-Szene Afrikas läßt sich zwar auf Grund der englischen Sprache (man verstand den HipHop aus den USA viel besser) in Südafrika vermerken, aber der frankophone Rap ließ nicht lange auf sich warten.

The Importance of Being a Jali Muso

Some Aspects of the Role and Status of the Women in the Music Life of Today’s Gambia²

(This article was originally published in 2002.)

The role and position of women in the music life of today’s Gambia is largely conditioned by the remnants of former social stratification. According to Gorer’s 1935 account, the jali / jali muso was the first person who touched a child at the moment of its introduction to the community and the last person to touch a dead body before it was laid in the ground (in Merriam 1964:139). On the other hand, some ethnic groups (for example, the Serer) believed that burying a griot in the ground would contaminate the soil or nearby springs, so they placed the body of a dead griot in the hollow trunk of the baobab tree (see Charry 1992:320). Such evident discrepancy between the role and status of musicians has continued to the present day and has been altered only to a small extent by the prestige of contemporary musicians, significantly intensified by their promotion in the mass media.

Cover of the cassette Kairo – Songs of The Gambia, vol. 2 released in Gambia by Arch Records and GRTS (archcass 002) in 1999

The popular dance of mbumba in the 1980s

(This article was first published in 2001.)

Mbumba

A term In Chichewa language (Malawi, eastern Zambia. central Mozambique) referring to a person”s allegiance through kinship (literally: “za umwini munth” about the ownerchip of a person). If a male person”s sister marries and produces children, all her children constitute the mbumba of her brother whom they will address malume (= maternal uncle). And he will be the mwini-mbumba (= the owner of the mbumba), all those children will be his mbumba. The matrilineal social struture of the Achewa brings about this kind of bifurcation. It cannot be that the man in question would call the children of his elder or younger brothers mbumba ayanga (= my mbumba), he would call them ana anga (my children). In this society parental power projects from the malume to the mbumba. A man in the “owner” of his sister(s) children.

“I”m successfull in Tanzania because I write about serious subjects”

My music is known as “ubongo beat”, because in Swahili “ubongo” means brain, and my songs are full of meaning.

(This article was first published in 2002 prior to the passing away of Remmy Ongala in 2010.)

Sivi (curriculum vitae)

Ramadhani Mtoro Ongala (Remmy) was born in the Congo (Kivu region) in 1947. Because he was born with his feet first, two upper milk teeth and full of dark hair, the traditional healer told his mother that Remmy could become a traditional healer himself in his future life. That is also the reason why he adopted the title “doctor” when he became a musician. The traditional healer also wanted Ongala´s mother never to cut the hair of Remmy and she followed that admonition. Only one time after his mother´s dead he cut his hair. After that he didn´t feel ashame of his locks any more (“When records by Bob Marley came out, I saw that he had hair like mine. So after that I felt allright. I became proud of my locks”).

Baba wa Taifa – Vater der Nation

(Dieser Artikel wurde zum ersten Mal 2000 veröffentlicht.)

Am 14. Oktober 1999 starb in einem Londoner Krankenhaus der erste Präsident Tansanias, Julius Kambarage Nyerere.³ Überall in Tansania wurde getrauert. Es herrschte eine starke emotionale Betroffenheit, die die gesamte Bevölkerung erfate. In die Trauer mischte sich auch Furcht um die Zukunft des Landes. Nyerere, der “Lehrer” (Swahili “Mwalimu”), wurde zu seinen Lebzeiten als Garant für Frieden und die Einheit des Landes betrachtet. Nach seinem Tod wurden nun Schlagworte seiner Politik in der populären Kultur verstärkt betont und verbreitet. So wurde in der Trauerzeit seine Funktion als Integrationsfigur hervorgehoben, er schon zu Lebzeiten besa. In den Wochen nach seinem Tod wurde von ihm in den Medien fast nur noch als “Vater der Nation” gesprochen, während dieser Beiname früher weniger gebraucht wurde.

Die Kleidungsstoffe Kanga und Vitenge, die aus Anla des Todes von Julius K. Nyerere hergestellt wurden, sind mit nationalen Symbolen beladen:

fast ausschlieliche Verwendung der Nationalfarben blau,gelb, schwarz und grün. Zusätzlich wird nur weiß verwendet.
Nationalfahne Tansanias
Freiheitsfackel “Mwenge”
Nationales Wappen mit Inschrift “Uhuru na Umoja” (Freiheit und Einheit)
Umri des Staates Tansania

Auf den Inschriften wird das Vermächtnis Nyereres beschworen: Einheit, Friede und Freiheit. Die Funktion Nyereres als Integrationsfigur wird zusätzlich durch den Beinamen “Baba wa Taifa” (Vater der Nation) ausgedrückt.

Kanga

Inschrift: Dumisheni upendo, amani, utulivu na umoja – ‘Erhaltet die Liebe, den Frieden, die Ruhe und die Einheit’
Schriftzug unter dem Foto: Baba wa Taifa, Mwalimu Julius Nyere. 1922 – 1999 – ‘Vater der Nation, Lehrer Julius Kambarage Nyerere. 1922-1999’

Felaism, Assessment of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti

(This article was first published in 1998.)

Felaism is the product of the society and us. For years to come we shall talk, argue and write about it, trying to arrive at some form of explanations and answers. But I am sure, there will never be a consensus because of the complex nature of the man himself. Sure, like with every mortal there are contracitions. Fela had his own too. Few questions, however, will be posed here. What is Felaism? What drove Fela, did he open a pandora box and found he could not replace back the lid? What happens to Felaism after Fela? For this writer, Felaism is living as dictated by Fela’s life style; specific aspects of these are:
Unrepentant and uncompromising in all struggles.
Being oneself and standing one’s ground.
Courage to willingly suffer for one’s belief.
Fela was indeed his own man. Nobody pushed him around.

“Farewell to the Queen” – African Music on Shellac Discs. The gramophone library of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service

(This article was first published in 2000 on the website of AMA – African Music Archives.⁴

Prologue

The following article was written shortly after my return from Sierra Leone in summer 1986.⁵ Over several months I had been in Freetown to work on the safeguarding of the shellac discs in the Gramophone Library of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS). The Project was funded by the West German Foreign Office in Bonn out of its cultural preservation budget.

The gramophone discs were played on a high quality machine and from there copied on to two reel-to-reel tape reorders simultaneously. This way one copy was to be used for the actual use of the broadcasting station whereas the other one went with me to Germny to be kept as an additional safety copy.

As the collection of the SLBS was of unique quality, comprising especially gramophone discs exclusively from Sierra Leone, the measure was taken after the director of SLBS had requested the assistance by the German government in 1984.

In 1990 a ferocious civil war had broken out in Sierra Leone, and rebels completely destroyed the radio station and with it the entire archive. Thus the copies in Germany were the only remains of the gramophone archive of SLBS. After the war the SLBS staff asked for a new copy of its shellac collection and our Foreign Office funded it again, as well a few years later another copy on CDs.

Even though the survey is from 1986 I consider it valuable for anybody into the research of record production of African music. It provides on the one hand an insight into what was produced at the time with artists from Sierra Leone, but it additionally informs us on the scope of music an anglophone West African radio station sent out on air!

By all joy about the documented collection we have to keep in mind, that any archive, and this included, is not complete, was never complete, and became less complete year by year. Shellac discs are breakable, they are worn out after intensive use. All that among other reasons made the collection a little bit like the “left over” of the period of the 1950s and 1960s.