Write listening journal about Mali music

Traditional Music

Mali: music, power, and hybridity

“Traditional music” ● “Traditional music”: music

passed on orally from generation to generation, rather than through the mass media.

● Jeli: traditional, hereditary musicians of Mali.

Mamadou Diabate, shown here playing the kora, is a jeli. He won a Grammy in 2008 for Best Traditional Music Album.

Jeliya: a West African tradition ● Jeli = term for a musician (word varies with local

languages) ● French called them griots (origin of term unknown) ● Jeliya = “what jeli do,” i.e., music, singing, oral history,

etc.

The balafon: another jeli instrument ● Xylophones—wooden-

keyed instruments played with beaters—are found in many parts of Africa and are the ancestors of the American marimba

Jeli and caste ! The jeli profession dates back to Sunjata Keita, founder

of the 13th-century Mandinka empire, which ruled much of West Africa

! This centralized, hierarchical empire had multiple castes —social divisions with separate religious rights: slaves, nobles, and in between them the freeborn craft specialists

! Remnants of these divisions remain today among Mande-speaking people around West Africa: in Mali, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Gambia and the Ivory Coast

! Jeli were variously classed as slaves or as craft specialists, and were attached to kings and other nobles

Jeliya: function ● As craft specialists, the jeli’s job was ● Praise-singing ● Genealogy ● Oral history ● Note: these three things are linked: a person’s status is praised by

singing of the exploits of his or her ancestors in history ● (Praise can be ironic, too.)

Modern jeliya ● In 20th century, under French colonialism, jeli were

attached to chiefs (demoted kings) ● Today, in independent, democratic Mali, jeli still exist ● Some successful jeli are patronized by powerful

politicians or wealthy people ● they sing praises at weddings, baptisms, and circumcisions,

and some are now accompanied by guitar ● Successful jeli also make a living by touring and putting

out albums. ● Some stay traditional, others move to the popular music

arena, and some do both.

Jeliya: music ● Singing is highly assertive and melismatic (i.e., the

singer sings multiple notes on syllable). ● Repeated percussion pattern—on 4, 2, and 4 (if you count it

in 4). A third person (not the singer or kora player) is tapping this rhythm on the side of the kora resonator with a stick.

● Improvised passages on kora—generally descending motion when there is no singing

Jeliya: singing and texts ● Texts are highly poetic and allusive: an improvisational

mix of “proverbs, philosophical commentary, and formal and spontaneous praise for various individuals present at a performance.” ● Rather like a freelancing rapper, the jeli puts together

snatches of memorized rhymes with new rhymes thought up to fit the occasion.

● On following slide, text of a performance by Anchou Thiam of Senegal. It “concentrates on the bravery of a noble warrior of the past, who happens to be an ancestor of . . . [a] well-known Senegalese lawyer and politician.”

● Every line names an ancestor of the person he is praising:

JaajirAi wa Dembaane. Maa Joop Gandiool. RanaanJoopMaar Sere. Njante Joop Maar Sere. Mbaas Joop Maar Sere. Maa Joop Gandioo. Muse Saar Fari Joop, the hero. Muse Saar Fari Joop, the warrior. Muse Fari Joop, the courageous MuseF ari Joop did not betray the Brak( king)...

Another example… ● And on the next slide, a praise song for Leopold

Senghor, Senegal’s first post-independence leader. ● This praise song is less based on ancestry and more

concerned with praising the recent exploits of the person being praised.

You all know of the year 1960, It is in 1960 that Senghor became our leader. All nations respect us, Everybody respects Leopold ... Senghor is our leader ... Remember the time of the rice shortage And the increase in the price of ground-nuts! You know that at that time Senghor was still a student abroad. He obtained degrees and diplomas and the 'baccalaureat'.

These were not enough ... You made the demands And the country got its independence. Through your intelligence the deltas were developed, in addition to other projects that you had initiated. You said to the nation 'Work!' ... Yaay Ngilaan Baxum Jaay (your son) Leads the nation admirably. You wanted independence, Senghor, you were our ambassador To Canada; you passed through the United States.

When we were behind, and when we were on the brink of disaster, It was you who took the initiative. You appealed to the people to have patience and to pray. The course of destiny cannot be stopped ... Each region received its fair share. You brought back peace and harmony. Oh! Leopold, oh! Independence is pleasant! You are not a man of war. Not a shot fired, not a sword drawn.

Jeliya and power ● Throughout its history, jeliya has helped to define,

construct, and sometimes to critique political power. ● Ancient jeli were a craftsman or slave cast who served

nobles ● Colonial jeli were attached to chiefs ● Modern jeli perform for powerful people or for the market

● The very structure of jeliya music is designed to focus attention on the words, which empower the praised person through history and genealogy.

Popular music, hybridity, and power ● West African governments in the 1960s and 1970s did

something similar with popular music, forming bands to serve the nation and even specific leaders.

● Like the countries it served, which sought to localize foreign political concepts like socialism, the music of these bands was a hybrid of foreign and traditional forms.

● This mix of the familiar and the new has helped Malian popular music succeed internationally.