Music of Sub-Saharan Africa

After completing our unit on African music, I became particularly interested in Isicathamiya groups, the time-line patterns in their music and the history/effects on the daily life of on blacks, whites and asian people during apartheid.

Firstly, let's talk a bit more about Isicathamiya. This genre of music is based out of South Africa, a musical tradition started by the Zulu's. Before Isicathamiya had a name and standing in African music, this practice was done by Zulu men following WWI. These men moved from the rural parts of the country to the more urban areas in search of work. Many of these men found jobs in factories and coal mines, meaning they had to work hard and often times, their lives were very difficult. In an effort to cope with their new surroundings, singing groups were formed so that they could perform and compete against each other. This was a way to entertain their families whose lives and routines had been completely uprooted and changed quickly with the move. As time went on, the style morphed into many things. Mbube is a similar musical style that is described as being a bit more "bombing and boisterous" in sound. It was not until the 1960's/1970's that the music began to soften and we have the sound we now know as Isicathamiya. Today, this genre of music is considered pop all throughout South Africa and it has even grown in popularity outside of the country's walls. Isicathamiya is a combination of many types of music; including material from Christian backgrounds, local folk music and more. Most of the time, their songs are sung in the Zulu language, with English being intertwined in certain parts. In Isicathamiya groups, males continue to dominate the art form; with groups ranging in different sizes (4 being the smallest and 20 being a large group). While performing, the group will have choreographed dances that go along with their songs as well as all matching outfits. This is how these groups are remembered and recognized in the public eye. Their performances can be very complex and elaborate as some of the material they sing about can be very serious and heavy. Below is a video example of Isicathamiya groups performing for their communities at the Jeppe Hostel in Johannesburg, South Africa:

Secondly, I became really interested in the polyrhythms heard in African music. As someone who has a really hard time with rhythmic dictation, listening to the layers of rhythms on top of African music, I was completely mind blown at the complexity of it all. As I did my research, (typing "polyrhythms in African music" into Google's search engine) I came across a Britannica Encyclopedia article that talked about something called time line patterns. The idea of time line patterns is that there is a rhythmic ostinato happening throughout the music that goes against the melody or rhythm of the other performers. This can be created with simple hand clapping or with instrumentation of differing timbres (so the sound can stand out). This style is common in West African dance music. Although I did not find any videos that spoke broadly about the time-line pattern in African music (a lot of the videos were on very specific time patterns, etc.) I did find a unique video that taught simple rhythm patterns using West African music. Coming from a music ed. background, I thought it was a pretty cool way of teaching rhythm to people while also incorporating culture and diverse music. The video attached is the first in a rhythm tutorial series so feel free to look at the other ones if interested ;)

3.) Lastly, through this unit, I became very interested in learning more about apartheid and the effects it had on white, black and asian people in South Africa. The word apartheid literally means, "apartness" in the Afrikaans language and that was exactly what it did for 46 years. The foundation for apartheid was race classification, which was implemented in the 1950s. This placed people into certain categories that would set the stage for how they would be treated. There were four classifications that you could be assigned to- 'native', 'coloured' (aka people of mixed race), 'Asian' or 'white'. These classifications were taken very seriously by the government- people who were found out to not be classified became liable to be arrested, As you can imagine, just like how we saw with segregation in America, apartheid and race classifications separated people from each other. The South African government, run by white men, would prohibit South Africans from engaging in interracial marriage, going to the same schools as whites, being employed with other races along with other racial injustices. This effected the daily life of so many people and instilled fear in many more. More drastic effects of apartheid caused many South Africans to lose their citizenship in the country and be considered as aliens, and for others who resisted, consequences could go as far as exile. Attached below is a YouTube video that speaks more in depth about apartheid, more specifically how people would be classified and what their daily lives looked like. A terrible part of our world history, it is still something we need to know about and learn from. May we never forget the horrors and sadness of apartheid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-tqDiXq-is

Bibliography:

https://www.britannica.com/art/isicathamiya

https://www.britannica.com/art/African-music/Musical-structure

https://www.apartheidmuseum.org/exhibitions/race-classification

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2636545/