Current political map of West Africa 

Context in source publication

Context 1

... West African nations of Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and The Gambia, all of which formed part of the Empire of Mali (see figure 1), have since independence sought to revitalize and invigorate their traditional arts and culture. 1 Their cultural policies helped form one of the most vibrant music scenes in Africa, and authors such as Waterman, 2 Schulz, 3 and Charry 4 have offered an examination of the origin of the musical styles. As exercises in the relatively new field of “urban ethnomusicology” 5 they concern themselves with the music of Africa’s cities and urban centres, and underscore how music, as an aspect of culture, informs us about the nature of the society which created it. This paper, which examines the revitalisation of traditional music in Guinea under Sékou Touré and the political role of musicians, in contrast examines how music can also fail to inform us. The background can be set out briefly. In 1898, after a prolonged insurgency, Guinean resistance to French colonial forces collapsed with the defeat of Almami Samori Touré, the nation’s resistance leader. By the end of the century the French had colonised the greater part of what constituted the Empire of Mali and French Guinea, as the nation was then known, was incorporated into an administrative region known as French West Africa. Some sixty years later in 1958 Guineans voted in a referendum on whether to join other West African nations in a French confederacy. Spurred on by Sékou Touré’s famous statement that ‘We prefer freedom in poverty to riches in chains’, they voted decisively against the proposal and shortly thereafter Guinea became an independent state. The French, humiliated by the vote, began an immediate withdrawal, removing not only all furniture and cutlery, but also the telephones, medicines, medical equipment and blueprints to the electricity grid and sewerage systems. 6 Guinea was left isolated, both politically and economically. The French had accomplished little in terms of advancing Guinea’s standard of living; much less than they had realised in other African nations. At independence just 1.3% of children were receiving a primary school education, and Guinea was left with just six university graduates 7 from a population of approximately 4,500,000. The French had achieved even less in promoting Guinean arts, and Sékou Touré, the newly elected President, and his political party, the Parti Démocratique de Guinée (PDG), were determined to put the colonial era behind them and to restore their nation’s pride and place in the modern world. In Guinea, as in other West African nations, music and politics are inextricably linked. Using the popular music of Sékou Touré’s Guinea I propose that the rise of Guinean musical groups in this early post-colonial period closely mirrored the burgeoning dominance of Guinea’s independent political parties. Government cultural policy was directed at the griots, the hereditary bards, who, given their unique historical relationship with the traditional rulers, were considered the ideal choice for the dissemination of political doctrine. The griots, as I shall illustrate, were thus central figures in the creation of new musical styles in Guinea in the early independence era and beyond. Founded in the 13 century by Soundiata Keita, the Empire of Mali reached its height in the 15 th century. Those who trace their ancestry to that empire are commonly known as Mande, and the term applies to such language groups as the Malinké in Guinea, the Bamana in Mali, and the Mandinka in The Gambia and Senegal. The term ‘Manding’ is equally applicable, as is the term ‘Mandingo’, although the latter is now considered passé . There are currently over 25 Mande dialects with over seven million speakers. Mande society was and still remains highly stratified, consisting of three main strata – the horon, who are regarded as the “noble” class and are considered freeborn, or uncasted; the nyamakala, who are often referred to as the “artisan class”, and which include the griots , leatherworkers, wood carvers, and blacksmiths; and the jon, who are the descendants of slaves. These classes are generally endogamous, although marriages between different strata members are becoming more common. Oral methods of retention such as story-telling and songs have been the primary methods by which the history of Mande society has been passed down through the generations. The griots have always played a central role in this retention, for as the hereditary musicians of the Mande, as the oral historians, they have been largely responsible for the preservation of their culture’s history. In recognition of this griots have been referred to as ‘the guardians of the word’, 8 for their knowledge of history is indisputable. The role of a griot in Mande society is however a highly complex one and they fulfil multiple tasks. They are most commonly described as bards, and are also widely referred to as singer-historians. Specifically, they act as genealogists, praise-singers, and entertainers. In the pre-colonial era they were the court musicians, serving not ...