Ibeyi (ee-bey-ee), meaning twins in Yoruba, a language spoken primarily in the West-African country of Nigeria, is a French-Cuban duo of twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé (lead vocals and piano) and Naomi Diaz (vocals, cajón, and Bata drum). Their father was Anga Diaz, a famous conguero, and member of the Buena Vista Social Club, so music (especially styles originating from within the Afro-Latino diaspora) played a major role in their artistic development. This shows in their work, as it frequently evokes Afro-Cuban and Yoruban musical and thematic elements. However, despite their roots in traditional [African] diasporic music, their oeuvre contains a rather nebulous mix of jazz, soul, hip-hop, and R&B, all of which are distant cousins to the musical …show more content…
Due to the spread and subsequent splintering of the faith during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, as people from West African countries were shipped throughout the Americas (North, Central, and South), these spiritual forces have been defined in a variety of different ways, with different inter-religious analogies being used in an attempt to clarify the subject. However, in his book The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts, Baba Ifa Karade, an initiated practitioner of the Ifa religion, writes about the orisha in a way that, while simple, manages to avoid oversimplification. Additionally, his interpretation is free of the excessively esoteric jargon present in many insider descriptions of religious concepts, African or …show more content…
The presence of such traditions in these different places has had an undeniable impact on the respective areas’ artistic and cultural identity. For example, African influences can be found in the polyrhythmic intensity of New Orleans Jazz, the percussion-centered sound of hip-hop, and the communal ecstasy of Southern Baptist religious ceremonies, where, under the influence of energetic music and prayer, people claim to “catch (or become possessed by) the holy
Cuba is considered one of the places where African music has been most fully preserved. Within this island nation there exist many secular and religious genres of Afro-Cuban music. These genres are associated with the spread of palo monte and santeria—two of the many neo-African syncretic religions in the New World (Den Tandt and Young 251). The idea of syncretism—a mixing of the beliefs or practices of different groups—is very popular in many aspects of analysis of the New World’s Africanization. With respect to religion, the term refers especially to the combining of characteristics of native...
The events of Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart and the film Sugar Cane Alley detail the lives of a fictionalized Nigerian village and sugar cane harvesters in remote Martinique, respectively, during similar time periods of the 1900s. Both works contain explicit references to Christianity, and how the imposition of religion and white culture have negatively affected the African characters. European religious practice was used as a means of pacifying as well as terrifying the Umuofian people and the inhabitants of Sugar Cane Valley.
Imagine a group of foreign people invading your home, disavowing all your beliefs, and attempting to convert you to a religion you have never heard of. This was the reality for thousands and thousands of African people when many Europeans commenced the Scramble for Africa during the period of New Imperialism. A great fiction novel written by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, highlights the responses to missionaries by African people. The African natives responded to the presence of white missionaries with submission to their desires, strategic responses to counteract them, and with the most disruptive response of violence.
St John, Graham. "Electronic Dance Music Culture And Religion: An Overview." Culture and Religion 7.1 (2006): 1-25. Academia.edu. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
During a most dark and dismal time in our nations history, we find that the Africans who endured horrible circumstances during slavery, found ways of peace and hope in their religious beliefs. During slavery, Africans where able to survive unbearable conditions by focusing on their spirituality.
By following and analyzing some of the key moments of faith in his life, this paper seeks to expose the extent to which the series of controversial dialectical incidents that happened throughout his early life, i.e., his cultural African religious traditions (thesis), and Christianity as taught by his slave masters (antithesis), had a direct influence in developing his own understanding of religion (synthesis). Furthermore, this paper will demonstrate that Olaudah Equiano's decision was based on the impact of both the influences of culture and slavery, and a personal experience based on his perspective of divine intervention. To begin, most Africans have come from societies with traditional African religious backgrounds unrelated to Islam or Christianity. As a whole, African religious traditions combine belief in a Supreme Being with the worship of other gods and ancestors and use ritual and magic to mediate between human beings, nature, and the gods. In many African languages, there is no word for God, because in their tradition, everything and place embodies God.
African American religious music is the foundation of all contemporary forms of so called “black music.” African American religious music has been a fundamental part of the black experience in this country. This common staple of the African American experience can be traced back to the cruel system of slavery. It then evolved into what we refer to today as gospel music. The goal of this paper is to answer three main questions. What are the origins of African American religious music? How did this musical expression develop into a secular form of music? What is the future of African American religious music? These questions will be answered through factual research of African American traditions, artists, and various other sources.
Religion was and remains a vital part of the lives of most Africans. For some it encompassed their entire existence. It substantiated and explained their place in the universe, their culture, and their relationship to nature and humankind. It also dictated their roles in the community and society at large. Religion among most African ethnic groups was not simply a faith or worship system, it was a way of life, a system of social control, a provider of medicine, and an organizing mechanism.
Throughout the semester, various styles of music and the aspects of culture associated with these styles have been analyzed. Musical elements such as dynamics, texture, form, timbre, melody, instruments, etc., have been used to thoroughly explore each kind of music from different areas of the world, with an emphasis in music from Africa, India and Indonesia. These aspects of music go far beyond just music itself. Culture also plays a huge role in music and the accompanying musical elements. Each country and culture has a different style and distinctiveness that add to what makes the music of that certain culture unique. Music in Africa may differ dramatically from music in Indonesia or India not only due to those certain elements but also due to how it is interpreted by people and what it represents for those people. In addition to this, what one may consider music in one culture may not be music to another. These differences have been made apparent in the several demonstrations that we have been exposed to in class.
Spirituals, a religious folk song of American origin, particularly associated with African-American Protestants of the southern United States. The African-American spiritual, characterized by syncopation, polyrhythmic structure, and the pentatonic scale of five whole tones, is, above all, a deeply emotional song. Spirituals are really the most characteristic product of the race genius as yet in America. But the very elements which make them uniquely expressive of the Negro make them at the same time deeply representative of the soil that produced them. Spirituals were long thought to be the only original folk music of the United States, and research into its origin centered mainly on the nature and extent of its African ancestry. Because slaves were brought to the United States from many parts of Africa, no single African musical source is clear. Elements that African music and American black spirituals have in common include syncopation, polyrhythmic structure, the pentatonic scale, and a responsive rendition of text.
Religions is an important way for people to spirit rely on, it make people feel full and don’t afraid about the future life or something they don’t know. Slave music use on these religious ceremonies and celebrations,that make people feel their spirit rely
Contemporary, as well as older, Gospel music originated from the “Spirituals.” The spirituals, also known as the “Negro Spirituals or African-American folk songs,” were religious songs sung by the African Americans slaves in Southern America. The spirituals spawned from teachings of Christianity from slave owners, the church and even hymns. The songs were usually about love, hope, peace, oppression, freedom and even used as a secret code. The African American slaves would sing while working so much so that slave o...
In conclusion, it is clear that the coming of Christianity to Africa was not greeted with open arms. While it granted Africans the chance to acquire new teachings, it also insinuated itself within politics, family, and traditions, utterly destroying them from the inside out. Having been detailed within novels by Achebe, Oyono, and Thiong’o, it is easy to see how these “pacifying” roles eventually led to a total conquest for all of Africa.
Music played a very important role in the lives of people is diaspora communities. It served as a reminder for the immigrants of their homeland, which allowed them to proudly express their national and cultural identities. Diaspora refers to an international network of communities linked together by the identification of a common ancestral homeland and culture. People in these communities are no longer living in their homelands, with no guarantee of a return either. (Bakan, 19). Music played a large role in African diaspora communities. This was first started by the slave trades many years ago when slave traders traveled to the coast of West Africa to capture Africans and brought them back to the United States to be slaves on plantations. Slaves were more prone to loose a sense of their own culture because every new aspect of their lives was forced upon them, therefore they were undoubtedly forced to abandon their n...
Juju music emerged in the 1920's and is the most well-known form of Yoruba popular contemporary music in Nigeria. Juju has its roots in traditional Yoruba drum based music. Juju is dance music played by large ensembles centered on guitars and drumming. Singing is a major part of Juju music and is inspired by Yoruba poetry, proverbs, praise songs, and the musical character of the language. The culture and music remained the same for decades after colonization and its explorers left Nigeria. The negative legacies...