Wolof music
Encyclopedia
Wolof people
The Wolof are an ethnic group found in Senegal, The Gambia, and Mauritania.In Senegal, the Wolof form an ethnic plurality with about 43.3% of the population are Wolofs...
, the largest ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
in Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, have a distinctive musical tradition that, along with the influence of neighboring Fulani, Tukulor, Serer
Serer people
The Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia....
, Jola
Jola people
The Jola are an ethnic group found in Senegal , The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau. There are great numbers on the Atlantic coast between the southern banks of the Gambia River, the Casamance region of Senegal and the northern part of Guinea-Bissau...
, and Malinke cultures, has contributed greatly to popular Senegalese music
Music of Senegal
Senegal's musical heritage is better known than that of most African countries, due to the popularity of mbalax, which is a form of Wolof percussive music; it has been popularized by Youssou N'Dour. Sabar drumming is especially popular.-Folk music:...
, and to West African music
Music of West Africa
West Africa stretches from the Sahara Desert to the Atlantic Ocean. The region's musical heritage includes a variety of popular music styles, especially from the countries of Senegal, Ghana, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Sierra Leone and Nigeria...
in general. Wolof music takes its roots from the Serer
Serer people
The Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia....
musical tradition, particularly from the Serer
Serer people
The Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia....
pre-colonial Kingdom of Saloum. Virtually all Wolof musical terminology including musical instruments comes from the Serer
Serer people
The Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia....
lanaguage,
Griot Tradition
Wolof musicians were traditionally drawn from the griotGriot
A griot or jeli is a West African storyteller. The griot delivers history as a poet, praise singer, and wandering musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition. As such, they are sometimes also called bards...
s (géwél), or of the blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
(tëgg), who were masters of drumming. Griots taught history, ethics and religion using their songs and recitations, and were employed by powerful members of the community as praise-singers and historians. Today many modern Wolof musicians still come from Griot families.
After the 19th century conversion of major Wolof kingdoms to Islam, the tagg, or ode song in Wolof, was reused in an Islamic Nasheed tradition—an important integration of pre-Islamic style into the new Muslim paradigm.
Instruments
Wolof folk instruments include the xalamXalam
Xalam, also spelled khalam, is the Wolof name for a traditional stringed musical instrument from West Africa. The xalam is thought to have originated from modern-day Mali, but some believe that, in antiquity, the instrument may have originated from ancient Egypt...
or halam, which is a five-stringed lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
, very important in Wolof folk music, the sabar
Sabar
The sabar - from the Serer people in origin, is traditional drum from the West African nation of Senegal. It is generally played with one hand and one stick. Among its most renowned exponents is the Senegalese musician Doudou N'Diaye Rose. The sabar was used to communicate to other villages...
drums, an ensemble of seven different drums, each differently tuned
Musical tuning
In music, there are two common meanings for tuning:* Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice.* Tuning systems, the various systems of pitches used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical bases.-Tuning practice:...
, and the hourglass
Hourglass drum
Hourglass drums are a sub-category of membranophone, or drum, characterized by an hourglass shape. They are also known as waisted drums...
talking drum called a tama. The Qadiriyyah Sufi order use tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
drums.
Modern Wolof musicians have incorporated instruments usually associated with the neighboring Serer
Serer people
The Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia....
, Fula
Fula people
Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...
and Mandinka
Mandinka people
The Mandinka, Malinke are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa with an estimated population of eleven million ....
, including the Fula flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, the Mandinka balafon
Balafon
The balafon is a resonated frame, wooden keyed percussion idiophone of West Africa; part of the idiophone family of tuned percussion instruments that includes the xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and the vibraphone...
, the Maures tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
drums, the Mandinka kora
Kora (instrument)
The kora is a 21-string bridge-harp used extensively in West Africa.-Description:A kora is built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator, and has a notched bridge. It does not fit well into any one category of western instruments and would have to be...
(a West African harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
), the riiti (a Fula single-stringed bowed instrument), the Serer Tama
Tama
-Religion:* Tama , part of the soul in the Japanese Shinto faith, roughly equivalent to ghost, spirit, or soul* Tama , a votive deposit or ex-voto used in the Eastern Orthodox Churches...
, the Serer Sabar
Sabar
The sabar - from the Serer people in origin, is traditional drum from the West African nation of Senegal. It is generally played with one hand and one stick. Among its most renowned exponents is the Senegalese musician Doudou N'Diaye Rose. The sabar was used to communicate to other villages...
, the Serer Junjung
Jung-Jung
Jung-Jung is the name for the royal war drum of the Serer people in Senegal and Gambia. It was played on the way to battle as well as on special State occations.-See also :*Serer people...
, the Serer music motifs
Motif (music)
In music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition....
and musical terminology
Musical terminology
This is a list of musical terms that are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian , in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special musical meanings of these phrases differ from...
such as Mbalax
Mbalax
Mbalax is the national popular dance music of Senegal and The Gambia. Mbalax is a fusion of popular Western music and dance such as jazz, soul, Latin, and rock blended with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of Senegal...
, Mbeng Mbeng, Baka, Tassou etc. "The Serer people
Serer people
The Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia....
are known especially for their rich knowledge of vocal and rhythmic practices that infuse their everyday language with complex overlapping cadences and their ritual with intense collaborative layerings of voice and rhythm... Many Serer communities are known for their longstanding preservation of traditional healing practices, nature-based sorcery and soothsaying, love of inter-community traditional wrestling (Senegalese wrestling
Senegalese wrestling
Senegalese wrestling is a type of Folk wrestling traditional performed by the Serer people and now a national sport in Senegal and parts of The Gambia, and is part of a larger West African form of traditional wrestling...
) matches, and intense familiarity with the complex rhythms of the African talking drum called Tama
Tama
-Religion:* Tama , part of the soul in the Japanese Shinto faith, roughly equivalent to ghost, spirit, or soul* Tama , a votive deposit or ex-voto used in the Eastern Orthodox Churches...
and the dance and song that accompany it.
"The late Serer diva
Diva
A diva is a celebrated female singer. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of "prima donna"....
"Yandé Codou Sène
Yandé Codou Sène
Yandé Codou Sène was a Senegalese singer of Serer origin. She was born in 1932 at Somb in the Sine-Saloum delta and died on 15 July 2010 at Gandiaye in . She was the official griot of president Léopold Sédar Senghor...
was a practitioner of the Tassou (often spelled Tasú), a form of sung and chanted poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
central to both everyday and ritual Serer life that is also used explicitly by the Wolof
Wolof people
The Wolof are an ethnic group found in Senegal, The Gambia, and Mauritania.In Senegal, the Wolof form an ethnic plurality with about 43.3% of the population are Wolofs...
, Fula
Fula people
Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...
, Mandinka
Mandinka people
The Mandinka, Malinke are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa with an estimated population of eleven million ....
, Bambara and other regional ethnic groups. The powerful word play and voicecraft of tassou is primarily the domain of regional women called tassoukats, whose work as griots includes narrating the marriages, rites of passage
Rites of Passage
Rites of Passage is an African American History program sponsored by the Stamford, Connecticut US public schools. The program consists of an extra day of schooling on Saturday for 12 weeks, service projects, and a culminating educational trip to Gambia and Senegal. Gambia and Senegal are the...
, infant naming ceremonies
Naming ceremony
A naming ceremony is the event at which an infant is given a name or names. They can occur anywhere from mere days after birth to several months afterwards. Some of these ceremonies have religious or cultural significance. In Christianity the process is often connected with Christening.- Hinduism...
of neighbors and leaders; announcing community events door-to-door; and performing their tassou onstage as popular recording artists, often with a full backing band and dancers.... Like the male griots, they infuse these improvisations with tagg : praises and stories from a particular celebrant’s matrilineal and/or patrilineal lineage."
Dance Rhythms
Wolof music has unique dance rhythms. Farwoudiar (from the Serer language) is a women's dance with a distinct tama (of SererSerer people
The Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia....
orign) accompaniment in which women celebrate their prospective husbands (based on the Serer people's
Serer people
The Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia....
marital tradition)
Senegalese musicians
- Doudou N'Diaye RoseDoudou N'Diaye RoseDoudou N'Diaye Rose , born Mamadou N'Diaye in Dakar, is Senegalese drummer composer and band leader, and is the recognized modern master of Senegal's traditional drum, the sabar...
: Sabar master and Griot. He is of SererSerer peopleThe Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia....
origin as the surname N'Diaye or Njie is SererSerer peopleThe Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia....
in origin. - Mbaye Dieye FayeMbaye Dieye Faye-Overview: Mbaye Dieye Faye is a singer and percussionist in Senegal. He was born to a modest family of griots. He had a difficult life before he became a celebrity. He sings because he's a griot, but it's a passion for him to sing. He dreamt of being one of the famous singers in his...
: Singer and percussionist of Serer origin. - Youssou N'DourYoussou N'DourYoussou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, percussionist and occasional actor. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, in Senegal and much of Africa, "perhaps the most famous singer alive." He helped develop a style of popular music in Senegal, known in the Serer language as mbalax, a type of music...
: Perhaps the most famous Senegalese singer, from a Griot family on his mother's side. He is of Serer heritage as the surname N'DourN'DourN'Dour may refer to:* Alassane N'Dour , Senegalese football player* N'Dour , a fictional character appearing in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure* Youssou N'Dour , Senegalese singer and percussionist...
is SererSerer peopleThe Serer people along with the Jola people are acknowledged to be the oldest inhabitants of The Senegambia.... - Alioune Mbaye NderAlioune Mbaye NderAlioune Mbaye Nder is a Senegalese Singer. Nder takes his name from the n'der, the drum favoured by his griot father.-Background:...
: Singer, the Prince of Mbalax - Thione SeckThione SeckThione Ballago Seck is one of Senegal's greatest singers and musicians in the mbalax genre, on par with Baaba Maal and Youssou N'dour although he hasn't achieved the same level of fame outside his country. Seck comes from a family of "griot" singers from the Wolof people of Senegal...
: Famed singer of the 1970s to today. He is of Lebou origin as the surname Seck (or Secka) is Lebou though associated with the Wolof, they are a distinct tribe. - Jimi MbayeJimi MbayeJimi Mbaye is a Senegalese guitarist best known for his work with Youssou N'dour. Mamadou 'Jimi' Mbaye has developed a unique Senegalese guitar style in which he makes his Fender Stratocaster sound like local instruments such as the kora or xalam....
: Guitarist and producer
Sources and external links
- Mbye B. Cham, "Islam in Senegalese Literature and Film", Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 55, No. 4, Popular Islam, 1985 pp. 447-464.