F H 4: Music and Dance

1 Forgotten Heritage 2 Village Life 3 Music is Everywhere 4 African Kingdoms 5 Countries-Cultures 6 Slavers & Raiders 7 The Journey 8 The New World 9 The New World Africa's Children About Augie N'Kele What People Are Saying Stiftelsen 3,14, Bergen Exhibitions Two Dimensional Work Print Links Artist Residencies My Photos Critiques & Comments Motion

Music & Dance are a big part of African life

 Music is a big part of everyday life in Africa.  You cannot separate music from life. Every event...a birth, a wedding, catching a fish, the end of day, a death, anything, everything, is celebrated with music.


 

Musicians

Man With Drum

"We are almost a nation of dancers, musicians and poets," wrote Olaudah Equiano in his autobiography published in England in 1789.

Olaudah was from the Igbo ethnic group in Nigeria in West Africa. He described how every great event in his village was celebrated with public dances, songs and music suited to each occasion.

The rhythms of our African drums have influenced many types of music around the world

Man With Talking Drum

H13 W11  D10" 1996   P#195

But drums have also served another purpose in Africa. Long before the cell phone, long before the telegraph my people had wireless communications.

For untold centuries we used code to send messages from village to village with our "talking" drums.

Dogon Dancer

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Pende Dancer (detail) 

N'Kele ©1995, Wire/Alum, 26x48x11"
Dancers, many on tall stilts, elaborate costumes woven from raffia palm, drummers and other musicians all contribute to the excitement of the Pende celebrations. The Pende people live in the Bandundu region of Congo.

Musicians I

The artist playing a Kalimba (Thumb Piano) he made from a broken street light and some bicycle spokes. 

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