African dance essay - Professor Sharif PDF

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Mbalax Western African Dance

In the traditional form, mbalax originated from the Sabar genre that fuses culture and music from several different ethnic groups. The dance form of mbalax began in the 1970s in urban Senegal. Mbalax dancing is done in nightclubs, social gatherings, and weddings, birthdays, and naming ceremonies. The music is very danceable, catchy and uplifting which is what makes it a perfect genre for celebrations. Being procession based makes it different from other dance club genres. The consistent tempo throughout songs make it extremely enjoyable to dance to meanwhile it can still be telling valuable stories. The basic movements include pelvic gyrations and bent knees. It is a very high-energy, high-stepping dance. Sometimes considered provocative in terms on women hike their boubous and flash their legs. The griots sing high pitched praise songs along with sabar drums and other talking drums. The poly-rhythmic percussion from the sabar drum, repeating cord progression, fast, syncopated keyboards and guitar. The sabar drum is very specific to Wolof people and its played with one hand and one stick whereas other drums are played with either two drums or two sticks. The sabar drum makes Mbalax special because it has a wide range of notes from low bases to high-pitched notes, that is due to the combination of the hand and the stick making a variety of sounds. Sabar is unavoidable on the streets and neighborhoods of Senegal. A typical band might have four to six drummers. Songs can have many subjects from religious to social topics, but its main purpose is for dancing. After the country gained independence from France, the music resulted in a fusion of cultures. Senegalese popular music was largely influenced by blues, R&B and rock from the

United States and other countries including France and Latin pop from the Caribbean. Senegalese musicians wanted their own dance music, so they began to sing wolof instead of the French lyrics and used sabar drums to make it their own. Wolof is commonly spoken across major cities. Griots began experimenting with traditional sabar and combining with Cuban rumba and Mbalax was formed in the 1970s. Mbalax has never managed to establish itself on the international scene. Although, it is diverse and includes the countries different culture influences. Before Mbalax, Senegalese musicians played and listened to a lot of Cuban music. Salsa, blues, soul/funk were popular in Senegal and French speaking Africa. Senegalese music is not written down, the imagination of the musician is crucial. The griot is a story teller and passes down stories through their music. Youssou N’Dour, born in 1959, is known for shaping the style of Mbalax, he even is the first Senegalese musician to coin the term mbalax. In wolof, the term mbalax means accompaniment referring to the sabar drums. He is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, composers and actor. The Rolling Stone magazine described him as the most famous singer in Senegal and much of Africa. He formed the ensemble Etoile de Dakar. Etoile de Dakar is the first group to incorporate traditional Sabar rhythms into modern songs. They were a leading music group of Senegal in the 1970s and one of Dakar’s best-known night club house band and are the first band to include the small talking drum. Etoile de Dakar played Latin influenced dance music. A current popular artist is a Senegalese singer/ song writer born in 1972. She descended from a long line of griots and continues to pursue music. She received awards such as new talent/ singer award.

Musical Nationalism refers to the use of musical ideas that are identified with a specific country, ethnicity or region. As mentioned before Mbalax is rooted from the combination of several countries influence and altered when they gained independence from France. Many Senegalese identified as French instead of any African ethnicity post-independence. That had a huge influence on the music because the lyrics and drums were replaced when they realized they wanted their own style. After independence, there was a great sense of optimism and that is when all of these dance bands came about. People wants to celebrate that they were finally free from the French colonial powers. This helped give rise to popular music like Mbalax.

Works Cited

Appert. “On Hybridity in African Popular Music:The Case of Senegalese Hip Hop.” Ethnomusicology, vol. 60, no. 2, 2016, p. 279., doi:10.5406/ethnomusicology.60.2.0279.

Hargreaves, John D., and Andrew Clark. “Senegal.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 28 Feb. 2019, www.britannica.com/place/Senegal/The-arts.

Mount, Andre. “AllMusic. Http://Www.allmusic.com/.” Journal of the Society for American Music, vol. 7, no. 03, 2013, pp. 359–361., doi:10.1017/s1752196313000345.

Senegal: Baobabs, Boubous, and Mbalax, web.mit.edu/jync/www/writing/mbalax.html.

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