SUDAN: MUSIC AND DANCE

Sudan's multi-ethnic society has had a tremendous impact on their culture since antiquity. And several of these ethnic groups contributed different styles and instruments.

Music and dance are often used as part of religious ceremonies, like in the Sufi Dervish. They use it as part of a ceremony trying to reach altered consciousness called zikr. Women's drumming circles are also an important part of their musical culture. Several kinds of musical styles came from the northern part of Sudan. One of the most common types is an a cappella style of vocal harmonies called haqibah. This type, often accompanied by some percussion (usually a tambourine-like instrument called a riq) or other tonal instruments, originated from Muslim musical styles. However, haqibah got its start during the 1920s.

Because of its ties to the Arab world, many of the instruments used in Sudanese music share a common origin. A number of string instruments like the tambura and the oud were borrowed from the Arab musical traditions. Many of the percussion instruments share origins with many African and Arab styles as well.

The use of dance is integrated into many aspects of Sudanese society. One well-known tradition is simply known as the Bride Dance, a dance performed by women on her wedding night, usually in revealing clothes (sometimes half naked), in front of a crowd. But nowadays, the views on dance has been diminished; moving your body in those kinds of ways is highly frowned upon at the very least, illegal in some cases. And many women see it as demeaning and don’t wish that on their daughters. However, some girls don’t mind being able to move like that in such a repressive society.

Popular music started booming in the middle part of the 20^th century. Women were even joining in, and duets were quite the thing. American music, Congolese music, and Cuban music really opened up their world as musical influencers. The introduction of guitars and brass instruments changed the sound. But then sharia law was introduced in 1989, and everything slowed down. Musicians and writers were being jailed, and content was being censored.

I did listen to a few Sudanese musicians on YouTube. The first one I listened to was Abdel Karim el Kably (his name is spelled a variety of ways). I especially like the use of strings in his music. I watched a video of him performing in the early 1960s. Fast forward to the 1990s, and I watched a video of Mohammed Wardi performing in Ethiopia. According to the comments, everyone in this area of Africa loved his music. The song I listened to almost had an early reggae feel to it. I can see why people liked it so much.

Kamal Keila (also spelled as Kayla) definitely has a lot of reggae and funk influence in their music. The song I listened to was called “African Unity.” I love this style – I was completely digging on this!

And then I came across a rapper named Bangs. He made a video for his song called “Take you to da movies.” And it’s… um… not that great. It has a lot of mid-1990s video editing effects to it, and I’m not quite a fan of the male falsetto voice. And the lyrics were not quite lyrical. Apparently late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon shared the same opinion and really poked fun of him on his show. Bangs now lives in Australia, and I came across a video of him on Australian TV talking about the incident as the hosts of that show were coaching him on a response. Fun fact I learned: the Australian English equivalent for the American English term “bangs” (as in hair hanging down on your forehead) is “fringe.” The more you know.

Up next: the food