EQUATORIAL GUINEA: MUSIC AND DANCE

Many of the indigenous musical styles are in the Fang tradition since they are the largest ethnic group.  One common musical form is the call-and-response form, where the musical questions and answers alternate between the chorus and the drums.  Fang music is known for its use of the mvet, an instrument similar to a zither and harp.  The number of strings it has can vary, although some have up to fifteen strings.  What makes this unique is that unlike other African music traditions, the Fang devised a musical notation system for the mvet.  However, you can only learn it if you’ve been initiated into the Bebom-Mvet Society.  (Wonder if it’s anything like the Dead Poets’ Society?)

Some kinds of dance music –such as balélé and the ibanga– use an orchestral accompaniment. This orchestra typically consists of three or four people in a variety of combinations using xylophones, drums, sanza (also called an mbira or kalimba – I have one and love it!), zithers, and/or bow harps. 

The balélé is a type of dance that originated out of the Bubi tribes and is still performed today.  The music is performed with the three-or-four person orchestras and is often seen along the coastal regions throughout the year. It’s also danced on the island of Bioko as part of the Christmas traditions there.  The ibanga is a more risqué dance from Fang traditions, which is the other main dance of this country.  Another festival that includes dancing is called the abira: it’s a community-wide celebration that rids the entire community of evil.  Wonder if it’ll work for a city the size of Indianapolis. 

Today, styles of music popular across Africa are also heard in Equatorial Guinea, especially soukous and makossa, as well as reggae and rock.  Spanish guitar also has intertwined itself into traditional Equatoguinean music as well.  One group I listened to on Spotify is called Malabo Strit Band.  I kind of like their sound, even though I have no idea what “strit” is.  It definitely has that pan-African sound mixed with a little bit of reggae style. The vocals have tight harmonies, yet it was smooth and velvety.  Sometimes it almost sounds reminiscent of smooth jazz with their use of saxophones.

I also found a group called Loca Luna. It’s a cross between Spanish guitar and Middle Eastern or Mediterranean string instruments and drums.  From what I have heard, it was completely instrumental – I liked this group. 

Hijas del Sol is a female group built on vocal harmonies and African rhythms.  I can definitely tell the Spanish influences in the some melody lines.  From other melody lines, I have a feeling some of the music may also be based on older traditional songs. But it may be a hunch. What I appreciate is the variety of the harmonies: using thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, and alternating it with unisons and octaves between the two voices. 

Baron Ya Búk-Lú’s album Akamayong is also in my Spotify playlist. The entire album has what I always think of as a very distinct African sound, but not African as in the Lion King soundtrack.  I would say that they fall in the soukous category, utilizing the percussive patterns prominently found in soukous music as well as the distinct use of the horn line (or in some cases, synthesized horn lines). Other songs sound like smooth jazz and are slower.  

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DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: MUSIC AND DANCE

The Congolese refer to their music simply as ndule, the Lingala word for music. In fact, most of their own music is sung in Lingala with some French mixed in as well. After WWII, music in the DRC became more or less a fusion of African folk music mixed with Latin music, especially rumba coming out of Cuba. They adapted their music to include Latin instrumentation and styles.  The Belgians actually helped by bringing in electric guitars and equipment necessary to start recording music. The first recording studios were in Kinshasa.  Besides Cuban rumba, Congolese musicians were also influenced by American swing music and jazz, cabaret music from France, and a style known as highlife coming out of Ghana.  This new blend of Congolese became known as soukous and is highly influential in other areas around central Africa.

African jazz was super popular during the middle part of the 20^th century, and many jazz bands popped up all over the country, especially in the large cities. There were a lot of musicians who jumped back and forth between Kinshasa and Brazzaville. 

Soukous more or less became the base for almost all of the other styles of music in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  And then there were offshoots: rumba-rock, n’dombolo, etc. One band named Zaiko Langa Langa emerged and changed the genre to include a more smoother, pop-like sound, which many other bands and music groups followed as well. The term soukous has now become more of a catch-all term for all Congolese music.

And essentially, all Congolese music is dance music. Dance is so integrated with music that it’s hard to separate the two. Dance styles are generally named after the music it’s danced to. Different ethnic groups had their own dances and musical styles used to tell stories and act as part of special ceremonies.  The clip above is a great piece I found about Congolese dance today, combining tradition dance styles and ballet, telling the most pressing stories of women and other important issues at hand. 

Two super huge musicians that shaped Congolese music as we know it are definitely in my Spotify playlist. The first one is Joseph “Grand Kalle” Kabasele. I can definitely tell the Cuban influence on his music, but there’s also definitely an African quality to the guitar riffs.  There are times that I’ve wondered if I accidently switched over to my Cuban playlist instead. I love this music. I have the album Le Grande Kallé: His Life, His Music in my playlist.

 Another musician I found is Papa Wemba.  When I pulled up the photo of movie cover to La Vie est Belle, the DRC’s first major film produced (I mentioned it in my last post), it listed Papa Wemba on the cover – he did much of the music on the soundtrack.  I really like his music as well, and again, I can sense some of the Latin flavor in his music in regards to instrumentation and rhythms.  I liked the album Best of Papa Wemba: Cantos Essentials. 

 Another album in my playlist is Zaiko Langa Langa’s Tout Choc. It’s upbeat, and really, who doesn’t love a little cowbell?  It almost makes me think of outdoor cabanas, eating some kind of spicy, charred meat with a side of some fried plantains, drinking cold beer, taking in the warm breezes, and listening to this music for hours.

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REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: MUSIC AND DANCE

Rooted in the musical styles of central and western Africa, Congo is no stranger to a strong music and rhythmic background.  Some of the more common instruments are xylophones and marimbas, as well as the mvet, which is somewhat of a cross between a zither and a harp, except that it has one or two gourds that act as resonators. Of course, they also use a variety of drums and percussion instruments as well. 

Much of the music that is played and listened to in the Republic of the Congo is highly influenced by its neighbor with a similar name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (or DRC). One style called soukous is a major influence on the music scenes of most major cities in central and western Africa. Soukous is a sort of cross between Cuban rumba, American jazz, and traditional Congolese music.  It rose to popularity in the 1950s and 1960s as it entertained the dance halls across this area and still remains as one of the favorite styles of African music in general. 

American- and French-influenced hip-hop is also highly popular with artists such as Bisso na Bisso and Passi. I really like the group Bisso na Bisso; I found the album Le 15 Mai 99 on Spotify and have listened to it a dozen times. I also found it on iTunes for $8.99. I like their style: you can tell it’s been influenced by soul, by jazz, by blues, by Latin music – but that may be the soukous speaking. It’s catchy, and I like it. I might buy the album one day (even though I’m not a huge fan of live albums and generally avoid them, but this one might be an exemption.) The video above is the song "Tata N'Zambe," and every time I hear it, I think they're saying "zombie." Two other groups that bear mentioning are Extra Musica and Les Bantous de la Capitale.

The Congolese has used dance as a means of expression since the earliest of days. The Kyébé-Kyébé dance of the Mbochis tribe is one of the more famous dances. Another famous dance is the traditional stilt dance used with brightly-colored puppets.  During the 1920s and 1930s, people would come out on Sunday afternoons to the different cultural centers of Brazzaville – the largest being the Grande Place in Poto-Poto – and hold these large dance competitions. Drummers would line up and perform different rhythms that were indicative of their particular section of the city or tribal background (like the walla rhythm that is commonly used by the Kongo people), and while just about anyone could join in the dances, many of the serious dancers dressed in full traditional costumes. They’d go on all afternoon and at the end, there would be a prize for the best dancers. I found this video (above) and would LOVE to find something like this to show my kids. The costumes are amazing, and it makes me think that this is where the choreographers who did The Lion King live-stage version of the musical got their inspiration. 

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