Find Music from West Africa in the Afropop Shop

Senegalese historian Amadou Hampate Ba wrote that when an African elder dies, a library of knowledge goes with him. The histories of wide-ranging West African empires-Ghana (sixth through 11th centuries), Mali (13th and 14th centuries), Songhai (15th and 16th centuries), as well as older Yoruba, Ashanti and other kingdoms-survive mostly in oral forms, such as the songs and recitations of griots or jalis, traditional praise singers and historians. Thanks to the griots, almost any child in Mali, Guinea, Gambia, Senegal or The Ivory Coast can tell you stories about Sunjata Keita, founder of the Malian Empire over 800 years ago. Modern West Africa comprises fifteen countries, vast stretches of savanna and desert, jungled mountains, thousands of miles of coastline, and of course, many hundreds of distinct ethnic groups. The influx of Islam and Christianity, and then colonial adventures by France, England and Portugal further complicate the picture of a region that defies easy generalizations. Still, we can say that a respect for history strongly informs the contemporary lives of West Africans, often providing them with a sense of shared legacy that helps to assuage the potentially dangerous national, ethnic and religious divisions.

Music reinforces West African links to the past, and it has also helped the region reach out to the present day world. No other part of Africa has produced so many international stars-Youssou N'Dour and Baaba Maal from Senegal, Alpha Blondy from The Ivory Coast, Salif Keita and Ali Farka Toure from Mali, Manu Dibango from Cameroon, and King Sunny Adé and Fela Kuti from Nigeria. One can scarcely imagine the global rise of Afropop without these artists' contributions. The particular prowess of West African stars on the international scene may have something to do with the region's long-running cultural conversation with the New World. Many argue West Africa nurtured the ancestral seeds of blues, jazz, rock-and-roll and reggae, sounds now known and imitated around the world.

In pre-colonial times, West Africa's political power lay in landlocked empires that controlled overland trade routes to the Mediterranean, notably through the great markets at Djenne and Timbuktu in present day Mali. Coastal cities began as outposts where goods and slaves were sold to seafaring Europeans, who later returned as colonizers, helping to build these cities into the bustling commercial and cultural hubs they are today. For centuries, the slave trade infused New World societies with a powerful dose of African culture. The Yoruba, for example, one of the most developed civilizations of pre-colonial Africa, wound up concentrated in Cuba, Haiti and Brazil, where they still practice and develop their religion and music. Like many of West Africa's great musical traditions, Yoruba music begins with a conversation among drums. Rhythmic patterns and drum timbres act as voices that complement one another and combine into a dense, disciplined and fantastically unified sound. No other region of the continent can rival the force and diversity of West African drumming-Nigeria's rich Yoruba percussion, Ashanti and Ewe ensembles from Ghana, sabar stick drumming from Senegal, the electrifying masters of the hand-played djembe drum of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and other countries, or various versions of the eloquent talking drum, whose tone rises and falls as the player clamps down his arm to squeeze the cords that bind the drum's head to its hourglass-shaped body.

King Sunny Adé's drum-powered juju music sent a wakeup call to the world when he began touring in the early '80s. But many of the West African stars that followed in his footsteps have relied as much on their magnificent voices as on their ancestral rhythms. Baaba Maal describes the Fulani vocal technique called daandé heli or "voice exploding," which allows a singer to summon gale force passion and volume. Manding griots have long delivered blasts of vocal power to equal the enormity of the venerable subjects they sing about. With the rise of Latin dance band styles in West Africa, griot singers, and those from other traditions, matched their voices to the popular rhythms of the day, and they have continued to experiment and develop to the point where griot singer and kora (21-string harp) player Mory Kante produced a disco-fueled dance hit in Europe with his 1988 version of the traditional song "Yeke Yeke."

Since independence, West African countries have all grappled with the problem of revitalizing indigenous ways while engaging the fast-changing world outside. In Mali and Guinea, 1960s-era governments pressed for the re-Africanization of local music, discouraging popular Latin sounds and ordering bands to adapt folkloric material into their electric pop. As a result, the region's spectacular melodic traditions transformed local dance music. The waterfall melodies of the kora and the wooden-slatted balafon turned up in guitar and keyboard parts. The resulting sound, sometimes called Manding swing, won a big audience for state-sponsored dance bands in these countries and laid the groundwork for crossover stars like Salif Keita and Mory Kante. In Senegal, Latin music lasted longer, but eventually, musicians there also asserted tradition, developing the dynamic mbalax sound that assigned western instruments the roles of drums in a sabar percussion ensemble. Meanwhile, in Ghana and Nigeria, the highlife sound that had seduced much of West Africa in the '50s and '60s also gave way to genres with a strong traditional caste, particularly in Nigeria where the ascendant juju and fuji styles put a premium on percussion.

Though West Africans love and revere their musicians, they have not always granted them high social status. A griot may provide the soul of a good wedding party, but he can also be seen as a hustler, and nobody you'd want your daughter to marry. As in other regions of the continent, many a West African star's story begins with the tale of how he or she studied and played music despite parental objections. And frequently, success involved a period of exile. Though Britain and France have long withdrawn from West Africa, their capitals, London and Paris, have provided a vital pathway for musicians in search of an international career. As musicians have moved back and forth, cultural dialogue has continued, and the cities have become important production centers. Meanwhile, West Africa has built up its own studios and production facilities, especially in Lagos, Nigeria, Dakar, Senegal, and Abidjan, Ivory Coast, the region's recording industry capital.

Music from West Africa in the Afropop Shop

Contributed by: Banning Eyre