Welcome Back!
Hello beautiful people! It is great to have you here visiting my blog, and I just wanted to say a big "Welcome!" to you.
In this post, I will be joining the discussion about music and culture, and it will be great if you stick to the end.
A Deep Connection
There are some things that are so deeply connected that it is so difficult to talk about one without making a reference to the other. This is how I see the relationship between music and culture.
Culture is generally defined as the way of life of a group of people in a particular place at a particular time. Therefore, there are certain things that are peculiar to certain people or people groups.
In Africa, there are several tribes and tongues as clearly exemplified by my dear country, Nigeria. As one travels across the continent, definitely there will be great amazement at the beautiful assortment of diverse languages, traditions and music.
The interesting thing is that music is truly a pure reflection of traditions and culture. One will notice the unique rhythms, beats and even the dance steps that make music from one place differ from another.
Another interesting thing about music is how it can communicate the emotions and mood of the performer to the listener or the spectator.
In Igbo land of the Eastern Nigeria, we see this play out a lot. There are music beats that announce terror as the drums of war are heard. For instance this is displayed by the Ohafia War Dance, which has been performed in different parts of Igbo land. There are also beats used during traditional wrestling competitions, perhaps to cheer or encourage the wrestlers.
Ohafia War Dance Video Posted by Adamazi TV on YouTube.
The kind of beats mentioned above are normally fast and energetic, and greatly different from the softer joyful sounds used for music that signifies joy and celebration.
Another thing about music and culture is that the musical instruments used vary from place to place. For instance, there is the talking drum which is normally used by the Yoruba Speaking tribe in the Western part of Nigeria. This drum is not used in Igbo music to the best of my knowledge. There may be other tribes in the African continent that make use of the talking drum, but I am yet to find out.
The African Talking drum is called gan-gan in Yoruba language. It is normally hung from the shoulder and held in the armpit for drumming.
Yoruba Gan-gan Talking Drum by africandrumming on YouTube
Beauty In Diversity
It has become popular these days to see entertainers from different cultures performing music that is not indigenous to them. In this way, music is playing a great part in building relationship between different cultures and also promoting acceptance of other people's traditions.
The world is already a global village, but the diversity of music and culture is becoming more and more beautiful to behold.
This is my response to #juneinleo prompt for Day 26, and I appreciate you for reading to this point.
Images used in this post are free-to-use images from pixabay.com, and have been sourced.
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