Music of Sub-Saharan Africa

     Something I was interested in while doing this unit was learning more instruments that are common in these regions since the ones we have already started learning about have been so cool to see and hear. One instrument I found was a log drum, also called a Krin. It is the only drum from this region that is not a membranophone, as it is actually an idiophone. There is a slit cut down the middle of a hollowed out log, and depending on where it is hit, it creates different pitches. Its origins lay in Guinea West Africa, and this video shows a group going over how to play it. 

Another instrument I found was the krar, which is a six-stringed chordophone that originates from Ethiopia and Eritrea. The video here is an Eritrean folk song. The audio is not great at picking up the singing, but the instrument can be heard clearly and the song he plays has a nice melody. 

This is the last instrument, I promise, but this one seemed very unique to me. It is called the mbira, also nicknamed the "thumb piano." It is an idiophone made of several pieces of metal at varying lengths that are plucked by the player. 

    Another topic that I was curious about was how religion impacts their music. Sub Saharan Africa has a large variety of religions, though the most prominent are Christianity, Islam, and other traditional African faiths. There are several occasions where music is used for religious purposes, such as funerals, births, and weddings. It can also be used as a form of worship. I found an example of this from Nigeria. Yoruba music is based on their beliefs and deities, and is used in worship.

    In class we had focused more so on traditional types of music, so I was curious about how their pop music looked. However, when I looked up "African pop" and found a list of 58 genres under that category, I decided to just pick one and go from there. I picked African heavy metal music. The area that it is most prominent in would be Southern Africa. The first all black metal band was Demogorath Satanum, which wanted to bring black people from South Africa into heavy metal music to show that it is not just a white genre. This is their song "The Kingdom ov Hell."

Another area in Southern Africa that had a lot of groups pop up was Botswana. The origination however, started with bringing in class rock music. From there, it became its own sort of subculture with a "cowboy inspired aesthetic." One of the most popular groups from this area would be Wrust, and this is their song "Hate 'Em All." 

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/art/African-music/Musical-instruments

https://francistapon.com/Travels/Africa/Defining-Sub-Saharan-Africa-And-The-Countries-In-It

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Africa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slit_drum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Africa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan_African_music_traditions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_heavy_metal