Sub-Saharan African Music Traditions - West Africa

West Africa

The coastal nations of Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo as well as islands such as Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe include speakers of Kwa, Akan, spoken in Ghana, the Gbe languages, spoken in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria, of which Ewe is best known, the Yoruba and Igbo languages, spoken in Nigeria and the Benue–Congo languages of the east.

Music of the Western Sahara includes Mande speakers of Mali, Senegal and Mauritania, the Wolof people, the Gur-speaking peoples of Mali, Burkina Faso and the northern halves of Ghana, Togo and Cote d'Ivoire, the Fula found throughout West Africa, and the Senufo speakers of Côte d'Ivoire and Mali.

• Mande music: the music of Mali is dominated by forms derived from the Mande Empire Their musicians, professional performers called jeliw (sing. jeli, French griot), have produced popular alongside traditional music. Mande languages include Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Bissa, Dioula, Kagoro, Bozo, Mende, Susu, Vai and Ligbi: there are populations in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia and, mainly in the northern inland regions, in the south coast states of Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

• Wolof music: the Wolof people, the largest ethnic group in Senegal, kin to the Fula, have contributed greatly to popular Senegalese music. The related Serer people are notable for polyphonic song.

• Songhai music, as interpreted by Ali Farka Toure, has gathered international interest for a minor pentatonic lute-and-voice style that is markedly similar to American blues.

• In Senegal, The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau the Jola are notable for their stringed instrument the akonting, a precursor of the banjo while the Balanta people, the largest ethnic group of Guinea-Bissau, play a gourd lute instrument called a kusunde or kussundé, similar to the Jola akonting. The short string is at the bottom, the top string of middle length and the middle string is the longest. The tones produced by the instrument are; top string open F#, top string stopped G#, middle string open C#, middle string stopped D#, bottom drone string A#/B.

• Among Gur-speaking peoples the Dagomba of the north Ghanaian savanna use the lunga talking drum, the gungon, flute, gonje fiddle and bell. Northern Ghana is known for talking drum ensembles, goje fiddle and xalam (or molo) lute music, played by the Frafra, Gurunsi and Dagomba. Similar styles are practised by local Fulani, Hausa, Djerma, Busanga and Ligbi speaking people.

• The Mossi people, whose Mossi Kingdoms in present day Burkina Faso, withstood their Songhai and Mende neighbours before falling to the French, have a griot tradition. Also djambadon also brosca.

• Senufo or Senoufo, living in southern Mali and the extreme western corner of Burkina Faso to Katiola in Côte d'Ivoire with one group, the Nafana, in north-western Ghana. The Senufo are notable for funeral and poro music. The

• The Lobi and the related Dagaaba people of Ghana and Burkina Faso, the Wala and Gurunsi peoples are known for complex interlocking (double meter) patterns on the xylophone (gyil).