WEST AFRICA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL CENTRE- ADENTA

UNIVERSITY OF
CAPE COAST
COLLEGE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION

AFRICAN
GROUP 7
STUDIES
UNIT 6 SESSION 5 & 6
MUSIC IN AFRICAN CULTURES

MAY 2024 LECTURER :

 SESSION
ClickGROUP MEMBERS
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OBJECTIVES

NAME OF STUDENT: INDEX NUMBER:

1. ELIAS AKUFFO BEP/GA/14/22/0049
2. DENNIS KWESI SEVOR BEP/GA/27/22/0013
3. AUGUSTINA ANDZIE BEP/GA/27/22/0018
4. BRIDGET AFIRIYIE BEP/GA/27/22/0034
2
5. KENNEDY NYARKOTEY BEP/ER/01/22/0065
6. ARTHUR JOEL DAVIDSON BEP/GA/27/22/0031 2
 1. State the definition of the term ‘musical instrument’.
2. Identify the number and the names of he classes of
African musical instruments.
OBJECTIVES:
3. Mention some specific instruments, and describe their
By the end of the materials of construction, playing techniques as well
presentation, you will as their social roles.
be able to ;
4. Identify some Ghanaian musical types as well as those
of other African societies that make use of the classes
of African instruments discussed.
5. State the functions of music in the social events of
3
Africans.
6. Identify specific functions of some indigenous
musical types in Ghanaian societies. 3
Classification of African Musical Instruments
The definition of instrument in this context is any device other than
the voice which produces sound. Voice, of course, is also an
instrument, but for the purpose of our discussion in this session,
the focus is on instruments that have been constructed by Africans
themselves.
The scientific classification of instruments, based on how sound is
produced has five categories: idiophones, membranophones,
chordophones, aerophones and with the latest addition called
electrophones.
 1. idiophones
 ldiophones are instruments that produce sound through vibration of their bodies
They are more often than not, solids that produce sounds when beaten.

 Instruments which belong to this category are the most widespread types in the
musical environments of Africa. Idiophones can further be grouped into two
categories: primary and secondary idiophones.

 Primary idiophones: are held in the hand and played either by shaking or hitting
the instruments. Examples of these instruments are: dawuro /gakogui (double bell),
trowa/axatse (enmeshed gourd rattle), pambronu (stamping tubes) etc.
 Secondary idiophones: are instruments that are either worn/attached
to parts of the bodies, costumes of performers and activated by the
movements of their bodies or hanged/attached to the instruments and
they vibrate in sympathy with the instruments whenever they are played.
Examples include: jingling metals, ankle buzzers, and small arm, waist or
wrist bells.
 2. USES OF IDIOHONES
Among the musical roles that idiophones play are to:
 Provide rhythmic accompaniment to songs and thereby boosting the
rhythmic foundation of a performance.
 Create melodies with idiophones like the gyile (xylophone) and mbira
(thumb piano) which have definite vocal pitches to support veed
renditions in music performances.
 Provide signals that draw the public to ceremonies like dipo and
bragorↄ: puberty rites of adolescent girls in the Krobo and Ashanti
societies in Ghana.
 Scare birds away from paddy fields with small bells and empty cans.
 Membranophones:

 They are instruments (drums) that produce sound through vibration of

a stretched membrane or skin over their openings. In other words. they
are drums with parchment heads. (Nketia, 1963:94) Drums can either
be single or double-headed.
 The Roles of the Drums in Societies of Africa:
 Dance purpose: the rhythms and tone patterns of the ensemble, generates motor
feeling which is transferred into different dance forms.

 Sending signals: use to relay messages in short repetitive rhythmic patterns to

members of the community. Eg. Vukpo (northern Ewes) and twenesini (Akans)
drums.

 Speech: sound produced from some drums (like the atumpan of the Akans and Iya
Illu/dundun of the Yuroba), are use to communicate important pieces of information
from chiefs to their subjects or announce matters that relate to danger or imminent
disaster to members of the society.
 The use of drums, on the whole, is important because some of them serve as
religious symbols of traditional political office: hierarchical structure, status and
power of traditional African rulers.
 CHORDOPHONES
 They are instruments that generate sound through stretched string(s)
fixed onto their resonators when beaten, struck, bowed or plucked.
They can simply be described as African stringed instruments. The
number of strings on these instruments vary from one instrument to
the other; ranging between one string to as many as twenty-one
strings. Examples:
1. Musical Bow 2. Harps 3. One-stringed Fiddle

1. eg. Benta of the eg. Seprewa eg. goje used

2. Akans and tiepore of the Akans Northern and
3. gourd resonator and kora in West African
4. of Benin. Senegal and sub-region.
5. Gambia.
 The Roles of Chordophones in Societies of Africa:
 They accompany solo singing or in an ensemble to support musical activities in
festival and funeral celebrations.
 They accompany poetry recitals. praise and narrative songs in some African
societies.
 The goje for example, is believed to create and maintain suitable atmosphere for
the performance of rituals during magical incantations of the Mauri and Dịerma in
Niger to call upon their gods Genii, Babai and Zatu.

 The wombi is used by the Pongwe ethnic group in Gabon to accompany religious
songs to heal the sick.

 They are used in musical activities during birth, outdooring, naming ceremonies and
traditional wrestling matches of some societies.

 They are used to sing praises or culogize chiefs, nobles, affluent community leaders
and heroes in the society.
 AEROPHONES
 These are instruments that are played by blowing air into them to
produce sound as a result of the vibrating column of air that passes
through them. In other words, they are simply called wind
instruments. In Africa, they can be put into three main categories:
flutes, reed-pipes, animal horns or trumpets.

1. Flute : They are made from materials with natural bore that is plants
like the bamboo stalk of pawpaw, millet etc. that have holes naturally
created in them by nature. (Others are the tip of gourds, horns or
trumpets of animals). There are traditional flutes that have been curved
out of wood and at present there are others that have been made out of
plastic and metal tubes.
 Some African societies, flutes are made out of clay and others are fashioned out of
the shell of fruits or shells. These wind instruments are cither side-blown or end-
blown with varying number of finger-holes. The end-blown flutes are more common
than the side- blown types. Among the best known end-blown flutes are the
atenteben of the Akan in Ghana, and the Oja of the lgbo in Nigeria.
 2. Reed-pipes:
Two types of this
instrument can be identified;
single-reed and double-reeds. Single-reed pipes are made out of the stalk millet or a
similar plant. It is widespread in the savannah belt of West Africa in countries like
Burkina Faso, northern Ghana, Benin and Chad. In Malawi, the single-reed pipe is
locally called kheru.

3. Trumpets:
 The trumpets are made of animal horns and elephant tusks. Apart from the ulgaita
which is end-blown, most of them are side-blown instruments. The nju or kaho
found in northern Nigeria, mmensuon (processional flutc music for Akan chief's) in
Ghana, and ekpere, used by the Urhobo ethnic group in Bendel state of Nigeria,
are all side-blown trumpets. There are some indigenous end-blown trumpets that
are made out of wood or of metal, or parts of a gourd. In musical performances,
trumpets can be played as solo instruments, in pairs or as an ensemble or at times
combined with drums.
 Roles- It can be noted that they play both musical and non-musical roles:
 Apart from its musical role, the Baule of Cote d'Ivoire, the Akan and Ewe
societies of Ghana regard a large number of elephant tusks that are used in t
the processional music of a chief as a demonstration of the state of wealth in
that chiefdom.
 Flutes for example, are used for signal purposes; the Brifor and Builsa young
cattle herders in northern Ghana, play flutes to signal their colleagues about
their movements in the fields and also to alert those a home about their journey
back home.
 Aerophones are used to sing praises or eulogize chiefs, nobles, affluent
community leaders and heroes in the society.
 Similar to the role of chordophones, some aerophones are particularly suitable
for accompanying solo singing or perform as an ensemble to support musical
performances in social activities like in festival puberty rites, funeral celebrations
etc.
Social Functions of Music in African Community Life
 In African societies, music constitutes an important element of socio-cultural
behaviours: it may be organized as an outlet for mass expression of
sentiments and in connection with events of local and national significance.
For this reason, actual music performance on any occasion in African societies
depends on the social event and those involved in it, for it is customary to
perform music genres in relation to the different phases of community like or
in terms of particular needs and purposes they serve in the communities that
perform them.
 Music, which therefore, is seen as an avenue that draws Africans closer to the
Supreme Being, spirits of their gods and ancestors, we will discuss the
following social events:

• life cycle • religious • economic • political/ceremonial •

recreational/leisure
1. Life-cycle Events:
Music making supports cultural activities that are performed at different
stages of life of individuals. In most African cultures, singing, drumming
and dancing are highly considered as core cultural values that are crucial
to ritual performances. Rituals are therefore considered powerless if they
are devoid of musical performances that characterize them. Some of the
traditional events that incorporate music into their ritual performances are:
 Outdooring/Naming Ceremonies
 Puberty or Initiations Rites
 Marriages
 Funeral Celebrations
2. Religious Events
As music cuts across the entire socio-cultural foundation of African societies, worship
of the Supreme Being and the lesser gods is not devoid of music. A religious
philosophy of Africans expressed through religious music about God, is that, He is the
greatest ancestor, caretaker and protector of the society and therefore deserves praise,
gratitude and honour. Africans acknowledge God's sterling qualities and do not worship
him directly but through lesser gods who are believed to be His creations.

The themes of indigenous religious songs in African societies are intended to achieve
the following objectives:
 To project the dogma of the gods, and expressing the interrelation betweenthe gods
and their worshippers.
 To show the power and kindness of the gods.
 To stimulate to action and sustain the condition of ecstasy in the media of the gods
until the mission of the gods are fulfilled.
2. Religious Events
Songs of petition sung during traditional religious worship in most African
cultures centre on:
 long life and prosperity
 protection from all forms of evil/demonic attack and diseases
 cure to childlessness
 good rain, land fertility and bumper food crop harvest
 abundant children
3. Economic Events
Music performance is closely linked with various work situations in the diverse cultures
of Africa. Occupational musical types, which of course are incidental in character, play
secondary roles to manual labour undertaken by many African societies. Some of these
traditional vocations include :
 Farming activities
 Fishing activities
 Hunting rituals
 Trading activities
 Blacksmithing, etc.
4. Music in Indigenous Political/Ceremonial Events
 One of the most important musical types associated with indigenous political
System in Africa is music of the traditional courts of chiefs. Customarily, chiefs
are ritually installed or enskinned amidst music making. They have special music
played for them on state functions like festival ceremonies, durbars, as well as
death and funeral celebrations of deceased chiefs. In Ghana for example, kete,
traditional Akan court music, is purposely performed for royals who qualify to be
carried in palanquins.
 It is also used for communication purposes to disseminate information: to rally
round society members, give instructions and directions. In the olden days, this
instrument was used to direct and give announcements to soldiers on the battle
field.
 In most societies in Africa, music is performed in annual festivals that are
instituted around major agricultural rites, state gods or divinities, renowned
heroes/heroines, or around episodes from history and traditions of the people.
5. Music in Recreational Events
 Recreational music includes all forms of music that are not ritually or
ceremonially bound. All musical genres that are performed for
entertainment and relaxation are collectively referred to as recreational
genres.
 Recreational music can be performed by individuals or by groups of
people: males, females, children or performed jointly by all these
classes of people. It may be performed in other social activities between
actual programme of events or as an additional form of musical
entertainment.
 Among the reasons that precipitate recreational music performances in
most African societies are to:
 To express joy for good rainfall seasons and bumper crop harvests.
 To perform music for sheer relaxation after a hard day's work.
 To show gratitude to the Supreme Being, spirits of the gods and
ancestors for granting good health and success in their traditional
vocational activities.
 To honour invitations from individuals, groups or government
dignitaries to perform at district, regional and national celebrations.
 To grace activities during birth, outdooring, naming, puberty and
marriage Ceremonies.
 To accord a last respect and bid a deceased farewell during death and
funeral celebrations, to console bereaved families and, as well, provide
entertainment to sympathizers and well-wishers at funeral gatherings.
 We defined the term ‘musical instrument’ and identified
the number and the names of he classes of African
UNIT musical instruments.
SUMMARY
We also mention some specific instruments, and describe
their materials of construction, playing techniques as
well as their social roles and identified some Ghanaian
musical types as well as those of other African societies
that make use of the classes of African instruments
discussed.

We discussed the functions of music in the social events

of Africans and identified specific functions of some
indigenous musical types in Ghanaian societies.

06/07/2024 06:39 AM 24
College of Distance Education(CoDE)
University of Cape Coast
Cape Coast
Ghana
07/06/2024 06:39 AM 25