Sub Saharan Africa is full of different tribes. There’s the Shona, Sukuma, Kikuyu, Kongo, Mongo, Luba, Swahili, and Amhara (just to name a few). Each tribe has their own beliefs and differences in sound culture. Their beliefs influence their sound culture…and it’s just beautiful.
The Shona people are based in Zimbabwe. Their music often is accompanied with mbira, singing, hosho, dancing, and drumming. There’s also very little distinction between the performers and the audience as they all are active in the music performance. In religious ceremonies (called Bira), they use a mbira dzavadzimu which consists of 22-28 keys. These keys are constructed from hot or cold forged metal and are fixed to a hardwood sound board (called gwavira) in three different registers! As with the usual mbira, there are bottle caps, shells, or other things attached to it that create an extra buzzing sound. This mbira dzacadzimu is considered a sacred instrument to the Shona people. It’s played to communicate to the ancient spirits. The ceremony that takes place happens all night long (typically). The communication to the ancient spirits is to ask them questions. The way the spirit answers is to take over the participants’ bodies and the music of the mbira helps to put them into a trance so the spirits can take over the bodies. (ISN’T THAT COOL? Possession!)
Honestly, I was unsure of what to put on this blog, so I started looking up the different tribes in Sub Saharan Africa, and this is what I came up with. I’m so happy to have looked into the Shona tribe because this is absolutely intriguing! Think about it, people are willing to be possessed by their ancient spirits to get answers from them and tell them their grievances! How many of us can say that we would willingly let ourselves be possessed by an ancient spirit for others to get their questions answered and their grievances heard?
Continuing on the idea of religious ceremonies, let’s jump over to America to catch up with Cherokee Indian beliefs and ceremonies. The Cherokee Indians believe that there were certain beings that came down to create the moon and the stars. They believe that the world was created at the New Moon of Autumn when the fruits were ripe. They also praise the sun for bountiful crops and good health among other things. Therefore it makes sense that their ceremonies would revolve around the moon and crops.
The First New Moon of Spring ceremony starts when leaves begin to form on the trees again and the grass begins to grow. It’s basically like the New Years celebration that we have on January 1st, but on their first day of Spring (in March). This ceremony lasts seven days and includes dancing and the relighting of the sacred fire. They would sacrifice deer tongue in the fire in order to get blessings from the creator. As usual the instrumentation used is a drum for the heartbeat and sometimes shakers to give the dancing a little spice.
What I find interesting about the moon dance is the meaning of the dance. They are thanking the great creator for the crops they are going to grow. They are thanking the creator and praying for his blessing for their crops to grow and to have a bountiful growing season. Even in present times they are at least praying to the creator to have a bountiful season where they can grow personally.
So, keeping with the Native American Theme, I have a lot of different music interests…one being Native American Trap Music…I bet some of you didn’t even know this was a thing. Being that I like to find weird and amazing things in my free time, I have a whole playlist on YouTube labeled ‘Cool Shit To Look Into’. From there, I ended up making my N.A. Trap Music playlist. Here’s one of my favorites.
It has the Native American music in it, but it’s re imagined with a contemporary beat that is sick (for lack of a better word). Like, I can’t get enough of it and everyone should experience it. There’s not much I can say about the music other than it’s amazing and I wish I could go all day every day listening to it!
Music is Universal 
I thought it was really cool that they communicate with their ancestors through song. The possession part was a bit scary to me, but it is still really interesting. I also never would have guessed that there was Native American trap music; I’m really curious how that even got started!
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I did not know that there were so many tribes in the parts of Africa that we have learned! And like the previous comment, the idea of possession terrifies me! It is all still so cool to read about it. And I am going to have to check out the Native American trap music.
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I think it’s interesting that the Shona people are willing and excited to be possessed. I love how “in-touch” Native Americans are with nature; I think it’s beautiful how appreciative they are of the world we live in.
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I’ve always been a fan of horror movies and reading about how they wanted their ancestors to posses them is really interesting but also really scary. I would never want to do something like that, but to each is his own.
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Your enthusiasm about being possessed was actually infectious. Beliefs that may seem weird to us are always really fun to learn about.
Although I’m personally not a fan of trap music, it was a unique experience to listen to this particular mix. I love when two different styles that seem like they would never meld come together in a cohesive way like this. It’s also fun to think about how people will express their culture in just about any manner or style you can think of.
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I’ve never been a huge believer in the aspect of people being possessed by things but the fact the Shona people made it almost a goal is pretty interesting. On the flip side just comparing the two groups and seeing how differently they use music mouth-dropping. I gotta say, the Native American trap music kinda slaps.
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Of course it slaps! (The Trap Music). Like…I was surprised by it.
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This is all interesting, Katie–I’m glad you found some interesting avenues to go down. And, you know, I don’t think I’ve ever wandered into Native American Trap music before! Something new!
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