By Stephanie Ortiz and Jolene ZanghiBengal News Reporters
Seated in chairs arranged in a half circle with oversized goblet-shaped hand drums between their knees, members of The West African Drumming Ensemble prepared to make some music.
As their hands slapped the drumheads cohesively and continuously, the loud beats they created rumbled, and for just a few minutes, the cultural sounds of western Africa were present in Buffalo.
After receiving a grant from the Equity and Campus Diversity Office, the new Buffalo State College drumming ensemble was formed. It is also a product of a class that the music department adopted last semester called Sub-Saharan Music and Cultures, a three credit-hour class that is included in the Intellectual Foundations program.
Dolores Battle, senior advisor to the president for the Equity and Campus Diversity Office, said the two new additions to the music department go hand in hand and explained the decision to award a grant of $1,000 for the ensemble.
“The idea was that through this drumming ensemble, students and other people would be exposed to issues involving Sub-Saharan Africa and its cultures,” Battle said. “The grants are given to faculty, students or staff who are trying to help the campus fulfill one of its core values, which is respect for diversity and individual differences.”
Many members of the ensemble have taken or are now enrolled in the Sub-Saharan Music and Cultures class, which is structured to include lecture and hands-on drumming experience.
Tiffany Nicely, creator and organizer of the group, has studied and played West African music for over a decade. Nicely, who also lectures at Buffalo State in the music department and teaches the Sub-Saharan Music and Cultures class, said she wants the ensemble to gain momentum on campus.
“We’re trying to be a strong group that has a presence and has some continuity,” Nicely said. “We’re trying to get faculty and staff interested in the ensemble.”
The hand drums, called djembes, (pronounced JEM-bay) as well as a few bass drums which are played with sticks, called dunduns, were purchased for the ensemble by the music department. A few of the djembes are authentic instruments from Africa, the bases being made out of wood and the drumheads composed of goatskin. The remaining instruments are synthetic products of a company called Remo Inc., which manufactures drums and other percussion equipment.
Most of the songs the drumming ensemble has learned to play are from Mali, which is located in the western part of Africa.
Kim Carmina, a senior music education major, said the ensemble has taught her techniques she applies when she’s out in the field.“A lot of us that are music majors dabble a little bit with African drums in our methods courses, but I use the drums in my own teaching and the kids love it,” Carmina said. “It’s so easy to teach them rhythm when you have something for them to play on.”
Al Hury and Andy Pappas agreed that the group adds a different element to the Buffalo State community.
“The experience in the course taught me a lot about diversity,” said Hury, a freshman music major. “Learning more about the history of African drumming as a drummer myself, expanded my own knowledge.”
“It adds on to the culture that we already have here on campus,” said Pappas, a senior political science major. “We have so many organizations that are so culturally diverse that it adds on to the vastness of it.”
The West African Drumming Ensemble will be performing at the Hearts for Haiti benefit at 8p.m. on April 8 in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall. The ensemble will also perform at Kleinhans Music Hall at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 17 as part of Drums on the Niagara. They meet from 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. every Thursday in Rockwell Hall, room 107.
Nicely said that the ensemble is open to anyone who wants to join, including non-music majors. Faculty and staff are also encouraged to participate.
“It’s an instrument and a culture of music that really welcomes everyone,” Nicely said. “It’s something very approachable and is meant to be played as a large group. It’s a music that is meant to tie people together and we’re hoping it has that effect at Buffalo State.”
Exploring more about the culture of Africa, Tiffany Nicely visited the country for 5 weeks. While studying in New York City she met her teachers who were from Africa and fell in love with their rhythms. One of her teachers, Abu Sylla plays the Ballaphone.
ReplyDeleteShe grew interested in learning more of the Ballaphone and decided to travel to Africa with Mr. Sylla and a friend. They traveled during the winter and were greeted with hot and humid weather in Guinea. She later discovered that her teachers’ life was so much more interesting than studying the Ballaphone.
Mr. Sylla has two wives and because he has two wives he’s seen as a person of high economic status. He represents someone that is able to afford and support two families. He makes most of his money by performing live and giving private lessons in the U.S. Though he lives in the United States, he sends his earnings to his family in Guinea. The country is really poor with little infrastructure.
His first wife is 50 years old and has 5 children whereas his second wife is 33 years old and has two. They live in compounds, surrounded by fences with spikes because of his economic status. There is not a lot of violence in Guinea but robberies do occur. This compound is split in two, the first building is for the oldest wife and the second one is for his youngest wife. Ms. Nicely found it ironic that during her time there the wives never spoke to each other at all. It was like they didn’t exist to one another; both wives lived a separate life. The first one was in charge of giving orders to people while the second one did some of the cleaning, but not much because they were able to afford maids.
The electricity in Guinea goes off for long hours and unexpectedly. The interesting part of it was that these neighborhood block outs brought everyone together; they sang songs in the dark and enjoyed the stars and the moon. Nicely also found their eating style fascinating. All the cooking took place outside, in the extremely hot weather. The women cooked in 2 pots, one pot was for the rice and the second was for the stew. They open okra and mixed it in the rice so that the rice itself would become sticky. The last step was pouring the stew on top of the rice. When it was time to eat, everyone would gather around the one pot and pick the food out with their hands, Nicely joked and said that only Americans spilled.
She also noticed that the neighborhood only had one water spigot and the Sylla’s family owned it. A lot of people would send their kids over to the Sylla’s with buckets on their head for water. The family never rejected water from anyone. Everyone was welcomed.
Though Nicely’s initiative plan was to learn to master the Ballaphone and learn more about their music, she learned so much more. It was an unforgettable experience for her; she is hoping to visit the country again.
- Stephanie Ortiz
Authentic djembes and dunduns are hard to come by in the United States, and for that reason, Buffalo State College’s West African Drumming Ensemble has received synthetic instruments from its music department so they can continue to learn and perform Mali songs.
ReplyDeleteTraditionally, the djembe , which is a hand drum that the students use to play the different rhythms, consists of an outer wooden shell and has a drumhead made of goatskin or some other type of rawhide. In the Bamanakan language, a language used by the Bamana people living in Mali, the term “djembe” can be translated to mean “everyone gather together.”
The ensemble owns a few authentic djembes, but the majority of instruments used to play on are manufactured by a U.S. drum company called Remo.
Tiffany Nicely, who formed the drumming ensemble, said that while you can hear the difference between the Remo djembe and the authentic one, she’s content that each member of the group has an instrument to play on.
“These are made out of recycled materials and they don’t sound as great,” Nicely said, as she pointed towards the Remo djembe. “We’re ok with that though because we were able to get so many and Remo has actually made a lot of progress in making them sound real.”
Al Hury, a student member of the ensemble and a professional drummer, agreed that while the Remo drums are made out of recycled composite material, the group is appreciative.
“It’s nice that Remo came up with these,” Hury said. “Organizations are then able to afford a bunch of them.”
-Jolene Zanghi