User:Toumaranke/sandbox/The Mandinka Balafon

The Mandinka Balafon the mandinka balafon ...



The Mandinka Balafon. The Mandinka balafon is also called the bala, balla, balafone balani, balangi, 'balaphong balafo or balaphone. As these words come from languages that often have/had no written traditions, or from colonial accounts in a variety of European languages, spellings/names are seldom fixed in the way we have come to expect in the West; to avoid confusion I'm going to use the word bala throughout this article as that tends to be the one my teachers mostly use and it has the advantage of being the shortest. It is a kind of ideophone (an instrument which creates sound by vibrating when struck). In other parts of Africa such instruments are called marimbas (ref here?). In the West similar instruments are called xylophones. The balafon itself is sometimes referred to as 'the West African xylophone'. There are several different types of 'West African xylophones' in countries such as Ghana (the pentatonic Ghyll), Burkina Faso (pentatonic and hepatonic), Mali, Guinea (hepatonic, small pentatonic tradition), Gambia (also hepatonic) and other West African countries where tuning and shape vary tremendously - there is the balanta balafon with it's huge gourds and the enormous Ugandan ones played by several people at once but I am concerning myself here specifically with the mandinka balafon - a particular kind of balafon with hepatonic tuning which generally looks like this

The Mandinka bala is associated with the Griot or hereditary musicianship tradition of West Africa. I have studied mainly with Guinean bala players and mainly in The Gambia although I have also spent some time in Guinea and The Cassamance (South Senegal). This article therefore is written largely from a Gambian/Guinean perspective. In the Gambia balafon players tend to be mostly found in Brikama (where there are also a lot of griot or ‘jeli’ families who play the kora or African harp). In Guinea Kindia is an area with many bala players and makers. There is also the The Sosso Bala is currently kept in the town of Niagassola, Guinea that is reputed to be the original balafon, constructed over 800 years ago. Regardless of the truth of the story behind it, the Sosso Bala is an instrument of great age, and was named by UNESCO as one of the Nineteen Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2001. possible origins in what is now Mali

This beautiful instrument has a history tied up with the stories and legends of the formation of the Mandinka Empire, a story similar to the Arthurian legends of the West. This is a story of a king, |Sundiata Keita, who united the warring tribes by prowess and magic, and created an era of peace and prosperity sometime in the 13th or 14th centuries. Stories of Sundiata/Sunjata/Soundiata (spellings tend to vary) from Gambian sources can be found in many places but Bamba Suso and Banna Kanutes’ book 'Sunjata', published by penguin classics, is a great place to start for those who are interested. insert ref? Separating truth from fiction here is hard and there are many many stories and songs of these legends, but some kind of ‘Mandinka’ kingdom was formed. The Griots, or Jelis as they are more commonly called in Gambia, came into existence as praise singers and court musicians around this time. Stories of the first balafon (given by spirit to Sunjata) and the first balafon player seem to date from this era. One version of the story of ‘bala Konte’ (or Kante, spelling is hard to pin down here and tends to depend on whether sources are English or French in origin) has him losing his name, to be given the name of his instrument instead. His own identity eclipsed by his importance as the player of the balafon. He was hamstrung too, according to some stories I’ve been told, so he could go nowhere and do nothing but play the balafon in the court of the king.

So the balafon, like the kora, was from the court tradition, in opposition to the djembé or other drums which tended to be from the village tradition, embedded in the everyday life of the people. The balafon, as well as the kora, was used to create music in praise of kings, nobles, other significant people and for certain socially significant ceremonies. The Jelis, or hereditary musicians, pass down the teaching of an instrument, generally from father to son but occasionally to a daughter and women are not forbidden to play. This practice still continues and the Jeli families are still of importance in modern Gambian society although the caste system of certain families following certain trades is long gone. The Jelis serve their society by keeping track of lineages and histories and at weddings and naming ceremonies for the newborn they still perform this function. In modern Gambian society after colonialism, with the introduction of a written, rather than an oral historical tradition their function is changing but they still command great respect. Again spellings vary and the traditional griot families such as the Kouyates, diatabes etc,,, have mergeed and seperated. The Kouyaté family have often been called the keepers of the balafon, and twentieth century members of this family have helped introduce it throughout the world. such as ? name of Toumanis balla player?

Pic

The skill involved in making and playing these instruments is immense. They are often made by craftsmen who have no small hand tools, the keys hewn out with an adze or any ‘big knife’ there is to hand. The balafon is made from a bamboo frame with wooden keys, originally rosewood African rosewood which the Susu call Harrinye (I have no idea how to spell this as none of my Guinean teachers can write) although as wood gets scarcer other hardwoods are sometimes substituted. As far as I understand Guinean rosewood is better than that obtained in The Gambia, this is because of the bauxite in the soil which is taken up by the trees and makes the wood harder, thus giving a better tonal quality to the instrument. The wood is then kiln-baked to ensure no moisture remains. The keys are tied to the frame using a single piece of cord for each side. This means that if a key comes loose they all have to be taken off and retied. Generally there are 21 keys but balafons, like koras and other hand-made traditional instruments, vary slightly and sometimes they have 22. After the frame is made it resembles a xylophone but then calabash, or gourds as they are more commonly known in English, are attached underneath to add resonance – these essentially act as amplifiers for the sound. Gourds can be sun dried or if the balafon maker is in a hurry and there are no dried gourds to hand you can boil them then scoup out the insides. Sun dried, older gourds are generally preferred as the sound quality is felt to be better. Each gourd has to be cut and tuned to the keys, an amazing skill in itself. Older balafon players I know have told me of learning this skill from their fathers at night, when the myriad sounds of the African day – people, chickens etc... have stopped. and the silence allows complete concentration on matching the pitch of the gourd to the key. You strike the key, listen, tap the gourd, listen, adjust slightly if necessary (ie cut a bit off the top), repeat, often several times until satisfied you have a match. A couple of holes are then cut in each gourd to increase the buzz (or merlion effect if you want to be technical). These days balafon makers sometimes resort to electronic tuning devices instead of tuning simply by ear and the holes in the gourds are covered with plastic (generally cut from the thin black plastic bags to be found all over West Africa) as opposed to the traditional spider web covering once used. One of my teachers explained to me that his first 'job' when a child (other than cleaning and repairing the family balafons) was to search old buildings and other likely places for enough spider web to cover the holes in the gourds. The 'glue' for attaching plastic to the gourds is now often a commercial brand bought from a shop rather than made from sticky rice water as was traditional, and I’ve been shown one method of attaching the plastic using heated chewing gum as ‘glue’. Musicians, like everyone else, have moved with the times. balafon short video of the making and playing of the balafon done by me a few years ago.

These days it isn’t just those from jeli families who play the balafon. I’m a balafon player myself, although originally taught by a jeli. The instrument is played more widely than it used to be, either alone, with the kora (which tends to be the tradition in Brikama as opposed to it being played alone as is common in Guinea for example), or in musical ensembles with drums, kora and other instruments. As the world changes the hereditory musical skills are emerging into a wider musical community. Those whith griot heritage still command respect and the tradition remains intact in many West African villages. Sitting for hours at a time at your families instrument from an early age and being surrounded by specifically that music gives a depth and, obviously incredible skill and technique to such players. Not only are hours a day put in by griot children but the tuning, repair and care of the instrument is learned too. When a griot family is working in Guinea, in the village environment, at a wedding or naming ceremony, the older children play accompanyment for the older, more experienced players. When younger children fall asleep they are moved behind one of the older players while he's working so they are literally absorbing the vibrations of the bala. This is done over and over during a child's life so the learning takes place on both a concious and unconconsious level. I've been priviliged to watch many griots play and most of the children are very accomplished players by the age of 13/14 or so. On a visit to Moria, in Guinea, in ? the traditional Ginifari - a rhythm for important women played traditionally at weddings - was so fast I couldn't even identify it!

There hasn't been a great deal written on this amazing instrument. Lynne Jessops’ book, The Mandinka Balafon, based in the Gambia, is quite dated now and there’s some information in Eric Charys' Mande Music (very heavy going and only for the dedicated ethnomusicologist). I’ve had the privilege of learning to play and mend this extraordinary instrument for over nine years now and too many musicians, both in The Gambia and Guinea, have been generous with their time and knowledge to name them all. I would like to acknowledge my first teacher Sekou Soumah, a Griot from Moria in Guinea, and my husband Moussa Sylla, not a griot but an amazing player all the same. I hope I’ve not told any ‘secrets’ and that I can continue to play and teach the balafon with the respect it deserves.