The Sambla Xylophone: Tradition and Identity in Burkina Faso

Document
Document

The Sambla are a small ethnic group nestled in a hilly region of western Burkina Faso, West Africa, who play a xylophone called the baan. Played by three musicians simultaneously, the baan accompanies all ritual, work, and recreational activities that require music in Sambla life, and it can be considered the primary locus of Sambla musical expression. They acquired the instrument from the neighboring Tusia, an ethnic group with whom the Sambla have long shared friendly relations, when two of their musicians migrated into Sambla country with their xylophone in the late 19th century. Over time the Sambla adopted this xylophone as their own, adapting the instrument and its music to suit their needs and transforming it into a unique local tradition. The acceptance and transformation of the Tusia xylophone into a new local tradition can be viewed as the latest step in the formation of Sambla ethnic identity. As an ethnic group, the Sambla were formed by a series of processes that began when they separated from the Samogo populations, became geographically isolated, and began to absorb various foreign people, practices, and belief systems into their community, unifying themselves by their link to the land under a sacred earth chief. The creation of the baan tradition was another step in their process of identity creation, as it became an essential element to all ritual and social events and the center of Sambla musical life. Music of the baan is complex and multifaceted, and it employs a speech surrogate system that is capable of extemporaneous speech both within the performance of a song and during interludes between songs in which spectators engage in conversation with the soloist, who responds with musical speech on the baan. The speech surrogate mimics the tonal and rhythmic contour of spoken Sambla, and it must fit within the melodic and modal context of the particular song in which the speech is played. The tonal, modal, and multi-dimensional rhythmic and metric facets of the music are explored in the musical analysis.

    Item Description
    Name(s)
    Thesis advisor: Charry, Eric S.
    Date
    May 01, 2009
    Extent
    323 pages
    Language
    eng
    Genre
    Physical Form
    electronic
    Discipline
    Rights and Use
    In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted
    Digital Collection
    PID
    ir:2236