African Spirits in Michael Jackson’s Music as well as Modern Rap of Jay Z, Kanye West Beyoncé
Posted: Friday, April 01, 2011
by Chris Kanyane
Global Center For Research World Wide
“Wherever you go my son - even beyond this great river; you take with you the rich history of your ancestors and their manners” African proverb.
“I was told by Africans” wrote the English traveler A.B. Lloyd in 1899 “that from one village to another, a distance of 100 miles, a message could be sent by sounds of drums in less than two hours, and I quite believe it possible for it to be done in much less time”.
The most astonishing element in African drumming is not the sound but the rhythm crushing beat. Unlike Western music, which is built on simple rhythmic patterns like one – two – three, one –two – three of the waltz, African drumming is polyrhythmic: After the opening bars, in which the master drummer announces the theme, each drummer takes up a complementary variation and elaborates upon it, crisscrossing it and meticulously weaving it into the rhythms of the other drummer to create a dense tapestry of sound. This sometimes can be difficult to describe in exact terms through words but if you know the strong rhythmic connections of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean is not my lover song which introduced him to the world where he first done moon walk dance in public that is what I am describing here.
Most non-Africans cannot understand the intricacies of African drum music much beyond the introductory bars. But Africans hear each rhythm as a pattern, frequency picking out one to follow with their feet, while the other parts of their bodies follow other rhythms – observe both Michael Jackson and Beyonce during performance; shoulders jerked the other direction feet to another, and head responding to a different rhythm. Notice further Beyonce in “I’m a Single Lady” song, tapping her pelvis with one hand while doing jittering jumps with the other pelvis in the other direction, while her head goes this way and that way, doing all this but still been able to quiver her mouth with enchanting smile. In Africa, sometimes this dancing is spontaneous and everyone participates.
But on important occasions it is strictly choreographed and is only done by carefully handpicked dancers who rehearse thoroughly. Like the masks designed to be worn on these occasions, the dances are associated with certain gods and ancestral spirits. The dances and the drum rhythm crushing beats are sacred and in many African societies these drums are housed separately from other ordinary drums.
Michael Jackson and Beyonce in particular (not exclusively) the combination of continuous varying rhythm crushing beat sends them into a spiritual trance. Their music and dance is made more powerful not just appealing to the senses, but it is the route into another planet of spirits. Nearly all Africans believed in a single High God from whom all things flowed. He was seldom regarded as human in form, but rather an invisible energy, a sort of invisible Life Force. Africans drew certain conclusions about the nature of man. One of this was that the dead do not really die. They leave the earth to rejoin the Invisible Life Source God. And since no one dies in the sense of being completely done away with and finished, every African community includes the spirits of the dead. In addition to that the community also includes those not yet born. Once upon a time an African chief once explained to a British Commission Inquiry into African customs that he thought of the land as belonging to “a vast family, of which many are dead, few are living, and countless are born”. African religion, in the words of anthropologist William Howells is “a godly religion of a most general kind”. Africans evidently thought about God in a way deserving respect. We talked about African drums, dances and spirits so far in reference to Michael Jackson and Beyonce in particular but not exclusively.
There is a similar, although much less intense, African dramatic interplay and that is storytelling. The storyteller usually the oldest person in the African village enlivens his talk with all sorts of sound effects. He changes the tone, the pitch and pace of his voice just exactly the way the kings of rap Jay Z, Kanye West does in today’s modern American Rap and hip hop. Watch Jay Z on Empire State of Mind where he is rapping or telling a story about the greatness of New York in its spectacular position in America. African songs of storytelling contain many brilliant memories of a golden past of an age of kingdoms and heroes, of people who were warriors, statesmen, magicians. For us the new generation of Africans as we grew up these songs, dances and storytelling had the power to carry us back to another Africa, overleaping the sad humiliations of colonial rule, apartheid and slavery. Usually it was great occasions that call out these songs, but even a casual gathering, a singer, story teller can command a responsive audience.
Take for example, one evening in the modern new Republic of Guinea in West Africa, a group of European travelers witnessed such importance of these songs and storytelling. As they sat in the lounge of a hotel, a young woman appeared, beautiful and self assured, with a flash of filigree in ears and hair. She seated herself amongst these European travelers, spread wide her skirts, and began to sing of Guinea’s history. She sang first of the architect of the young republic’s freedom, Sekou Toure, of his energy and courage in the struggle for Africa’s independence from Europe. But her song soon took her back across the years to another Toure, the dour and stubborn 19th century leader Samori ibn Lafiya who resisted French invasion of West Africa for more than 16 years and he is remembered with a mixture of admiration and despair. From Samori she went far deeper into the past, to sing of Askia Toure, Askia the Great, who ruled the wide West African empire of Songhai in the 16th century and made the rich city of Timbuktu a center of learning.
Since Africa’s traditional literature is entirely oral, these songs, dances and storytelling was a vital force in community life. It told people about their history, taught them morality, and explained human nature and changing realities of the world.
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)Interesting article Chris, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for a very interesting article Chris.
I really liked how you wove in history with music and culture! The article is very interesting!
Hi Chris. Very informative and interesting to read. Thank you for the nice lesson :-)
I think rythem is very primal. Much like the written word, it won't go away soon. Especially percussion and drumming. The beats resonate everywhere even when we're not paying attention. That's what I love about beats like African signatures.
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