the meaning of masabo    welcome to west africa    quick notes about côte d'ivoire    about fana soro   
about the senoufo people    about traditional music    about traditional dance    about masks   
about the balafon    about the instruments    about oral traditions    about textiles and costumes   
school performance repertoire    masks - music & dance    learning activities    learning links   

The country's traditional music is characterized by series of melodies and rhythms occurring in harmony. Music is used to transmit knowledge and values and for celebrating communal and personal events. Stages of a person's life are marked with music specific to adolescent initiation rites, weddings, ancestral ceremonies, and funerals. There are different kinds of music for women, men, young people, and hunters.

Traditional music includes the use of a wide variety of instruments that are made with local materials. Drums are among the most popular instruments used. They come in a number of shapes, such as cylindrical, kettle, and hourglass. Several materials such as wood, gourds, and clay, are used to construct drum bodies. Membranes are made from the skins of reptiles, cattle, goats and antelopes.

Other important percussion instruments include clap sticks, bells, rattles, gourds and clay pots and xylophones (balafons). Historically, traditional music has been the prerogative of one social group, the griot. The griot played a crucial role as historians in the kingdoms that developed from the 10thcentury to the 20th century across Africa as a whole and Cote d'Ivoire in particular. At sometime, griots became the official musicians of society. They used only instruments they could make themselves, with local material such as gourds, animal skins, and horns.

Click here to see the Instruments Masabo plays

To Print Instrument Colouring Sheets Click Here

To Print Study Guide Click Here

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