Music of Guinea-Bissau
Encyclopedia
The music
of Guinea-Bissau
is usually associated with the polyrhythm
ic gumbe
genre, the country's primary musical export. However, civil unrest and a small size have combined over the years to keep gumbe, and other genres, out of mainstream audiences, even in generally syncretist African countries.
The calabash
is the primary musical instrument
of Guinea-Bissau, and is used in extremely swift and rhythmically complex dance music
. Lyrics are almost always in Guinea-Bissau Creole, a Portuguese
-based creole language
, and are often humorous and topical, revolving around current events and controversies, especially AIDS
.
The word gumbe is sometimes used generically, to refer to any music of the country, though it most specifically refers to a unique style that fuses about ten of the country's folk music
traditions. Tina and tinga
are other popular genres, while extent folk traditions include ceremonial music used in funeral
s, initiation
s and other rituals, as well as Balanta brosca and kussundé, Mandinga
djambadon and the kundere sound of the Bijagos islands.
Independence from Portugal came in 1974, after long years of struggle. In contrast to other Portuguese colonies like Brazil
, Angola
, Mozambique
and Cape Verde
, the fado
song tradition did not penetrate Guinea-Bissau to any significant degree. Gumbe was the first popular song tradition to arise in the country, and began in 1973 with the recording of Ernesto Dabó's "M'Ba Bolama" in Lisbon
. Dabó's record producer
was Zé Carlos
, who had formed the most popular band in Guinea-Bissau's history, Cobiana Djazz, in 1972. The next popular band to form was Super Mama Djombo, whose 1980 debut, Cambança, was tremendously popular across the country.
These early bands, and others like Africa Livre, Chifre Preto and Kapa Negra, had a stormy relationship with Guinea-Bissau's dictatorial government. Zé Carlos criticized the administration, and died in a plane crash in Havana
under suspicious circumstances that many of his fans believed to indicate a government role in his murder. Later, Super Mama Djambo both supported the PAIGC and mocked its perceived nepotism
and corruption
.
In the 1980s, genres like kussundé began to become popular across the country, led by Kaba Mané, whose Chefo Mae Mae used an electric guitar
and Balanta
lyrics. Some performers were banned by the government, including Zé Manel
after he began singing "Tustumunhus di aonti" (Yesterday's Testimony) in 1983, using lyrics written by Huco Monteiro, a poet. Justino Delgado, another popular singer, was arrested for criticizing President João Bernardo Vieira
.
Angolan pop music is called Kizomba
and was born out of Zouk
music. Kizomba supports a fairly large number of artistes singing in both English and Portuguese.
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
of Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....
is usually associated with the polyrhythm
Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms.Polyrhythm in general is a nonspecific term for the simultaneous occurrence of two or more conflicting rhythms, of which cross-rhythm is a specific and definable subset.—Novotney Polyrhythms can be distinguished from...
ic gumbe
Gumbe
Gumbe is a style of music from Guinea-Bissau. Gumbe is a specific genre, mostly influenced by zouk music . True gumbe is a fusion of several Bissauan folk traditions. Gumbe is the genre most closely associated with Guinea-Bissauan music worldwide...
genre, the country's primary musical export. However, civil unrest and a small size have combined over the years to keep gumbe, and other genres, out of mainstream audiences, even in generally syncretist African countries.
The calabash
Calabash
Lagenaria siceraria , bottle gourd, opo squash or long melon is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable, or harvested mature, dried, and used as a bottle, utensil, or pipe. For this reason, the calabash is widely known as the bottle gourd...
is the primary musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
of Guinea-Bissau, and is used in extremely swift and rhythmically complex dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
. Lyrics are almost always in Guinea-Bissau Creole, a Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
-based creole language
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
, and are often humorous and topical, revolving around current events and controversies, especially AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
.
The word gumbe is sometimes used generically, to refer to any music of the country, though it most specifically refers to a unique style that fuses about ten of the country's folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
traditions. Tina and tinga
Tinga
Tinga can be:* Tinga Stewart, Jamaican reggae singer* footballer Paulo César Tinga, of Sport Club Internacional* footballer Paulo Edson Nascimento Costa, commonly known as Tinga* footballer Luiz Otávio Santos de Araújo, commonly known as Tinga...
are other popular genres, while extent folk traditions include ceremonial music used in funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
s, initiation
Initiation
Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...
s and other rituals, as well as Balanta brosca and kussundé, Mandinga
Mandinka people
The Mandinka, Malinke are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa with an estimated population of eleven million ....
djambadon and the kundere sound of the Bijagos islands.
Independence from Portugal came in 1974, after long years of struggle. In contrast to other Portuguese colonies like Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
and Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
, the fado
Fado
Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar, Rui Vieira Nery, states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best...
song tradition did not penetrate Guinea-Bissau to any significant degree. Gumbe was the first popular song tradition to arise in the country, and began in 1973 with the recording of Ernesto Dabó's "M'Ba Bolama" in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. Dabó's record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
was Zé Carlos
Zé Carlos
José Carlos is a Portuguese/Spanish given name. It may refer to:*José Carlos Amaral Vieira, Brazilian composer/pianist*José Carlos Araújo Nunes, Portuguese footballer*José Carlos dos Reis, Brazilian footballer...
, who had formed the most popular band in Guinea-Bissau's history, Cobiana Djazz, in 1972. The next popular band to form was Super Mama Djombo, whose 1980 debut, Cambança, was tremendously popular across the country.
These early bands, and others like Africa Livre, Chifre Preto and Kapa Negra, had a stormy relationship with Guinea-Bissau's dictatorial government. Zé Carlos criticized the administration, and died in a plane crash in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
under suspicious circumstances that many of his fans believed to indicate a government role in his murder. Later, Super Mama Djambo both supported the PAIGC and mocked its perceived nepotism
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
and corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
.
In the 1980s, genres like kussundé began to become popular across the country, led by Kaba Mané, whose Chefo Mae Mae used an electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
and Balanta
Balanta language
Balanta is an Atlantic language of west Africa spoken by the Balanta people.-Description:Balanta has case prefixes and suffixes alternatively interpreted as a definite article dependent on the noun class....
lyrics. Some performers were banned by the government, including Zé Manel
Zé Manel
In Portuguese, Zé Manel or Ze'Manel is a common short form of the name José Manuel, and can refer to:*José Manuel Durão Barroso, the current President of the European Commission*José Manuel da Silva Fernandes, a football player...
after he began singing "Tustumunhus di aonti" (Yesterday's Testimony) in 1983, using lyrics written by Huco Monteiro, a poet. Justino Delgado, another popular singer, was arrested for criticizing President João Bernardo Vieira
João Bernardo Vieira
João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira was the President of Guinea-Bissau from 1980 to 1999 and again from 2005 to 2009. After seizing power in 1980, Vieira ruled for 19 years, and he won a multiparty presidential election in 1994. He was ousted at the end of the 1998–1999 civil war and went into exile...
.
Angolan pop music is called Kizomba
Kizomba
Kizomba is one of the most popular genres of dance and music created in Angola. Derived directly from Zouk, sung generally in Portuguese, it is a genre of music with a romantic flow mixed with African rhythm. The kizomba dancing style is also known to be very sensual.- Origin :Kizomba was developed...
and was born out of Zouk
Zouk
Zouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique. Zouk means "party" or "festival" in the local Antillean Creole of French, although the word originally referred to, and is still used to refer to, a popular dance, based on the Polish dance, the...
music. Kizomba supports a fairly large number of artistes singing in both English and Portuguese.
External Links
- BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Manecas Costa and the gumbe rhythm. Accessed November 25, 2010.
- BBC Radio 3 Audio (60 minutes): Balanta men. Accessed November 25, 2010.