The Mandinka Balafon

The Mandinka Balafon

Author: Lynne Jessup

Publisher: Art Path Press

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 091642104X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Mandinka Balafon offers in depth research on the history, construction, and use of the West African balafon. Lynne Jessup provides a variety of accounts of the origin of the bala, including interviews with the jeli griots of The Gambia. Seventeen transcribed balafon songs are notated with modified box notation and two accompanying CDs, with the history and use of each song. Detailed information is given on the construction and tuning of the Mandinka balafon, with supportive photos and drawings.


Mande Music

Mande Music

Author: Eric Charry

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2000-10

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13: 9780226101613

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With Mande Music, Eric Charry offers the most comprehensive source available on one of Africa's richest and most sophisticated music cultures. Using resources as disparate as early Arabic travel accounts, oral histories, and archival research as well as his own extensive studies in Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and the Gambia, Charry traces this music culture from its origins in the thirteenth-century Mali empire to the recording studios of Paris and New York. He focuses on the four major spheres of Mande music—hunter's music, music of the jelis or griots, jembe and other drumming, and guitar-based modern music—exploring how each evolved, the types of instruments used, the major artists, and how each sphere relates to the others. With its maps, illustrations, and musical transcriptions as well as an exhaustive bibliography, discography, and videography, this book is essential reading for those seeking an in-depth look at one of the most exciting, innovative, and deep-rooted phenomena on the world music scene. A compact disc is available separately.


History Dances

History Dances

Author: Ofosuwa M. Abiola

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-11-16

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0429767846

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The field of history is founded on the interrogation of written documents from the past. However, culture is the center of life in Africa. As a result, in the past – and to a degree in the present – the process for documenting events in Africa was not written, it was performed. History Dances: Chronicling the History of Traditional Mandinka Dance argues that a wealth of information is housed within traditional Mandinka dance and, consequently, the dances can be used as an African-derived primary source for writing African history. Ofosuwa M. Abiola highlights the overall value of studying Mandinka dance history specifically, and African dance history generally, as well as addressing the issue of scarcity with regard to primary sources for writing African history. History Dances proves to be a vital read for both undergraduate students and scholars in the fields of dance history, African history, performance studies, and cultural anthropology.


Mandinka

Mandinka

Author: Jack Alderliefste

Publisher:

Published: 2017-01-07

Total Pages: 66

ISBN-13: 9781520165585

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Quite rightly The Gambia becomes more popular as holiday destination every year. It's affordable and yet the real Africa. The author offers you the challenge to speak the colloquial language before you'll reach Yundum Airport near Banjul. Your flying time (6 hours from Heathrow) is all the time you need. Mandinka is spoken by all different ethnic groups. Why? Because it's easy! Learn the few rules and apply them to the common verbs en substantives. Once arrived you will see that you are 'outstanding in the crowd' and will be treated differently...Mandinka for each moment! The market, restaurant, your hotel, up country or the local disco. This guide provides many ready-to-use examples and a word for word translation to unveil the structure of the language and give you the Mandinka-feel.


An Introduction to African Languages

An Introduction to African Languages

Author: George Tucker Childs

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9789027226068

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book introduces beginning students and non-specialists to the diversity and richness of African languages. In addition to providing a solid background to the study of African languages, the book presents linguistic phenomena not found in European languages. A goal of this book is to stimulate interest in African languages and address the question: What makes African languages so fascinating? The orientation adopted throughout the book is a descriptive one, which seeks to characterize African languages in a relatively succinct and neutral manner, and to make the facts accessible to a wide variety of readers. The author's lengthy acquaintance with the continent and field experiences in western, eastern, and southern Africa allow for both a broad perspective and considerable depth in selected areas. The original examples are often the author's own but also come from other sources and languages not often referenced in the literature. This text also includes a set of sound files illustrating the phenomena under discussion, be they the clicks of Khoisan, talking drums, or the ideophones (words like English lickety-split) found almost everywhere, which will make this book a valuable resource for teacher and student alike.


Rememberings

Rememberings

Author: Sinéad O'Connor

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 0358423880

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the acclaimed, controversial singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor comes a revelatory memoir of her fraught childhood, musical triumphs, fearless activism, and of the enduring power of song. Blessed with a singular voice and a fiery temperament, Sinéad O'Connor rose to massive fame in the late 1980s and 1990s with a string of gold records. By the time she was twenty, she was world famous--living a rock star life out loud. From her trademark shaved head to her 1992 appearance on Saturday Night Live when she tore up Pope John Paul II's photograph, Sinéad has fascinated and outraged millions. In Rememberings, O'Connor recounts her painful tale of growing up in Dublin in a dysfunctional, abusive household. Inspired by a brother's Bob Dylan records, she escaped into music. She relates her early forays with local Irish bands; we see Sinéad completing her first album while eight months pregnant, hanging with Rastas in the East Village, and soaring to unimaginable popularity with her cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2U." Intimate, replete with candid anecdotes and told in a singular form true to her unconventional career, Sinéad's memoir is a remarkable chronicle of an enduring and influential artist.


Culture and Customs of Gambia

Culture and Customs of Gambia

Author: Abdoulaye S. Saine Ph.D.

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2012-04-13

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ideal for high school and undergraduate students, this addition to the Culture and Customs of Africa series examines the contemporary cultures and traditions of modern Gambia, from religious customs to literature to cuisine and much more. This title in the Culture and Customs of Africa series examines the traditions and customs of contemporary Gambia, a geographically tiny nation in the vast landscape of Africa that is home to a large number of various ethnic groups, each with its own distinctive way of life. It is a country that has been largely unknown in Western culture, with the exception of Alex Haley's book Roots and subsequent TV series, which highlights Gambia's historic significance in the slave trade. This book illuminates Gambian religion and worldview; literature and media; arts and architecture/housing; gender roles, marriage, and family; social customs, traditional dress, cuisine, and lifestyle; and music and dance. The author has successfully encapsulated both long-ago history and contemporary Gambia to provide students with a complete look at life in Gambia today. Information on past traditions and historic events is discussed in the context of how they pertain to life today and their influence on the constant evolution of Gambian life and culture.