Mr Faal and Oko keep it up .We are still learning .
Chi Jamma ,
--- Oko Drammeh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Thank you Mr.Faal for a great historical piece. Good
> history lesson.
> Much Respect.
>
>
>
>
> The History of The Gambian Griots
> A lesson in Culture and Revolution
>
> "The Music as a reflection of our emotions
> (political,cultural and
> social) is our way of love and communication with
> the almighty and the
> Universe"
> An unedited version
>
> Oko Drammeh
>
> Where are the Christian griots. "Aunty how much for
> your Kola"
> I have cleary see that most of the griot tradition
> is inter twingled
> with Arabic and Persian culture all the way to
> mongolia.Asia.With the
> coming of cable TV you can see and hear a lot of
> Music and songs close
> to West African music on Turkey TV and many middle
> eastern stations. We
> have to revisit our history.Chiek Anta Diop thought
> that it was very
> instrumental to study our history, from what we were
> in the time of the
> Founding of Islam and Christianity and use thoes
> sources to authenticate
> our history. The Islam is widely heard in the Xalam
> -Scale, the wollof
> ,the drumming and the dancing,and in Fulani singing,
> infact and the
> Mbalax beat.I heard this in Turkey.I could not
> believe that" Geen-Tay"
> Chere ak ndawal" was from Arabia. After singing a
> lot of James Brown
> songs (like Baram -dama,bottom dollar)  and Beatles
> song in my own
> African way (like Lamin Jeng would sing it in The
> Whiter shades of pale
> by Procul Harum in" Cherno Wadda") and felt good
> This was an element
> that the islam patched in the heart of our
> culture.To seperate The
> Griots and the traditional arabic life style makes
> the tradition just
> like pagan rituals in Chrisstinity.Are we singing
> the wrong song? Or do
> we have to wipe the board and start from scratch.
>
> The Sudan /our cultural landscape
> Thr Drammeh's as teachers used to go to Arabia as
> teachers through Aswan
> The name Darham has a close link with the name Dar
> -ham-Ahmed.Aswan was
> the place where blacks meet whites. In Aswan you can
> buy slaves and
> wives(as much as you want), men came from The sourth
> south of Saudi
> Arabia to MARRY boys.The tribe of lot in north Yemen
> and in Saudi Arabia
> do marry with young boys.The so'called Janja- weeds
> are desert gangsters
> but have no historical with the imperial manach aqnd
> the Children of
> Abdul Wahab the founding father of the house of
> Saud..The rich Arabs
> that bought Oasis of water in the desert and kill
> poor black farmers who
> violate or tresspass the properity.This is long time
> story totally
> different with the Arabic-fisication of Africa.The
> janja -weed is
> wasnever the porblem. The Arabic islamic expansion
> is the problem.War to
> protect water is what the janja weed is doing, they
> are brothers to the
> Tutsi. This is different from the royal kingdom of
> Saudi supporting the
> government for the Muhammad Bassir.Now in Khartoum
> the Tosca-project is
> on to dig out the history of Nubia Blacks by a rich
> Arabs man one Mr.
> Talall to re-discover Nubia but also as an Arab
> settlement like the
> Gaza.This part of Black Africa will not be easily
> handed back.Since
> Egypt also allowed these American churches a few
> years ago. They are
> following the tail of the serpent down to the heart
> of Sudan.But thes
> essence is that the escavation is going to bring
> back the Arab Culture
> in the Heart of Nubia. Mali wes known as Sudan and
> West Africa Western
> Sudan..I lived in Sudan with my grandmother Mam
> Jallow who was married
> Pa Sory then(1957).Most of our ancestor are in
> Sudan.The Dinkas , how
> far is it from The Dinka to Man-Dinka. Black man
> know your history.We
> are Arabs both Muslims and christians.We have been
> hal;f changed in the
> course of what is original abour us the children of
> God.
>
> The Finnahs/ A Rappwer with a mike, without
> political ideology is a lose
> canon.
> They are the truth seekers they are like Rappers,
> Infact Hallie Salassie
> had a Finnah as well as Bob Marley and many gurus
> and monguls.They
> represent the hard facts and cornerstone evidence of
> the kings ruling.
> The king would ask a Finnah to sign his signature
> and decide what is
> truth or false.The Finnah was the word of the
> king.Modou Musa Njie also
> had Finnahs.In Kabu Kansala the Finnahs were in the
> courtship as
> councillors as well. It is a good thing to have
> rappers with IDEOLOGY(
> butto rap in local langauges to convey positive into
> the community.
> Kocce Barma and anta and the Late Matarr Ngaja Joof
> were natural
> knowledge seekers.Senghore the poet, was not amused
> by the thrills of
> Shiek Anta,asregarded Chiek Anta, he did't have good
> work for the first
> ever President of Senegal Mr. Momodou Dia,the
> socialist and his entorage
> which included Wall Jojo Njie, Chiek Anta
> Diop,Birago Diop and the rest.
> A poet can be a pen assassin. A griot can also be
> manuipilated like a
> finnah.Only what the king wants to hear.You have to
> sometimes whisper
> the facts truth and rights to the finnah and with a
> smile can forward it
> to the king. A finnah would always strike first.
>
> The Song Saliya
> The praise of The instrument Koring- Bato, the
> instrument now known as
> the kora.is  The Koring-bato."Koring bato -be Kuma
> la -Sayliya" !
> This  was the lamentation tune played when the
> children of the kings
> were crying.and needed attention.TheNyanchos were
> also praised but
> differently with lighter lyrical content (like in
> Chedo) and they do no
> work but to be praised and prepared for War from the
> clans of
> Sanneh,Manneh and Sayang .These songs were performed
> jalis.The Jali is
> more public as a Gewel.The Finnah is more personal
> to a king or courtship.
>
> The Bala Fon (g)
> The Story of Balla Fasege is a folkoric tale,Bala
> was a Joberteh.He was
> the griot of Sumangru Konte.He played the balafon
> (xylophoe) as a
> foutune teller of The King Soumanguru.One day,he
> played the Bala while
> Sumanguru was in ballttle and Sumanguru felt it.He
> came home and asked
> him to confess that he did use the magical
> instrument vaguely and Bala
> confessed "YES".He was sentenced to played for
> punnishment for hours
> unending day after day for quoete a while.This is
> how he got the name
> sBala Fe -se -ge which means sit down and play (bala
> Fa-sege). He was a
> Joberteh but he played a Balafon. Jali Madi Wuleng
> Joberteh who invited
> the 21 string instrument.This was around 400 years
> ago.He imporovised
> the Sun'e and broaden the calabass, and pierced a
> longer pole throught
> the kora to make it complete with four musical
> scales which are the
> Swata,The sylba,the hydarin (oriental) and
> tomoraba.The Kora grandfather
> was jali Madi wuleng,he handed over to the great
> grand father of Tata
> Dinging Jali Wandifeng.He wrote most of the kora
> songs sang by
> Soundillou and Lalo Kebba.The mother of Jaliba
> Kuyateh is from the
>
=== message truncated ===




__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~