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Fiddling in West Africa
Touching the Spirit in Fulbe, Hausa, and Dagbamba Cultures
Indiana University Press, 2008
ISBN 978-0-253-21929-9
352 Pages
Summary
Winner, Nketia Book Prize, Society for Ethnomusicology
Fiddling has had a lengthy history in Africa which has long been ignored. Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje corrects this oversight with an expansive study on fiddling in the Fulbe, Hausa, and Dagbamba cultures of West Africa. DjeDje not only explains the history of the instrument itself, but also discusses the processes of stylistic transference and adaptation, suggesting how these may have contributed to differing performance practices. Additionally, DjeDje delves into the music, the performance context, the musicians behind the fiddle, the meaning of the instrument, and its use in these three cultures. This detailed work helps the reader understand and appreciate three little-known musical cultures in West Africa and the fiddle's influence upon them.
Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A Master Fiddler and a Significant but Little-Known Tradition
1. Fiddling in West Africa: Understanding the Culture Area
2. An Affirmation of Identity: Fulbe Fiddling in Senegambia
3. Calling the Bori Spirits: Hausa Fiddling in Nigeria
4. In Service to the King: Dagbamba Fiddling in Ghana
Conclusion
Appendix: Distribution of the One-Stringed Fiddle
Notes
List of References
Discography and Videography
Index
Biography
Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje is Professor and Chair of Ethnomusicology and former Director of the Ethnomusicology Archive at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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