Fiddling in West Africa

Touching the Spirit in Fulbe, Hausa, and Dagbamba Cultures

By Jacqueline Cogdell Djedje
Buy Book

Indiana University Press, 2008

ISBN 978-0-253-21929-9

352 Pages

Summary

Winner, 2009 Alan Merriam Prize (Society for Ethnomusicology)
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.

Online media for this book