Black Dance from Africa to the Americas
Black Dance is intended not primarily for dancers but for everyone interested in the contributions of Afro-America (Diaspora) to the cultural development of the world. The contribution has been immense and a source of great pride. A fundamental element of African aesthetic was the dance. Music and mask-making were incorporated into the wide variety of religious dance forms. Dance could also be of a recreational or secular nature and in one form or another pervaded all of African life. This is the one element of African culture that the Europeans could not eliminate in transforming them to hate themselves and their culture.
As a matter of fact, dance was used, in some cases, to entice the native Africans to board the white man's ships to the Caribbean. The African heritage is obvious today in the West Indies. The dance of the West Indian blacks was based on rhythm, and movement was frequently controlled by percussion instruments, usually the drum. The complexity of the rhythmic patterns of the music led to a similar complexity in the structure of the dance; the feet might follow one rhythm while the hips moved to a second and the arms and head to a third and fourth. A brief look at the instruments found in the New World may lead to a clearer understanding of Black West Indian dance. These accompaniments of the dance demonstrated the resourcefulness of the transplanted Africans.
The "Banjo," a small goard, fitted with necks, strung with horse hairs, or the peeled stalks of climbing plants or Withs. Strings tied longer or shorter, as they would alter their sounds, is played on by the finger producing a dismal monotony of four notes. In fact, Thomas Jefferson later called the banjo the only instrument of African origin to find its way to the U.S. which, of course, became the guitar.
Another creative instrument was a rattle similar to the present-day maracas. This instrument was a calabash filled with pebbles, and pierced lengthwise by a long handle by which they are shaken. The Africans also used trumpets and drums made of hallow logs with skin stretched across one end; making use of them in their wars at home in Africa.
The most important instrument, however, was the drum. In early accounts the West Indian slaves used two drums made of two tree trunks hollowed to unequal depths. One end is open, the other covered with a sheep skin or goat skin, without hair, scraped like parchment. The largest of these two drums they simply called the "big drum" (bass drum).The smaller drum is called the "baboula." Those who beat the drums to mark the beat of the dance put them between their legs or sit on them and strike them with the flat of the four fingers of each hand. The man who plays the large drum strikes it deliberately and rhythmically, but the baboula player beats the drums as fast as he can. (Today it is referred to as "El Tambor.")
The dance, accompanied then, by the banjo, calabash (shakie-shakies), big drum, baboula (kitty-katties)- and sometimes a jawbone rubbed by a stick or bone - the Black slaves sang, clapped, and danced. But the principal part of the music to which they danced is vocal; one girl generally signing two lines by herself, and being answered by the chorus. Local whites were so influenced by black music and dance that their music began to seem to be very familiar to slave music. Dancing the "Congo minuets" and the "Negro jig" became a feature of local white dance.
That the Black slaves in the Caribbean danced there is no doubt.
As a matter of fact, dance was used, in some cases, to entice the native Africans to board the white man's ships to the Caribbean. The African heritage is obvious today in the West Indies. The dance of the West Indian blacks was based on rhythm, and movement was frequently controlled by percussion instruments, usually the drum. The complexity of the rhythmic patterns of the music led to a similar complexity in the structure of the dance; the feet might follow one rhythm while the hips moved to a second and the arms and head to a third and fourth. A brief look at the instruments found in the New World may lead to a clearer understanding of Black West Indian dance. These accompaniments of the dance demonstrated the resourcefulness of the transplanted Africans.
The "Banjo," a small goard, fitted with necks, strung with horse hairs, or the peeled stalks of climbing plants or Withs. Strings tied longer or shorter, as they would alter their sounds, is played on by the finger producing a dismal monotony of four notes. In fact, Thomas Jefferson later called the banjo the only instrument of African origin to find its way to the U.S. which, of course, became the guitar.
Another creative instrument was a rattle similar to the present-day maracas. This instrument was a calabash filled with pebbles, and pierced lengthwise by a long handle by which they are shaken. The Africans also used trumpets and drums made of hallow logs with skin stretched across one end; making use of them in their wars at home in Africa.
The most important instrument, however, was the drum. In early accounts the West Indian slaves used two drums made of two tree trunks hollowed to unequal depths. One end is open, the other covered with a sheep skin or goat skin, without hair, scraped like parchment. The largest of these two drums they simply called the "big drum" (bass drum).The smaller drum is called the "baboula." Those who beat the drums to mark the beat of the dance put them between their legs or sit on them and strike them with the flat of the four fingers of each hand. The man who plays the large drum strikes it deliberately and rhythmically, but the baboula player beats the drums as fast as he can. (Today it is referred to as "El Tambor.")
The dance, accompanied then, by the banjo, calabash (shakie-shakies), big drum, baboula (kitty-katties)- and sometimes a jawbone rubbed by a stick or bone - the Black slaves sang, clapped, and danced. But the principal part of the music to which they danced is vocal; one girl generally signing two lines by herself, and being answered by the chorus. Local whites were so influenced by black music and dance that their music began to seem to be very familiar to slave music. Dancing the "Congo minuets" and the "Negro jig" became a feature of local white dance.
That the Black slaves in the Caribbean danced there is no doubt.
