Fiddling in West Africa: Touching the Spirit in Fulbe, Hausa, and Dagbamba Cultures [Paperback]

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.

The dissemination of the one-stringed fiddle tradition in Africa seems to be concentrated in the so-called Sudanic Belt, an area that shares the border with the Pan-Arabic territory (also known as the Sahel). Djedje (UCLA) applies a multi-sited ethnography, focusing her research on the spread of the fiddle. She asserts that the dispersion of this instrument in West Africa is related to movement of the Fulbe, a nomadic people who originated in the Senegal Valley and migrated across West Africa, from Senegal to Lake Chad. The author successfully presents and demonstrates how the identity of this instrument has been reshaped to fit the history and ideology of ethnic groups that assimilated the instrument out of contact with the Fulbe. In addition to the lengthy bibliography, the book includes a generous discography and videography of selected recordings of one-stringed fiddle music from West Africa, organized geographically by ethnic groups. This strong example of ethnomusicology will also benefit students of anthropology and ethnography. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.  Choice

https://ethnomultimedia.org/book.html?bid=12

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