Mahaba
- Authors: Kaluta Amri Bin Abedi , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1950
- Subjects: Folk music--Africa , Folk music--Tanzania , Swahili-speaking peoples , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Tanzania Kigoma f-tz
- Language: Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/179442 , vital:43064 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR169-08
- Description: "What awakens love, is fair and kind. When the heart's seed is touched. How wondorous sweet and how it burns. He loves not foolishly who loves the giver. The Mashairi poem gives greater scope for love poetry than the usual African song. Short poem revealing an interesting side of the African poet's mind. Mashairi sung poem
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1950
Mahaba, jamani, yananiatile
- Authors: Egyptian musical club , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1950
- Subjects: Folk music--Africa , Folk music--Tanzania , Swahili-speaking peoples , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Tanzania Dar-es-Salaam f-tz
- Language: Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/179523 , vital:43074 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR169-15
- Description: Abbas Haji was the singer of this song composed by the gifted player Bom Amberon. "I am distrought with love, I can neither see by day nor sleep by night. In whom shall I confide my two years' longing. Who will tell me how my heart might find repose. Love song, with 2 Udi, 1 Cello, 1 mandoline, 1 Dambak, 1 Kayamba rattle, and 3 violas.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1950
Mai-o-da
- Authors: Mosis, Magdalena, and Terasa (Mambuti women) , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Songs, Swahili , Mbuti (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Pygmies , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Mbau-Mbili f-cg
- Language: Congo Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168169 , vital:41547 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0125-03
- Description: These songs were sung by three very small pygmy women all crouching on the ground close together. Their songs, it is said, asre composed mostly of vowel sounds or very simple words without much attempt to form a lyric. They were clothed only in a small strip of cloth each strung between the legs with each supported by a waist band of bark string. Each had a single string of beads around the neck and black markings were painted on their faces and necks. These songs, they said,could also be used as lullabies. At the end of the second and third items the bleat of a goat kid can be heard. Song after fishing.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Majirani njoni (Come here, friends)
- Authors: Omari Saidi with Swahili men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1950
- Subjects: Folk music--Africa , Folk music--Tanzania , Swahili-speaking peoples , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Tanzania Zanzibar f-tz
- Language: Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/179911 , vital:43248 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR171-04
- Description: The Mkwaju dance is popular, they say, amongst the more African element of this Swahili population which also shows a tendency towards Arabian and sometimes to Indian music. The population of the island is complex and consists of representatives of several East African tribes in addition to Arab, Indian and Shirazi peoples, and their offspring of mixed marriages. The effect in terms of musical performances is equally complex without unanimity, a phenomena found in other communities of mixed tribal and national marriages. Mkwaju dance song for men, with Marimba xylophone box rattle (-12.61-) and 2 friction sticks (-12.61-).
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1950
Mama Yangu
- Authors: Mudumbu , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Songs, Swahili , Bira (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Pygmies , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Gombe f-cg
- Language: Bira
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168434 , vital:41581 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0126-10
- Description: A song about his mother, his country and people. Swahili words are interspersed with the Buudu as Swahili has rapidly become the 'lingua franca' for this part of the Congo having been first introduced by the Arabs and now officially in schools, business and administration. Topical song with Likembe (Mbira).
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Manatobo kukwo – Day lullaby
- Authors: Mbuti women , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Songs, Swahili , Mbuti (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Pygmies , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Gombari f-cg
- Language: Congo Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168309 , vital:41563 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0125-19
- Description: When the song is sung, they say, any time during the day. Lullaby.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Manatobo kukwo – Night lullaby
- Authors: Mbuti women , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Songs, Swahili , Mbuti (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Pygmies , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Gombari f-cg
- Language: Congo Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168315 , vital:41564 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0125-20
- Description: This lullaby is sung at night but also at other times. Lullaby.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Maria Chibu
- Authors: Albert Yenie and Alex Singoma , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Songs, Swahili , Bira (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Pygmies , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Bunia f-cg
- Language: Bira
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168443 , vital:41582 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0126-11
- Description: This is an attempt either to transpose a well known guitar song to the traditional instrument of the district or is the original folk tune itself. The sanzo ababo has a very wide bridge, 8 and half inches, possibly the widest of all the Mbira family. The notes do not take up all this space as a large gap of about 2" is left between the notes played by each hand, Nos. 1-11 and 12-22. Duet on the Likembe, (Mbira) - Sanzo apido (treble) x 20 notes, and Sanzo ababo (bass) x 22 notes.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Masida Ngalima
- Authors: Ombiza Charles , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Folk songs, Zande , Alur (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Stanleyville f-cg
- Language: Zande/Vongara
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168102 , vital:41541 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0124-11
- Description: Masida Ngalima is the name of a woman. Like so many other African guitar players, Ombiza Charles appears to play the whole of his considerable reportoire in one key only. Most of his songs, like this one were about the well-dressed, perfumed beauties of the town, their charms and their msideeds. "The girls of today know how to dress" he sings. This claim is well justified as the girls of Stanleyville are, in our experience, perhaps the best dressed of all urban girls in the Congo. Topical song with guitar, bottle and friction stick.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Mawaidha
- Authors: Kaluta Amir Bin Abedi , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1950
- Subjects: Folk music--Africa , Folk music--Tanzania , Swahili-speaking peoples , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Tanzania Kigoma f-tz
- Language: Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/179415 , vital:43061 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR169-05
- Description: "With the name of the Lord I should begin. And with his name I should finish. That I may compose them evenly with good things exultingly." Much of the Mashairi poetry, they say, is religious in nature. The African authors demonstrate the extent to which Arab culture has penetrated along the old trade routes. The speaker was fluent in Arabic and his Swahili appears to be more 'classical' than usual. Mashairi sung poems
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1950
Mbo I
- Authors: Chief Bianoko and Buudu men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Songs, Swahili , Bira (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Pygmies , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Gombe f-cg
- Language: Bira
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168331 , vital:41567 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0126-01
- Description: This is a man's dance performed on festive occassions to celebrate a Chief's arrival or when the coffee has been harvested. The steps are very simple the whole group moving slowly around in a circle with the drums either in the centre or to one side. The notables wore attractive scarlet parrot tail feathers on their head of plaited palm leaf. The ivory was covered with several cat skins. These horns, beautifully carved out of elephant tusks are a notable feature of the material culture of this part of the Congo. They use the hollow end of the tusk, cutting it off at the nerve tip, so that the tip of the horn is open and can produce two notes. A special feature is the carefully carved broad mouthpiece on the inner side of the curve about one third of the length of the horn from the small end. The small end is often carved as a small human head. In playing the orifice is opened and closed with the thumb. Party dance, with 1 very small slit drum, 1 small slit drum 2 conical laced drums, 2 pod slit drums, ivory horn and basket rattles.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Mbo II
- Authors: Chief Bianoko and Buudu men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Songs, Swahili , Bira (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Pygmies , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Gombe f-cg
- Language: Bira
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168343 , vital:41570 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0126-02
- Description: The Buudu is one of the north Eastern Congo Bantu tribes which makes good use of slit drums of groups, both for sending signals and for dances. The largest of these are frequently found roughly shaped like an antelope with head, tail and legs protruding from the body of the drum, carved out of a single log. The almost mechanical exactness of the performance of these five men in typically African strict tempo is quite remarkable, dull perhaps to the outsider who does not participate, but highly conducive of the motoe-reaction of the dancers. Drum rhythm, tall slit drum shaped like an animal, 2 pod drums, 2 small slit drums.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Mbuti dance
- Authors: Mbuti Pygmy men and women , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Songs, Swahili , Mbuti (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Pygmies , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Gombari f-cg
- Language: Congo Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168259 , vital:41557 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0125-13
- Description: The Pygmies of the forest borrow the instruments of the Bantu people outside. They have few if any instruments of their own. The slit drum was beautifully proportioned, semi-circular in shape, 41" across the diameter and 3" broad. The slit was 1" across and was carved out a hole through it to act as an insulating foot while playing or a handle to bang it up by. It is called Ndundu. The two conical drums were called Gude and were the usual laced drums of the district and measured 22" x 13" head and 30" x 8" head. Both made of very light wood. Conical laced drums, 1 semi-circular slit drum and basket rattle.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Mbuti drum rhythm
- Authors: Mbuti Pygmy men and women , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Songs, Swahili , Mbuti (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Pygmies , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Gombari f-cg
- Language: Congo Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168268 , vital:41558 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0125-14
- Description: The Pygmies of the forest borrow the instruments of the Bantu people outside. They have few if any instruments of their own. The slit drum was beautifully proportioned, semi-circular in shape, 41" across the diameter and 3" broad. The slit was 1" across and was carved out a hole through it to act as an insulating foot while playing or a handle to bang it up by. It is called Ndundu. The two conical drums were called Gude and were the usual laced drums of the district and measured 22" x 13" head and 30" x 8" head. Both made of very light wood. Conical laced drums, 1 semi-circular slit drum and basket rattle.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Mbuti hunting cries
- Authors: Moke with Mbuti men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Songs, Swahili , Mbuti (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Pygmies , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Gombari f-cg
- Language: Congo Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168277 , vital:41559 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0125-15
- Description: The hollow clapping sound in the first song was produced by the Pygmies slapping the hollow of their crooked arms held against the chest with their hands. This kind of clapping indicates pleasure or rejoicing and takes the place of the two handed clapping which they do not appear to use. These cries, they said, were used when hunting the iddi, the small forest antelope, driving it into the hunting nets.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Mnapowacha madogo
- Authors: Saadani Abdu Kandoro , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1950
- Subjects: Folk music--Africa , Folk music--Tanzania , Swahili-speaking peoples , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Tanzania Kigoma f-tz
- Language: Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/179424 , vital:43062 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR169-06
- Description: "If you neglect small things, you will also neglect the larger." The poets who compose and recite Mashairi are very conscious of their high purpose. It is interesting to see the African mind unfolding in this Arab art form, and using the poem for moral teaching. Mashairi sung poems
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1950
Mongu
- Authors: Mbuti men, women and children , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Songs, Swahili , Mbuti (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Pygmies , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Gombari f-cg
- Language: Congo Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168232 , vital:41554 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0125-10
- Description: The local popular name for these Pygmies is "Batikitiki". Like other groups of pygmies they are very much at the mercy of the Bantu tribes who live outside on the edges of their portion of the Ituri forest. They exchange meat and honey from the forest for grain and other food stuff, but as often as not are robbed of their efforts by exploiting Africans. The musical instruments used by these Pygmies are those borrowed from teh Bantu outside the forest. Drums, especially, would be too heavy and cumbersome for the Pygmies to carry into the forest with them, or keep in their flimsy camps. Party song with 2 conical, laced drums and 1 basket rattle.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952
Moyo maowu sifate
- Authors: Saadani Abdu Kandoro , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1950
- Subjects: Folk music--Africa , Folk music--Tanzania , Swahili-speaking peoples , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Tanzania Kigoma f-tz
- Language: Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/179433 , vital:43063 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR169-07
- Description: "My heart, do not follow evil." The poets who compose and recite Mashairi are very conscious of their high purpose. It is interesting to see the African mind unfolding in this Arab art form, and using the poem for moral teaching. Mashairi sung poems
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1950
Mpenzi wangu kusafiri gani?
- Authors: Moshi Ufunguo and his party , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1950
- Subjects: Folk music--Africa , Folk music--Tanzania , Swahili-speaking peoples , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Tanzania Tabora f-tz
- Language: Swahili
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/179577 , vital:43120 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR170-03
- Description: The leader is well knon in Tabora as a cafe entertainer particularly for his humorous interjections - he starts by introducing himself by name. The record was made in a small room which serves as a club and opens out directly onto the street. The small xylophone was said to have come from the other side of Lake Tanganyika in the Congo from the Manyema people. Many members of Congo tribes have migrated into Tanganyika across the lake on account of the trade by the railway to coast used first by the Arabs and later by the railway to Dar-es-Salaam. The sons of these men who still claim to be tribesmen of the Congo were born in Tanganyika and speak and sing only in Swahili. The style is not local and perhaps originates in the Albertville region of Southern Congo. The tone of voice of these cafe singers is typical of those whose major payment is in kind, whic after a while blurs the edge of their voices and their performances. Humorous song, with Malimba xylophone x 8 and Basket rattle.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1950
Nadina (Bring them back)
- Authors: Zande elephant drivers , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1952
- Subjects: Folk songs, Zande , Alur (African people) , Swahili-speaking peoples , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Democratic Republic of Congo Dungu f-cg
- Language: Zande/Vongara
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/168011 , vital:41531 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0124-03
- Description: The song was learnt from the original Indian trainers who came across to Africa from India with Indian elephants when the experimental training of African elephants was begun in North Eastern Congo in 1910. The songs taught to the local Zande mahouts or trainers (locally called Cornacs) have survived though local words have partly replaced the original words of the Indians. The original Indian mahouts impressed upon the Zande the need for singing to their elephants, an instruction they have never neglected. Work song for riding and driving tamed elphants.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1952