Country of Cuba

From WolfWikis

'African Influenced Music in Cuba

1975 Speech titled, "Estamos con el pueblo de Africa", Cuba's leader - Caestro - explained to over 1.2 million Cubans that "We should tell the Yankees that they should not forget we are not only a Latin-American country, we are also an Afro-Latin country... The blood of Africa runs abudantly through our viens. And from Africa, as slaves, many of our ancestors came to this land."

General Information on Cuba

Location! Location! Location!

History of...

• Undeveloped island relying on cattle herding and tobacco farming
• Idea of Sugar cultivation and Plantations came about
• Supply and Demand
• African slaves came to Cuba (40% of Cuba's population)
• Some Afro-Cubans tried to continue their customs in Cuba
• Broke into 4 different main groups of Afro-Cubans

4 Main Groups of Afro-Cubans

Lucumí - music was most used for religious purposes (including general music and initiciation and funeral ceremonies; they used instruments like the bata drum)

Click here for children playing the bata drums.

Arará - Arará is derived from the Dahomean city of Allada, and is related to the term Rada found in Haiti and to Arrada on the tiny island of Carriacou in the Grenadines. In both cases the name refers to Dahomean styles of drumming. One characteristic of Arará music is the use of hand clapping and body percussion.

- Instruments include the Ogan (an iron bell) which may be replaced with a guataca (hoe blade), Cachimbo (smallest drum, highest pitch), Mula (medium drum), and Caja (largest drum, lowest pitch). The drums are single-headed and closed on the bottom, tuned with pegs. Other names for these drums are also used in some parts of Cuba, such as hungan for the caja. The lead is played with a stick and a hand, while the others are played with pairs of sticks by seated players.

Click here for a video demonstrating the Arará style of music. It shows the drums (various sizes) and the iron bell.

Abakuá - There was virtual no information on this group. (This is because of native tongue and strict oral tradition)

Kongo - Many forms of contemporary Cuban music, including many of the rumba and carnival styles, are full of Kongo references and influences and display continuity with older Kongo forms. The most common form of secular Kongo music during the 19th century incorporated the use of Yuka drums.

Played in groups of three, they were made by hollowing out tree trunk sections of various sizes and nailing on cowhide heads. The largest and master drum is called the caja [Kah-Hah], which in typical Kongo fashion is held between the legs of the drummer. Another musician plays a pair of sticks against the body of the caja, often on a piece of tin that has been nailed to the base of the drum. This stick is called the guagua or cajita, which may also be played on a separate instrument. The middle drum is called the mula [Mu-Lah], and the smallest is the cachimbo [Kah-Cheem-Bo]. A guataca is played as a time-keeper, and the caja player often wears a pair of wrist rattles.

Click here for a video demonstrating the Kongo style of music. It shows the modern Yuka drums (AKA Congo) and the different styles of playing them (including the Kongo style known as Rumba).

Annotated Bibliography

• Hernandez, Deborah Pacini. Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 25, No. 3, Race and National Identity in the Americas. (May, 1998), pp. 110-125. (This was a very helpful source because it came from a scholarly book and it had a lot of information on both the early and the more recent history of Cuba and it's music. It reflected a lot on how Africa was tied into this situation and therefore gave me lots of information and it kept my information on topic. This source was also the source to my Caestro quote that I really thought put things in perspective.)

• Miller, Ivor. A Secret Society Goes Public: The Relationship between Abakuá and Cuban Popular Culture. African Studies Review, Vol. 43, No. 1, Special Issue on the Diaspora. (Apr., 2000), pp. 161-188. (This article had a lot of general information which was helpful, but it did not go into any of the specifics that I expected it to by reading the abstract; it was all information I had already read and used from another source.)

• Nunez Cedano, Rafael A. The Abakua Secret Society in Cuba: Language and Culture (in Theoretical Linguistics) Hispania, Vol. 71, No. 1. (Mar., 1988), pp. 148-154. (This scholarly source was not helpful at all. It have me random information that did not include the music aspect. I was led here through a database so I figure it would have more information than this.)

• La Africania de la Musica Folklorica de Cuba. Review author[s]: Harold Courlander. The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 2. (Apr., 1952), pp. 325-327. (This gave me good information and great information if I would have ventured to looking at Folklore in Cuba, but that wasn't my original plan so I just used more general information from this book.)

• Ortiz, Fernando. Los Bailes y el Teatro de los Negros en el Folklore de Cuba. Review author[s]: Harold Courlander. The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 2. (Apr., 1952), pp. 325-327. (This article through this book gave me lots of information on more specific Cuban musical history. It was very on topic with what I was looking for from it.)

• "Brief Cultural History" http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/history.htm (This was an extremely helpful site to start off on. It gave me a great map of Cuba and a lot of information on it's history musically. It also gave me the 4 start off groups for my main project.)