The Center for International Education hosted a presentation on the history and impact of African music on the United States Wednesday in the Multicultural Center Conference Room.
Ray Briggs, assistant director of jazz studies, conducted the presentation in order to inform students of the connection of African music to New World music, and to help them better understand how African roots and history affect the music that is popular today.
“It’s broader than just looking at culture,” Briggs said. “You need to understand the richness of African culture.”
Briggs explained that music was used as a form of communication.
“The drums act like voices,” Briggs said. “The language is represented by the tone. You can emulate speech without saying a word.”
Briggs described how music from Africa was brought into the New World and how it was used on African slave ships. Slaves had to dance in order to keep fit while they remained on the ship.
African slaves used music to communicate with one another to keep slaveholders unaware of what was going on.
“When Westerners first heard it, they thought slaves were arrhythmic, that they had no rhythm,” Briggs said.
The audience laughed at this remark as Briggs explained how it was quite the opposite. He proceeded to play African music, which contained multiple rhythms playing at once, to prove his point.
When African slaves did not have access to instruments, they would improvise by using plates, donkeys’ jawbones and other objects to create similar rhythms they had heard before, Briggs said.
Showed were short clips of music in countries were slaves were taken during the transatlantic slave trade, such as a rural Samba dance in Brazil and music by Bob Marley in Jamaica.
Briggs explained that Marley’s music holds many double meanings, but that one must also understand the history behind it.
Music is connected to everyday life and in some cultures, Briggs explained, adding that music and dance is unified.
“Many cultures use the same word for music and dance,” he said, implying that they are interconnected.
Rolando Rodriguez, a senior literature and political science major, said, the presentation was “very informative. This type of information should be a lot more available to students. Cultural awareness was exposed, and it taught different philosophies of life.”
Emeka Bah, a junior international business major, was moved by the presentation. “He educated us on all the prenotions and preconceptions we have of ourselves shying away from our roots,” Bah said. “But people’s ignorance is their biggest enemy.”
Briggs said that the information in his presentation was pertinent to today’s culture.
“Music today, such as hip-hop and heavy metal, is rooted in traditions of Western Africa,” he said.
Briggs explained that the more educated people are about the history of music and culture, the easier it is to understand each other.
“We learn how much more connected we are,” Briggs said. “I hope students understand how history impacts music today, and the complexity of African-based music and culture.”
