Music From Africa
Senegaleses and Gambians immigrants in Catalonia meet in the popular Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona to play traditional african drums
Music From Africa
drums and africa
Drums are the most important and relevant instrument in Africa. Exists many different kinds of drums, catalogued by sizes, forms, sounds, uses, and if it belongs to a king (the biggest one belongs to him) or to a warrior.
Drums are present in all african daily-life. For example, drums are used to play and dance in ceremonies and rituals, in war or under the presence of important people. It does not exist any social event without the sound of drums.
The drums also have an important communication function. Sound of drums can be heard throughout many kilometres, and a well-coordinate web could communicate messages between one point to another in a very large territory.
Traditionally, drums are made by wood, carapace, vessels and leather, but in Industrial Era africans make some drums with plastic bottles, cans and other recycled materials.
Barcelona and Africa
"Drums are an essential part in african social life. Their sound are always present in all kind of ceremonies, rituals, dances and plays"
Barcelona is a cosmopolita city. Here live people from different parts of Spain, and immigrants from all over the world.
Immigrants almost always preserve their own cultures and constitute communities. These social organizations help immigrants in all activities of daily-life, and conform the principal axis where the entirely life moves.
When people walks in Barcelona's streets, they can watch the deep presence of an enormous cultural diversity. Just have to pay attention to see signs in all languages (Arab, Chinese, Hindi, Italian); restaurants that offer traditional food from all the world; food markets where immigrants buy products from their countries; clothes..., etc. At the same moment, pedestrians are surrounded by people who talk many languages.
One of these groups is conform by immigrants from Africa. People from Africa represents the second group of immigrants in Spain. They origin are diverse. Mainly come from Morocco, and Algeria (Northern Africa) and others from Ecuadorian Africa region, mainly from Senegal and Nigeria.
People from Ecuadorian Africa have to travel almost 4.000 kms until Mediterranean coast in Morocco. At this point, they begin the most dangerous moment of travel.
To arrive to Spanish coasts, immigrants have to navigate around 14 kms in the sea, aboard tiny boats known as pateras. Unfortunately, many people die; the conditions are extremely adverses, and most of them do not even known to swim.
tama:
The Tama of the Wólof people is a drum characterize for its little size.
The musician have to hang it in his shoulder with a cord.
To play it, has to do a combination of finger tapping and strikes with a stick.
Tama is one of many drums known as "talking drums"
in the Parc de la ciutadella
The Ciutadella Park (Parc de la Ciutadella in catalán) is a very popular park nearby Parlament de Catalunya building (regional parliament), the rambla that leave us until the modernist Arc del Triomf, and the large and beautiful avenue of Marqués de l'Argentera which cross until Monument a Colom, the pier, and the famous La Rambla.
Some people think Parc de la Ciutadella is the park for rootless and crazy people. Of course, that is just their opinion.
For many people, Parc de la Ciutadella is the ideal place to meet artists, musicians, actors, people who love outdoors life, and solitaires who wants just past time.
"One of the best places in Barcelona to meet artists, musicians, actors, and artisans is the Parc de la Ciutadella"
Tama and dun duns are played with sticks of different forms and sizes; while djembes and bougarabous are played with hands in different positions.
To play tama drum, the musician has to hang it with a cord from his shoulder and play it with a stick.
Djembe is the most popular african drum around the world, and is very common to see musicians playing it in cities and coast towns as different as New York City and Caribbean beaches.
Dun dun is in fact three drums, and have three different sizes and names: the little one is named kenkeni; the middle one, sang ban; and the bigger one, dundunba; the tone of their sound, of course, changes from size to size: kenkeni produces high tones; sang ban, mid-range tones; and dundunba, bass tones. The musician plays dun dun with two colorful sticks.
Dun Duns
Three drums in One
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Kenkeni: high-range tones
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Sang ban: mid-range tones
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Dundunba: bass-range tones
Dun duns are three-in-one drum
People from Senegal and Gambia love music and immigrants who live in Barcelona are not exception. They gather in Ciutadella Park to enjoy playing music and to have a great opportunity to win few money.
The lovely sound of the drums attract many people who seat to listen an extraordinary african rhythms that invite to dance in a circle around the musicians.
Senegal and Gambia people use different kind of instruments (as the kora, a kind of guitar), but drums are the principal.
They have all kinds of drums that bring us very different sounds: djembes, bougarabous, tamas, and dun duns.
The difficult life of immigrant people
People from Senegal and Gambia constitute one of the biggest communities of immigrants from Africa in Spain. Catalunya (Cataluña) is the autonomous community where more Senegal and Gambia people live, mainly in the municipality of Maresme, and its capital, Mataró.
There are 66.046 Senegaleses immigrants, and 19.362 Gambians in Spain. Catalonia represents mainly place of residence with 20.778 Senegaleses, and 14.180 Gambians, and Barcelona province where live 10.820 Senegaleses, and 5.280 Gambians (provisional data, INE, 2018).
There are more male immigrants than women in both cases. Male immigrants from Senegal and Gambia represents almost 77 per cent; women, 33 per cent. Ratio remains stable in all places of residence: Spain, Catalunya, and Barcelona province.
Men immigrants from these african countries follow immigration patterns that differ from women immigrations patterns.
Social researchers found that men almost always decide to live permanently in Spain, while women want to stay the necessary time to save money and come back to their countries.
Also, most of the times, both men and women are young and single.
Another difference between Senegal and Gambia men and women immigrants are work and employment patterns. There are, of course, many people that have legal work as farm workers, sellers in shops, and some others as office employees. But the majority have to work in the streets as sellers known as manteros; people who sit in parks, subway stations, streets, and ramblas in cities and coast towns to sell many fake commodities.
Men sell fakes bags, sneakers, sun glasses, and other things, of global well known brands as Versace, Adidas, Louis Vuitton, and those kind.
On the other side, women maybe never work as manteras. You can always find them walking in main streets of tourist coast cities as Sitges.
Senegaleses and Gambians women sell bracelets and necklaces handmade by colorful catchpenny.
They share the space with other immigrants as indians, pakistanis, and moroccans men who sell pashminas and some cloths to lay under the Sun.
cultural preservation in a new context
Senegaleses and Gambians immigrants preserve many aspects of their own cultures, elements that helps them to maintain their identity.
Some cultural elements are the languages (Wólof and Fula) and songs and music that play with drums in parks, streets, and sometimes in restaurants.
The community of Senegambia (as it known by social researchers) are organized in associations. But, as occur with almost all communities there are a lot of locals use as gather spaces that became a signifying places, a symbolic space appropriation.
Places where people can gather and reproduce their culture, meet people from the same region, use their own language, and conform kinship, friendship or countryman networks that use to find work, a place to live, to get a support, and to exchange information.
Senegambians cultural preservation is very known in Barcelona city, where there are few associations and centers. These organizations help to cultural survive and play an important role to diffuse it. For example, everybody can take Wólof classes and learn this amazing language.
Finally, it could be another cultural mechanisms to preserve their identity, as inbred marriages or settlement patterns that allow forms of re-territorialization and sociocultural reproduction, as it has been observed in many cities with a high rate of immigration as New York city or the cases observed among bolivians and coreans communities in Buenos Aires, where immigrants have their own neighborhoods, churches, schools, markets, and festivities.
I was taken this set of photos during La Mercè celebration in popular Parc de la Ciutadella in September, 2017
"In many cities, immigrants constitute communities. In most of the cases, immigrants presents socioterritorial patterns that allow social and cultural reproduction. Immigrants socioterritorial organization could constitute a very strong community that is noted in the existence of specific neighborhoods, schools, churches, markets, shops, and festivities celebrations, ceremonies, rituals,..."