Africa, like the rest of the world, has also been the source of objects that have enjoyed a global career. Here is a written notice on the history of the banjo published in The World Store dirigIt’s by Pierre SingaravIt’slou and Sylvain Venayre and published by Fayard editions in 2020.
A 1780 watercolor titled The Old Plantation depicts a festive scene on a plantation in the United States of America. This watercolor attributed to John Rose reminds us of how much of the wealth of this newly independent country was built on the slavery of many Africans and their descendants. One of the main characters in this watercolor holds a banjo in his hands and shows us how closely this instrument is linked to the black populations of the southern United States. More than two centuries later still in the United States, the film Deliverance
(1972) rose to fame with a scene où two characters engage in a banjo duel, repeating the same chords in turn. Yet the banjo is not nIt’s in the USA.
The banjo or rather its ancestor the ekonting (or akonting) would most likely be nIt’s on the Atlantic coast of West Africa. Today, this lute is found particularly in The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, but also in different forms throughout West Africa. However, it is not easy to follow in the footsteps of this instrument. Written historical sources, whether African, Arab or European, speak more often of music, song, theater, and it is only in the xxe century that sound recordings have been made. To reconstruct the history of ekonting, it is therefore essential to go through oral sources.
These place his birth in the Diola country in the village of Kanjanka, in Casamance. If we do not know exactly when the first ekonting was manufactured, it is certain that it already existed at the time of the transatlantic slave trade in the xvie century. The ekonting was mainly playedIt’s by men in an informal setting, unrelated to a ceremonial instrument, such as the kora (a harp) played by griots in Mandingo country. Remained very simple, the manufacture of the ekonting would have changed littleIt’s over time. The instrument is made from a calabash, an animal skin and a round wooden handle that crosses the calabash. The ekonting includes then three gut strings (now nylon) which rest on a bridge maintained by their pressure. The ekonting and the banjo have an extremely similar playing technique, traditionally in o’teck or frailing, the player attacking the ropes from top to bottom with the back of the nail. The thumb is solicitedIt’s to play the shortest string which then acts as a drone.
Its resemblance to the banjo is not accidental. The transatlantic slave trade led by the Europeans of the 16th centurye in the nineteenthe century explains its diffusion in America. It was not only women, men and children that Europeans then forcibly transported to America, but also, with them, cultural and religious practices. If we do not have details on the first ekontings of the American continent, the presence of banjos is attested in the Caribbean diss and xviie century (for example in the West Indies of the 1690s), which is accompanied by creolization of the instrument. There, under the influence of the Iberian Peninsula, it changes, which can be translated by the name we know from then on, probably taken from Portuguese. banza denoting a kind of viol. Other lutes from different regions of Africa have also been able to inspire developments in the instrument, in particular that of the now flat neck. A heritage of transatlantic slavery, ekonting turns into a banjo during its journey.
ArrivIt’s in the British colonies, future IT’SUnited States of America, the banjo is playedIt’s by many Afro-descendants, in particular on the plantations of the colonies in the South. Newspaper ads for runaway slaves or other texts like Thomas Jefferson’s (Notes on the State of Virginia) of 1781, all testify to the fact that, more than any other instrument present on American soil, the banjo becomes almost systematically associated with black populations. Few details have come down to us on the way in which the instrument is played, but the reputation of the banjo earned it some indirect and ambiguous fame in the 19th century.e century, in particular thanks to the shows of minstrelsy. Known for their racist character because white actors blackened their faces (blackface) and spread stereotypes about blacks, banjo players, these minstrel shows have largely contributed to the dissemination of this instrument throughout the country beyond the plantations in the south.
Cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, arranged by Th. Comer, Boston, 1843The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, arranged by Th. Comer, Boston, 1843.
The success of these shows with a very large audience can be understood in several ways. The pro-slavers saw it as confirmation of their own theory that slaves played music and were happy. The anti-slavers could see in the use of music and the banjo in particular a form of resistance against at adversity. After the American Civil War (1861-1865) groups of minstrels
blacks enjoyed great success across the country, making the banjo the popular performance instrument par excellence. Many of them influenced the first ragtime or jazz musicians, such as James Reese Europe. Black American music from the early 20th centurye century is thus heir to the banjo. However, in the 1920s, the instrument lost little at little of his interest. The guitar, driven by the appearance of electric amplifiers, manages to supplant a banjo so far takenIt’s for its high sound volume.
This is not the end of the story, however. At the same time, the banjo was adopted by white populations. New immigrantsIt’ss whites on American soil see it as a sort of return to the simple and authentic instruments of their regions of origin, such as Ireland or Scotland. The banjo, a means of expression for the oppressed blacks, becomes the idealized symbol of rural music close to the common people. During the xxe
century, the current country seizes it, as well as its version bluegrass. The instrument reserved for blacks is now that of poor whites in search of a fantasized authenticity. This quest for identity is such that the West African origin is totally eclipsed in favor of a rural identity in the southern United States, in an absolute negation of its links with the history of slavery.
This success at xxe century transformsoon the banjo in goods without standardizing it. The number of strings increases (from four to six); the handle changes size; the calabash leaves room for other materials; the skin is often replaced by plastic; playing techniques are diversifying. The banjo is now accessible at all and remains to this extent similar to the ekonting which is also still a popular instrument. Thus, the akonting turned banjo succeeded in connecting two continents through music.
Bibliography:
Laurent Dubois, The Banjo: America’s African
Instrument, Cambridge (Mass.), The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 2016.
Dena J. Epstein, Sinful Tunes and Spirituals:
Black Folk Music to the Civil War, Urbana, University of Illinois Press, [1977]
2003.
Ulf Jägfors, « The African Akonting and
the Origin of the Banjo », The Old-Time Herald, no 9-2/4, 2003,
p. 26-33.
Chuck Levy, « An interview with Daniel
Laemouahuma Jatta », 2012, <http://banjourneys.com/> (access January 21, 2020)
Robert B. Winans (dir.), Banjo Roots and
Branches, Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 2018.
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