Music and Rituals of the Minority Communities of African Descent around the Indian Ocean

Abstract

I would like to give a presentation with talk and image on the diaspora of music and rituals originating from East-Africa across Indian Ocean. Around the Indian Ocean there were numerous nations and empires that absorbed communities originating from East-Africa. They migrated through trade relations, pilgrimage, fishery, employment as mercenaries and unfortunately for a considerable part through slavery. They brought with them music and rituals. This culture was integrated in the dominating cultures of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. Pockets of such culture, with a wide diversity among them but at the same time with a common ‘Africanness’, are now shattered throughout the Indian Ocean and its branches the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Bay of Bengal. Due to their position in their respective societies, they remain often obscure, inside their current nation as well internationally, including in the motherlands. Meanwhile, partly due to their marginalised positions, they had to but also were able to preserve large swaths of culture from their motherland, music as well as rituals that rely on music. The original elements derived from Africa are not a monoculture and show a wide diversity, but there were also many uniting elements, in languages (in Zar-culture elements of Swahili persist), music instruments such as the tambura-lyre and the manjoul-rattle, pentatonics and rhythmn, and spiritual practices around mythical elements from East-Africa. The music contains tools to enable the practitioners to emancipate from their marginalised position while preserving their identities. An example can be taken from how a comparable culture of music and ritual originating from subSaharan Africa in Morocco, Gnaoua, has turned into a cultural and even economical asset.