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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:A drum's trans-Atlantic journey from Africa to the Americas and back after the end of slavery: Annobonese and Fernandino musical cultures
Author:Aranzadi, Isabela de
Year:2010
Periodical:African Sociological Review (ISSN 1027-4332)
Volume:14
Issue:1
Pages:20-47
Language:English
Geographic terms:Equatorial Guinea
Bioko
Caribbean
Subjects:musical instruments
dance
culture contact
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487540
Abstract:Musical instruments are an intrinsic part of culture accompanying people as an essential factor in shaping their identity preserved through memory. The identity given by African elements helped recreate a 'home' among slaves in the Americas and, following the abolition of slavery at the turn of the 19th century, among freed slaves who returned to Africa, bringing with them a new sort of 'African' culture which had been exposed to foreign influences on the other side of the Atlantic. There are social groups that have built their identities with contributions from elements that have made such a return trip across the Atlantic. These identities remain active even today. In Equatorial Guinea this is the case of the Annobonese and the Fernandino Creole people. The most important trans-Atlantic cultural currents which influenced Fernando Po (today's Bioko) and later on Annobón were those that ran between Jamaica, Cuba and Sierra Leone. Two elements make up this journey: one is the gumbé/cumbé/kunkí/kunké, a square frame-drum adopted by Fernandino and Annobonese, which comes from Freetown Krio culture. The second element is the bonkó or ńánkue among the Fernandino and later adopted by the Annobonese, a ritual dance which came from Nigeria via Cuba (where the slaves preserved and transformed it), and directly from Calabar in Nigeria. These musical instruments and dances constitute an African legacy that has 'returned' and has become a part of Equatorial Guinea's musical culture. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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