Colonialisms impact on Music

In this essay I will discuss three ways in which the colonisation of Africa and the subsequent division of its lands into 53 states, by European administrators in 1884-85, impacted on the music of Africa. I will show this by looking at: the political effects of colonisation on music, the western perception, in regard to scholarly research and commercial globalisation, and finally through the forceful effects of western musicality.

Firstly, I consider how the political elements of colonisation have had an effect on the music emerging from Africa. The continent was divid ned by European outsider forces in the Berlin Conference of 1884 (also known as the Congo Conference) in order to regulate trade and to adapt it to the new imperial powers. Fourteen countries sent representatives including the United Kingdom, the United States, Portugal and Belgium. This whole process became known as ‘The Scramble for Africa’. In so doing, the imperial forces managed to ‘divide and conquer’ by strategically imposing strains in intertribal relations. For example, in 1894, the British Empire strategically imposed boundaries, playing on existing economic conditions, splitting the North of Uganda from the South, thus giving the Southern Bantu people political and economic advantages over the people of North Uganda. This strategy of divide and conquer is mirrored throughout colonised Africa as it was a powerful tool in breaking identity, tribal communities and the pattern of ‘family’ strongly associated with the Africans (DJYK, 2016). This destroyed the unified identities of thousands of individual tribes with their individual cultures, and by extension their music. Tearing the tribes apart from the inside forced these new states, with their various languages, ideas, cultures and traditions, to find new ways to live together. Also this created less space for their music to be heard and practised, thus oppressing the production of music.

Secondly, the globalisation of African, and other music from undeveloped countries, through a Western ideology and from a Western perceptive, is in itself a reflection of colonial oppression. For example, Kofi Aguwa, a Ghanian ethnomusicologist, comments in his book ‘Representing Africa’:

“This book is written in English by a Ghanian whose first language, Siwu (spoken by the Akpafu people), is not a written language; whose first written language, Ewe, has no currency as a medium of scholarly exchange in Europe or America; and whose schooling facilitated familiarity with French as well as two other Ghanian language, Twi and Ga.”

In the western hemisphere, oral history is yet to become a viable form of academic exchange in the ways that would be necessary to understand the complex, near on elusive, oral historical accounts of much African music. Furthermore, Aguwa comments that perhaps this is the reason why “historians of Africa have ignored its music”. The western decision to formally rely on a written notation for music, and written modes of archiving history, means that we create an exclusivity over that history. Therefore. even when studying, for example, an indigenous music ritual, the West then proceeds to make that academia unattainable in any other sphere than that of the West (Smith, 2002).

Furthermore we can look into the contemporary effects of the coloniser’s perspective on African music by understanding the oppression that comes with the paradigm of internationalising their music. Simon Frith says:

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“These tables specialised in non mainstream “roots rock” and were interested in marketing more ethnomusicological oriented music that exuded an air of “authenticity”, at the same time as they perceived as “pure” from Western contamination.”
There has been an ongoing debate around the term ‘world music’, which was originally coined as an archiving solution in an attempt to make it easier for the West to find this music in our record shops. The term itself exudes cultural imperialism as it manages to umbrella vast quantities of music from the entire non-western world into one ‘world music’ category. This exploitation is the highest form of binarism and oppression that further commodifies and grossly generalises African, and all non-western music, into a pigeon hole of western perspective (MACAMO, 2012). I spoke to N’faly Kouyate of ‘Afro-Celt Sound System', a Mandinka West African griot maestro of traditional kora and balafon, and teacher of traditional polyphonic singing, about his perspective on the term ‘world music’:

“To be honest the term ‘world music’... I don’t think I perceive very much from that... because they choose to leave jazz out, and French music out, pop and rock music out and the rest...what do we have to do with this? I don’t understand the music, and therefore it is ‘world music’. In Africa they can sing very nice R&B, or soul, or rock, but they say ok... ‘world music’, because he’s from Africa. Then the base of all jazz music is in Africa, and the blues is from Africa, as is the pentatonic, but still we call it all ‘world music’.”
The capitalist, globalised Western world is simply a contemporary form of colonisation and oppression in the way it can force a distorted perception of what the western consumer expects from ‘world music’, whilst discarding the less ‘pop’ more discreet and foreign sounding traditional music. Almost so as to not allow its progression.

Which leads to the third point of the impact of colonialism on music from Africa: the literal musicality. Aside from an extremely unbalanced academic focus, the way the West has managed to take wrongful ownership of, for example, the pentatonic scale, among other musical elements, is also how we suppress African music by imposing a Western musicality. With the colonisation of the African lands, came the boosting of the ideology that the West needed to “Christianise and civilise the savage”: so we built churches and schools and enforced missionaries. However, despite this, under Belgium colonial rule, by 1956, out of fifteen million people, only seventeen had graduated (DJYK, 2016). In these places, the ways of the African were dismissed and in its place, they were taught a western religion, and a western musicality. An example is the establishment of the Christian church in the early 19th century in Nigeria; a critical look at the curriculum reveals a shocking dominance of western classical music over the traditional music of Nigeria (Godwin Sadoh, 2010). As in the contemporary Western educational system, music is taught in terms of Mozart and Bach, and neglects the musical history Africa, that most ancient of civilisations. Take the Pygmies, the earliest inhabitants of Africa found in the Congo forest, to whom ‘music’ such as the tapping of sticks, stamping of feet, or the rattling of seeds in gourds, was as much a ritualistic part of their civilisation as eating or sleeping. If we further consider the pygmies, their localised polyphonic hocketing vocal techniques ensured, in their inclusive way, that everyone was a musician within the tribe, thus reinforcing the family. We can trace Latin music all the way back to the tribes of Yoruba and the Congo but we refuse to teach this or elaborate on Africa’s musical importance (Roots of Rhythm: Part 1 of 3, 2017). In this sense we remain ignorant to these systems of music making and oppress the knowledge production of the music of Africa.

Kofi Aguwa says “we might say that the one of the greatest colonising powers is harmony.”(Agawu, 1992), meaning that in our literal colonisation of Africa and the trade diaspora,

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the European influences within African music are irreversible and inescapable. Such as forcing the colonised to attend Christian churches in order to “save the savages”, and, once there, have them sing in western diatonic melodies, with a preference to the major. It is here the colonisers force the African to discard his “preference to consonance at phrase ends, such as unison, octaves of thirds” amongst many other conflicting forms of musicality (Agawu, 1992). Here oppressing and colonising the growth and education of indigenous African musicalities.

A perfect example of all three of these impacts would be the somewhat hybridised internationalised South African group ‘Lady Smith Black Mambazo’. Their songs follow a western diatonic structure and yet the group have fallen under the political blanket of ‘world music’ and further, disturbingly, they now for the otherwise ignorant many, wholly represent South African music. Therefore oppressing, to a western perspective, the multitude of indigenous musical practises that have yet to been researched and solidified in history and further promoting the acceptance of a Western sound over that of an African sound.

In conclusion I have pointed out that, through political oppression, an imposed western perspective and colonial enforcement of western musicality, the colonial powers have oppressed the progression and historical documentation and globalisation of traditional music in, and from, Africa. Furthermore, through a dominant western perception, we are neo-colonising the expression of musical forms that are foreign to our spectrum of perception and so oppressing non-Western musical production.

References

Agawu, K. (1992). Representing African Music. Critical Inquiry, 18(2), pp. 245-266.
DJYK, T. (2016). Black People Before Slavery (Euorpeans Takeover Africa). [video] Available at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8M8N23VK-s [Accessed 6 Nov. 2017].

Godwin Sadoh (2010). Modern Nigerian Music: the Post Colonial Experience. Notes, 66(3), pp. 485-502.

MACAMO, E. (2012). FERNANDO ARENAS, Lusophone Africa: beyond independence. Minneapolis MN and London: University of Minnesota Press. Africa, 82(03), pp. 507-508.

Muller, S. (2017). The Lasting Impact of Colonialism.
Roots of Rhythm: Part 1 of 3. (2017). [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=R0vtyTD1kus [Accessed 4 Nov. 2017].
Smith, D. (2002). Colonial Encounters through the Prism of Music: A Southern African

Perspective. International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music3(1), p.31. 4 of 4

Benny Moré & Racial Identity in Cuba

How does Benny Moré’s music

represent all three main racial

demographics in Cuba?

A 2014 census showed that 64.1% of Cubans are white-Cubans, 26.6% are Mulatto or mestizo with the final 9.3% being black afro-cubans. (Wayback Machine, 2014). In this essay I aim to show how Benny Moré represents not only the Afro-Cubans through his connection to the Congolese cabildos, but also the Mulatto and mestizo Cubans through his connection to the guajiros, and also and finally, the white-Cubans through his timeless transnational influence

Benny was born on the West side of the island in La Lajas in1919 and grew up in the Congolese cabildos context. He then moved, in 1929, to the mountains in the Eastern Oriente province of Cuba where he became immersed in the context of the guajiros and son music (1929) before moving back to Havana in his teens and then to Mexico in 1945. Benny Moré finally returned to Cuba during the revolution in 1950 and died in Cuba in 1963 from alcoholism.

Cuba was an island wrapped in paradigms during this time. It was governed by a repressive dictatorship and suffering from racial discrimination and segregation whilst the foreign powers of

the USA almost completely ran the sugar cane economy. The few very rich (generally elite white Cubans) became extremely rich and the poor (Afro-Cubans) fell into poverty. Cuba was corrupt in government and consequently the streets were ran by gangsters. Paradoxically the music scene was alive and vibrant, innovative and influential.

General Musicality of Benny Moré

Benny Moré was known for having perfect intonation and ‘swing’ to his voice. The melodies he composed were fluid and his lyrics were emotive, patriotic, often improvised and impressive earning him the nick name ‘El Sonero Mayer’ meaning .... From a young age Benny dreamt of having a big band, typical of Cuban music, and in his career Benny Moré ended up combining afro-cuban instrumentation and big-band jazz, with the guajiro rural son, and son montuno, further mixing them with the charanga orchestras. In doing so, Benny Morés music constructed a new bridge between the authentic musics of the three otherwise segregated main racial demographics in Cuba: the Afro-cubans, the Mulatto and mestizo guajiros, and finally the White Cubans. (Radanovich, 2009)

Benny Morés representation of Afro-Cuban’s Music

In the 18th and 19th century, Cuba’s economy ran almost entirely off sugarcane and coffee crops which required a huge labour force. At this time it is estimated that 600, 000 slaves were brought to Cuba from the West coast of Africa: Ghana, Benin, the Cabo Verde Islands and others. (Camara, 2015). When slavery was abolished in 1886 (20 years later than the previous state to abolish slavery), the standard of living for the poor in Cuba, and the working conditions for those enduring the back breaking work of the sugarcane fields improved very little, if at all, and systematic racism continued regardless of the official condemnation of slavery. In an attempt to create a sense of Afro identity and home upon the island of Cuba, cabildos were set up around

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The World of Cuban Music Sophie Symmons 627017 the island. Cabildos were first established in 1598 by the Spanish colonial authorities as Christian houses or “Mutual aid societies for black Cubans from the same nación, or African Ethnic
group” (Sublette, 2007). It is worth noting that the naming of these institutes as cabildos was purely a colonial saying and was never used by the Afro-cubans at all, who preferred to call them “Casino de los Congos” (Radanovich, 2009) meaning ....

These cabildos which had to be named after Christian saints, became a safe space for the Afro-cuban community, recreational spaces for spiritual expression, musical preservation and were commonly referred to as ‘mutual aid societies’. The term ‘Hiding in plain sight’ refers to the practice of using cabildos as a secret place to worship the African ‘Orishas’. Within the Yoruba religion practiced in much of West Africa and Congo, an Orisha is a manifestation of supreme divinity that had been banned as worship in Cuba. So the Christian exterior of the cabildos acted as a ‘cover’ for the “real worship” of the Yoruba Orishas. Cabildos were divided into three main syncretic religions that form the basis for the Afro-cuban identity within Cuba today: Palo Monte, compromised of the descendants of Congolese slave which were brought mainly to the Oriente Province of East Cuba, Santería, from the Yoruba nations of Africa and brought mainly to Havana and Matanzas of West Cuba, and finally, Abakuá of the Efik and Carabalí African nation descendants.

The cabildos played the imperative and critical role of preserving and maintaining the oppressed music and dance as well as the languages and religious belief systems that were brought to Cuba from the African continent via the slave trade that were being quashed by governmental segregator legislation (Gerstin and Velez, 2002). Benny Moré’s great great grandfather was a Conogolese African slave brought to Cuba and Benny’s mother and father and grandfather were all members of the Palo Monte cabildos. Here in these cabildos, the family would sing during the religious ceremonies in honour of their Congolese ancestors. This ‘Cabildo de Congo’ was known for its fast passed rhythms that start slow. The percussion consisted of bongó drums and tumbadora drums (otherwise known as congas), with cyclical repetitive compound metres, whilst the singing style was of a cyclical call and response structure and a chorus in harmonies of fifths. The use of call and response and repetitive cycles is mirrored in indigenous music from all over West (and East) Africa. This Congolese derived cabildo music influenced Benny Moré’s Afro- Cuban identity as he grew up hearing these rhythms. Benny Moré’s sister also played a big role within the cabildos, working closely with the first ‘casino king’ Gundo Moré and Aida Benítez (Olano, 2018).

The role of the cabildos also extended to being a mutual aid network. This was an important aspect of Benny’s connection to the cabildos as, aged ten, Benny and his brother walked across the country from Santa Isabel de Las Lajas, where Benny was born in the west of the island, to join their mother working in the sugarcane fields in the Oriente province in the East of Cuba. Along the way, in any town that the brothers stopped in, the cabildos would welcome the boys as family,

and would proceed to take care of them, helping with money and food. In this respect the Page 3

The World of Cuban Music Sophie Symmons 627017 cabildos worked as a network on which Afro-Cubans could rely. It wasn’t simply a place to go on Sunday for worship in your home town, it was actually a mutual aid society extending safety and community spirit everywhere. The cabildos played a vital and important role in the lives and identity of Afro-Cubans in this period and by extension played a really important role in inspiring Benny Moré’s future music. Benny Moré’s use of makuta (conga) drums in his music is a direct correlation and representation of the Afro-Cuban influences in his life which stemmed from the growth and comfort extended to Benny from the Congolese cabildos. It earned him the globally used name of ‘El Bárbaro del ritmo’ - the wild man of rhythm.

Benny Moré’s representation of Mulatto music in Cuba

Benny Moré grew up in the context of the sugar cane fields. His mother lived in a small town called Las Lajas. Later Benny would write his final song as a dedication to this memory entitled ‘Santa Isabel de las Lajas’ (Moré, 1968). It meant a lot to Benny to finally give some credit to the small town on the island after having written so much of the other towns. This little town was on the western Caribbean side of the island. At the age of 10 Benny and his brother left Las Lajas alone to join their mother on the opposite side of country, who was working laboriously in a big American sugar mill. This work was the backbreaking lobour of the everyday lives for the poorest Cubans. Although slavery had been abolished in 1886 in Cuba, the sugar cane industry was still an extremely post colonial oppressive system, exploiting the Mulatto and Afro-Cuban population of Cuba. The intensive work meant that many people died whilst working the fields.

After walking to the west, aged ten, Benny lived in the Oriente province otherwise known as the land of the guajiro. A guajiro is a reasonably broad term given to the people who either worked in the fields or the sugar cane plantation. It’s also a name given to the people who lived in the mountains, or came from the eastern Oriente Province. It is a common misconception that all guajiros were Mulatto from the Spanish colonial descent on the island and of a more hispanic culture. In actual fact the guajiros came from the encounters between the Spanish settlers and the African slaves; consequently a great number of guajiros were of black skin. Regardless of this, upon Benny’s international acclaim and fame within Cuba, he became known as the “‘Black Guajiro’ or - ‘El Guajiro Negro’.

Son music was known as the music for, and of, the people of the mountain, also known as, the guajiros of the Oriente. Son is an umbrella term for various transitions of son music which started with the ‘rural son’ of the Oriente in the late 19th century. Featuring male and female artists (the guajiros/guajiras), the marimbula (a small idiophone plucked with the thumbs, similar to marimbas used in Africa), antiphonal singing (call and response), the tres (a small Spanish guitar with three courses of wire strings) which would play a small repeating pattern called the tumbao whilst the conga drums provided improvised percussion. Players of rural son were also known as

‘trovas’ (trovador). In order to be a trovador ( you had to be able to compose your own poetic songs and lyrics, whilst accompanying yourself on guitar or tres. Trovadors were known for commenting on social situations and current every day affairs and, for this reason, a quick wit

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The World of Cuban Music Sophie Symmons 627017 with lyrical improvisation was necessary. Benny Moré’s lyrical style was derived from the veija trova style of the guajiros.

Furthermore Benny Moré played both the guitar and trés like the trovadores and his patriotic improvised lyrics, commenting on the social aspects of Cuban life earned him respect as one of the most talented soneros becoming known widely as the ‘El Sonero Mayor’. A sonero being a singer of stories and more specifically someone with the ability to improvise witty and pertinent lyrics about the everyday lives of those around and able to adapt and incorporate the news and gossip of the day. The sonero’s position is to take the lyrics from the verses of the songs, and then in the chorus improvise lines working from the verses. Often his improvised lyrics would be tinged with humour and irony, this reflecting ‘guaracha’ - son with humour.

A fundamental musical element of all son, is the rhythm of the son clave. It is incorporated and imperative to any son, and consequently later rumba, salsa, reggaeton and many more genres, and is played on the guiros or claves:

x . . x . . x . . . x. x . . .

Furthermore the people of the East mountains had a unique structure to their rural son. They would sing in verses of ten lines, and this structure is called decimer. A lot of Benny Moré’s songs are written in the decimer format further strengthening Benny’s connection to the guajiros identity and therefore the racial demographics of Eastern Cuba. Son grew into a trio and sextet formation and then, in 1927, a septet formation and finally transitioned into a son montuno format in the 1940’s which was popularized as an urban genre by groups such as the Sexteto Habanero and the Sexteto Nacional (Waxer, 1994).

Benny Moré, uses all the ‘rural son’ trova styles in tres and decimer formats. He also uses the more contemporary son: son montuno. In 1940’s Arsenio Rodriguez reshaped the face of son, transitioning its character to ‘son monunto’ which was a great big band arrangement. Arsenio added the ‘conjunto’ format, which was the addition of the piano, tumbadora and trumpets as well as the montuno which refers to the repetition of lines within the chorus. In the context of son, montuno means chorus, however it also means ‘of the mountain’ as its influence comes from Arsenio’s connections the guajiros identity of the Eastern mountains. The act of repeating the chorus became a fundamental element, and can be heard in much of the proceeding Cuban music. Benny Moré was strongly influenced by ‘son monunto’ and Arsenio Rodriguez, and grew very famous for his montunos in which he had been improvising lyrics since he was a small child. Benny Moré also drew from son monunto by incorporating the characteristic stabbing horn section parts known as ‘diablos’ taken from Arsenio’s conjunto big band formation.

In Benny’s own big band ‘La Banda Gigante’ (the giant band) performance format, each musician takes his stand in turn adding instrumentation to further build on the piece. In this way there is a strong interaction between the orchestra musicians and Moré’s pieces that they play.

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The World of Cuban Music Sophie Symmons 627017 Although Benny borrowed from Arsenio’s arrangement’, they differ in that Arsenio’s compositions tended to be in a minor key, whilst Benny Moré’s tend to be in a major key, through the use of chord progressions such as the 1st ,4th and 5th notes. However Benny was also known for enjoying the 6th note, which later became very important in Cuban popular music, and also in Congolese pop music, which had further been influenced in a transnational way by Cuban music, thus drawing on Arsenio’s legacy.

In Benny Moré’s song ‘Soy Guajiro” he pays ode to the mountain people by opening the track with the lyrics “I was born on a riviera there in the middle / of the mountain, and I sing to you my guajira / as the mockingbird sings it” (Especial, 2018). ‘Soy Del Monte’ meaning ‘I am from the mountains’ is another Moré song in decimer, old trova format, lyrically commenting on his pride in being a guajiro, a countryman with the ‘monte’ (mountain) culture. Benny Moré also pays further ode to his mother with his song ‘Mi Saoco’. (Saoco is a cheap rum and coco-nut drink common with Afro-Cuban field workers). His mother used to cook for the sugar cane workers in the fields, whilst Benny would come along and sing to the workers, performing songs written in decimer structure.

Benny Moré's representation of White Cuban Music

By the 1930’s son was the quintessential dance music of Cuba, previously having been solely an Afro-Cuban music, it was starting to be played for not only the black Cubans, but now also for the white. What had been previously systematically oppressed, such as the banning of African drums by the government, was now, not just an afro-Cuban identity, but an identity within the urban sophistication, of the white elite. Different son conjunto (big band) orchestras would have different followings: Benny Moré’s orchestras always had a huge Afro-cuban and mulatto following, whereas other popular son orchestras of the time, such as Orquesta Riverside, appealed mainly to white Cubans. There thus became a new focus for some soneros, who began to sing about cultural elements of white Cuban’s life and society. Thus transcending the economic and racial distinctions that otherwise separated these two demographics (Sublette, 2007).

Many of the musics developed in Cuba contributed to advancing transnational genres, such as by son being watered down and re-invented into white societies, eventually became a cabaret genre of rhumba. There has been multiple mis-appropriation and commercialisation of cuban musics. Reggaeton for example with the use of the son clave rhythm. Parallel to rural son, which at the time was considered rustic and informal, there is the urban style of music called the danzón which started in the late 19th century. Paradoxically, to lyrical son music in Cuba, the entirety of danzón music is instrumental. It derived from more literate-based musical practices that bridged across the class divide. Danzón developed from military ensembles with big kettle drums and bugles in the early 20th century and so it’s instrumental. The orchestras were mainly compromised of literate afro-cubans who could read music.

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The World of Cuban Music Sophie Symmons 627017 The timeline of danzón music is called the baqueteo. The baqueteo is formed of the tresillo

rhythm and the cinquillo rhyme put together to make the danzón banqueteo rhythm. See example:

Cinquillo x . x x . x x . + Tresillo x . . x . . x . = Baqueteo x . x x . x x . x . x . x . x

The Cinquillo has 5 beats, the first of which is on the beat, with the second going around the beat, in 7/4 timing. Then the second part is the tressillo which is just three taps and is also taken from the son clave comprising the first three beats.

Danzón was very popular in Mexico city, where Benny Moré was also famous for his roles in the movie industry. They would play danzón in the big squares, and it has managed to remain popular in Mexico, particularly amongst the older generations who enjoy dressing up and going out to dance to the danzón. In the early 20th century Danzón orchestras and big bands transitioned further into charanga orchestras (such as Groupo Oriental) adding flutes and violins, timbales and stand-up bass. Singing was now in the son style in the 1940’s, therefore we have the meeting of Danzón and son. In 1951 this new format became known as the ‘cha cha cha’ of which spread through Latin America as the most popular music genre. This transition of the musical genres, can be reflected in the various modes and transitional musical phases of Benny Moré (Waxer, 1994).

The Mexican film industry, equivalent to Hollywood but in Latin America, also played a monumentally and huge role in disseminating and circulating cuban music, and the music of Benny Moré across borders. In the 1940's films created a heightened transnational flow of cuban musical influences across all of “Latin” America. Benny Moré was a big player in the industry having moved to Mexico with Pérez Prado the composer and band leader in 1951. Pérez and Benny helped to popularise the mambo to the white-cubans in Miami and all of Latin America, with tunes such as “King of the Mambo”. Perhaps and even greater influence came from the multitude of movies in which Moré acted and sang. Often these films were named after main musical number in the film, and the narrative nearly always followed the lyrics of a song. Moré’s soneros and big band orchestras in these moves helped the widespread appeal of rhythms such as the mambo and the cha cha cha.

After the governmental communist take-over of Fidel Castro in the 1960’s-70’s there was a great Cuban-exile of the right-white elite to Miami, becoming part of a transnational flow of economic migration. With them the music of Benny Moré was brought to New York and consequently inspired, not just Latin America with the Mexican movies, but also a number of American sentimental crooner stars such as Sam Cooke and Nat King Cole who played in Havana, loved Cuban music, and performed it frequently. Cole was also known by the Cubans as the ‘American Benny Moré’ (Waxer, 1994).

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The World of Cuban Music Sophie Symmons 627017 In conclusion Benny Moré managed to transcend geographic and cultural boundaries, creating an authentic Cuban derived music and orchestra. This occurred not only from an Afro-Cuban identity through his use of rhythm and context to the cabildos, but also through the identity of the Mulatto and Mestizo Cubans of the guajiros with their rural son and son monunto, along with their decimer formats and finally through the identity of the white-Cuban elites via movies, Miami and the inspiration of thousands globally to dance to Cuban rhythms, via the cha cha cha and mambo. Moré took sounds that individually were historically colonially oppressed, and created something of relevance to everyone in Cuba, further extending the multi-racial Cuban identity globally, and consequently influencing the world through afro-hispanic cuban music.

References

Camara, J. (2015). Cuba and the Slave Trade. [online] Traces of the Trade. Available at: http://www.tracesofthetrade.org/guides-and- materials/historical/cuba-and-the-slave-trade/ [Accessed 5 Jan. 2018].

Especial, A. (2018). Letra de Soy guajiro (feat. Beny Moré) - Orishas. [online] Coveralia. Available at: http://www.coveralia.com/letras/ soy-guajiro--feat--beny-more--orishas.php [Accessed 7 Jan. 2018].

Fairley, J. (2007). Music and Revolution, Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba. By Robin D. Moore. University of California Press, 2006. 305 pp. ISBN 0-520-24711-6 (pb). Popular Music, 26(02), p.365.

Francisco J, C. (2018). “The Globalisation of Cuban Music through Mexican Film”. pp.225-232.
Gerstin, J. and Velez, M. (2002). Drumming for the Gods: The Life and Times of Felipe Garcia Villamil, Santero, Palero, and

Abakua. Ethnomusicology, 46(2), p.337.
Gerstin, J. and Velez, M. (2002). Drumming for the Gods: The Life and Times of Felipe Garcia Villamil, Santero, Palero, and

Abakua. Ethnomusicology, 46(2), p.337.
Moré, B. (1968). Santa Isabel de las Lajas. [Record] Cuba: Palma. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpfWQnwfT6w

[Accessed 6 Jan. 2018].

Olano, M. (2018). Casino congo “San Antonio”, de Santa Isabel de las Lajas. [online] Calleb.cult.cu. Available at: http:// www.calleb.cult.cu/index.php/pretextos/47-cultura-/395-casino-congo-san-antonio-de-santa-isabel-de-lasn-lajas [Accessed 9 Jan. 2018].

Radanovich, J. (2009). Wildman of rhythm. Gainesville (Fla.): University Press of Florida.

Sublette, N. (2007). Cuba and Its Music. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, p.88.

Sublette, N. (2007). Cuba and Its Music : From the First Drums to the Mambo. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, pp.pg 547 - 58.

Waxer, L. (1994). Of Mambo Kings and Songs of Love: Dance Music in Havana and New York from the 1930s to the 1950s. Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana, 15(2), p.139.

Wayback Machine, O. (2014). Official 2012 Cuba Population Census. 1st ed. [ebook] Cuba. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Demographics_of_Cuba#cite_ref-official_2012_Census_1-0 [Accessed 7 Jan. 2018].

Youtube (2011). Benny Moré - Saoco. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=FhprJT6dKks&list=RDFhprJT6dKks&index=1 [Accessed 4 Jan. 2018].

Arsenio Rodriguez & Afro-Cuban Identity

How did Arsenio Rodriguez help create an Afro-Cuban identity through the music of son?

In this essay I will look at how Afro-Cuban artist and band leader Arsenio Rodriguez (1911-1970) helped to change the face of racism in Cuba, through amalgamating afro-cuban diaspora influences with Hispanic cuban influences to create a true representation of national identity through the genre of son music.

It is known that son came from the Oriente province in the east of the Cuban island; from precisely where is unknown and debated, but son has been documented since the mid 19th century. It is thought that perhaps it originated in Santiago as did the tres and the bongos. Both are fundamental to the instrumentation of son and had been known in the city since 1892 (Robbins, 1990). Around 1909 son had spread to the west of Cuba, and to its major cities, Havana and Mantanzas through migration of soldiers and sonorous (musicians). Later son developed internationally in the west of Cuba, due to the fact that musical production was centralised in Havana in Cuba. Son’s musicality is a syncretic of Spanish and African hybrid origins and originated as a vocal, instrumental and dance genre. Considered as a genre for the ‘peasants’, it was primarily derived by people who were mostly of Bantu origin in Africa. Starting out with a tres (a three course chordophone lute), son added the bongo and marimbula to accompanying singing. Due to the racism and oppression that the black diaspora suffered within Cuba, son was originally considered “a music by the blacks and for the blacks” (Robbins, 1990).

Black people in Cuba were penalised, denigrated and discriminated against. Cuban academics and intellectuals ensured the marginalisation of African culture in Cuba. Firstly the government enforced boundaries that dissolved the continuation of afro-traditional experiences, such as suppressing the religions of Santeria, which was a pan-afro religion that in Cuba derived from the Yoruban bantu afro-diaspora , as well as Palo Monte a popular religion among the descendants of slaves from the Congo Basin. Secondly they imposed a ban on playing all of the African traditional drums. The same views are repeated as in all the colonised world: that it is necessary to ‘Christianise and civilise’ the Africans and with this they must suppress their traditions and beliefs. One thing the government did in this process, is to build cabildos. Cabildos were supposed to be Christian houses for afro-cubans and hispanic cubans in which to act ‘christian’. However instead the black community would pray to their Orishas, who were the gods of the Yoruba people from which over 20% of Cuba’s population was derived.

In a more contemporary form of racism and suppression, we also had cultural appropriation. The middle class artists and intellectuals were white, and they would play the music produced by the afro-cubans but they took the music for their own. This is why, for a long time, the African voice within Cuban society had no face or expression, as it was suppressed by the white man. It was more than acceptable in the early 19th and early 20th century to exploit these afro-cuban traditions that were fighting against being quashed. For example, in 1937, an all-white Cuban jazz band covered a song written by Arsenio Rodriguez a black afro-cuban man.

Due to a hurricane destroying the western half of Cuba in 1926, Arsenio Rodriguez’s family decided to move to Mariano which was one of the fastest growing cities in Cuba. Consequently it meant that, during the time from 1926-1930, Arsenio Rodriguez lived in a melting pot of musicians. It was from here, that Arsenio’s brother encouraged a tres player from the famous group ‘Sextetp Habernero’ to teach Arsenio to play the tre. It was here that young Arsenio also experienced playing with black son musicians. Arsenio and his brother Kiki also learned how to play ‘tumbadora’ or conga drums in Mantanzas from legendary rumberos performers. Arsenio engrossed himself in son music by learning to play the marimbula (a large box resonator with tuned metal tongues that are plucked), the botjia (an earthenware vessel wise side whole was blown into and whose top hole was covered and uncovered), and a tres (a traditional cuban guitar with three double coursed strings). Arsenio was also very familiar with the bongos, all learned from when his uncle would take him and his brother Kiki to Mantanzas to hear and play with these rumba musicians. Arsenio would eventually develop a way of playing these tunes in his own unique structure and instrumentation and thisse was called afrocubanos. Within these

afrocubanos, Arsenio would comment on society and the role of the African with Cuba society, along with its racist connotations.

It was in the late 1930’s that Arsenio cemented the addition of a trumpet, a tumbadora and a piano into the musical make-up of son, thus expanding the septeto format and standardising it to what they later, in 1942, first called the ‘conjunto’. In so doing Arsenio added instruments, and adapted the way they interact with one another in the formal structure of the band. Arsenio also importantly instructed his bass players to ‘make the bass sing’ and in doing so created the anticipated bass line typical of the ‘tresillo’ or ‘bolero’ patterns. In emphasizing the off-beats, this allowed for the corresponding notes of the triads. Furthermore in Arsenio’s son, the tres, bass and piano all rhythmically complement the vocal melody, especially during the montuno segment (Sublette, N 2007). These innovations formed a strong basis for the creation of an Afro-Cuban identity.

The basic musical form of Arsenio’s afrocubanaos consists of four sections: intro, verse, bridge, and montuno. Arsenio made these famous afrocubanos by achieving a previously un-combined musical structure. He would start with an intro, then a verse followed by a bridge section; these bridge sections were different from standard bridges in that they were marked by a ‘tango-conga’ ostinato rhythm. This form of tango-cuban rhythm had only previously been used in Cuban operas called Zarzuela’s. To end these afrocubanos, Arsenio would conclude with a monunto, which means music from the mountains in Cuba, sections of which are from the origins of basic son rhythms. It was the use of this specific structure by Arsenio, including the tango-cuban rhythms, and concluding with the afro-monunto rhythm, that played such an imperative part in shaping the genre of son and also in successfully developing the afro-cuban identity.

The son monunto had come from the mountains of Cuba, whereas the tango-conga had come from the various afro and mestizaje influences in Cuba. This new son that Arsenio played had new musical elements such as the anticipated bass and the syncopated tres. (Gil, 2017). Arsenios would sing songs in the language of the African born slaves who were called ‘bozales’. This hybrid language had a “Spanish structure with a morphosyntactic frame with an African lexical chore” (Garcia D,2011). Arsenio built all these elements into his repertoire and he therefore became known for writing songs that resonated with the black’s differences to the general population. Outspoken protagonists against the cuban racism issue now found themselves dealing with confrontation. However by masking issues within this new musicality, Arsenio managed to talk about primitivism and the feelings of inferiority from which the afro-cubans and mestizaje cubans were suffering. Considering that at the time, Cuba was made up in part of one third afro-cubans and one third mestizaje, then Arsenio's lexical use of the bozal language was actually a historically accurate representation of the demographic of Cuba at the time. It was however his lyrics that made Arsenio such a protagonist. Knowing so much, and deeply understanding the oppressed traditions of the afro-cubans such as the Santeria and Palo practices, enabled Arsenio to write these songs about their plight with such an intelligence and deep understanding and knowledge. Arsenio would also directly compose songs to coincide with sociopolitical events, for example he wrote a song to go hand in hand with the independence of the Congo, to where he often affiliated his lineage.

In conclusion many factors attributed to Arsenio’s success creating this new son genre that represented this totally afro-cuban identity: a mestizaje identity. Certainly something that helped

Cuba greatly was the invention of radio broadcasting, of which they quickly became a part. This helped the radical popularisation of cuban music, and thus enhanced the pan-influence of Arsenio’s adaption of son. Arsenio continued to make an impact with this empathy and expressed identification with the African experience and the afro-cuban. When he played at the Smithsonian Institute Third Festival of American Folklife he made it clear his pan affiliation to the African community but also to the Cuban community. Arsenio would never publicly engage in political conversation stating that he “takes no sides”, all the while expressing an identity through music. His sole purpose politically and socially was for peace. “He was very critical of the legacy of colonialism and white racial supremacy as manifested in the degradation of African culture and the discrimination against black people throughout the African diaspora.” (Garcia, 2011). It was Arsenio that evolved son to include the mestizaje language from the Western cuban highlands, the hispanic primacy of the tres, the afro lexical musicality with the call and response, the Bantu derived percussive section of the bongos and maracas thus making it representative of the actual

demographic of Cuba, and the diasporas within. Arsenio’s son was then to become internationalised, broadcast globally as the national music of the Cuba people, further spreading his message and the Afro-Cuban identity. It continues, until today to influence many musical genres through son’s, and Arsenio’s, influence such as: salsa, latin music the mamba all the way to reggaeton. Its impact on, and importance to, the musical composition of Cuba is certainly a turning point, transforming a facist Cuba into a Cuba that had no choice but to accept it’s pan nationalism.

References

Arsenio Rodríguez and the Transnational Flows of Latin Popular Music. Temple University Press.

Gil, S. (2017). The Origins of Cuban Music and its Cultural and Spiritual Importance Within the Cuban Diaspora Community. [online] Inquiries Journal. Available at: http:// www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1191/the-origins-of-cuban-music-and-its- cultural-and-spiritual-importance-within-the-cuban-diaspora-community [Accessed 14 Nov. 2017].

Robbins, J. (1990). The Cuban "Son" as Form, Genre, and Symbol. Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana, 11(2), p.182.

Sublette, N. (2007). Cuba and Its Music : From the First Drums to the Mambo. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, pp.362-378, 392-402, 442-452, 478-484.