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[CHAPTER 46]
[Page 1]
MUSICIANS
The Negro is generally credited with having introduced into the Americas the banjo and the marimba. Today‟s American banjo may claim ancestry to its counterpart, the African wambee,1 a banjo-like instrument of the Shekiani tribe, and the less similar ibeka and harp of the Bakalai. 2 The marimba of the Balonda tribe is constructed on the same musical principal as the South American instrument of the same name. The Portuguese traders of Angola used the native marimba in their dances, which fact might account for its introduction and later popularity in the countries of South America.
The African, passionately fond of his folk-music and the tales and songs of his griots, called them into use at play and at labor, and his work-songs--which later became the symbol of the virility of American labor--had their origins in the jungle clearings of Africa. It was observed that in Africa
Frequently…toil is lightened, from being performed by the whole village in common, when it appears less a scene of labour than a gay festival….The village musician plays the most lively airs; the labourers keep time to his tune; and a spectator at a little distance would suppose them to be dancing instead of working.5
Many of the slaves brought with them their native music, and their masters, quick to sense the advantages to be gained from happy and contented slaves, frequently encouraged his talent. Slaves imported into Louisiana from Africa and the West Indies displayed unusual talent in the use of drum in their dances, and many of them reproduced their own native instruments and played them proficiently. Under American
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