Music Of Swaziland
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Music Of Swaziland
The music of Eswatini is composed of both ethnic Swazi music and varieties of folk music as well as modern genres such as rock, pop and hip hop, which has been popular in Eswatini since headed by bands such as Vamoose. The popularity of hip hop in South Africa, which shares a border with Eswatini, has also helped popularize it. Two major festivals in the country are Incwala and Umhlanga.Maps of World – Swaziland
Retrieved 2013-10-25.
The former takes place in December while the latter takes place in August. Umhlanga is known for its dance, performed exclusively by women, and its 5-day ceremony, which involves reed-cutting. Traditional instruments used include: the horn,

Eswatini
Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its north, west, south, and southeast. At no more than north to south and east to west, Eswatini is one of the smallest countries in Africa; despite this, its climate and topography are diverse, ranging from a cool and mountainous highveld to a hot and dry lowveld. The population is composed primarily of ethnic Swazis. The prevalent language is Swazi (''siSwati'' in native form). The Swazis established their kingdom in the mid-18th century under the leadership of Ngwane III. The country and the Swazi take their names from Mswati II, the 19th-century king under whose rule the country was expanded and unified; its boundaries were drawn up in 1881 in the midst of the Scramble for Africa. After the Second Boer War, the kingdom, under the name of ...
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Ethnic Swazi Music
The Swazi are an ethnic group split between South Africa and Eswatini. The Swazis in South Africa became a major part of South African music, though they were not identified as "Swazi musicians", but rather as "South African musicians"; these included Zacks Nkosi, who began in the 1940s as a jazz musician. Traditional instruments * Makhweyane: a single-stringed, gourd-resonated musical bow The musical bow (bowstring or string bow, a subset of bar zithers) is a simple string instrument used by a number of South African peoples, which is also found in the Americas via slave trade. It consists of a flexible, usually wooden, stick 1. ... References {{reflist External linksDownload sample(2009-10-31) Music of Eswatini South African styles of music ...
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Folk Music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations (folk process), music associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that. Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk rev ...
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South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini. It also completely enclaves the country Lesotho. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World, and the second-most populous country located entirely south of the equator, after Tanzania. South Africa is a biodiversity hotspot, with unique biomes, plant and animal life. With over 60 million people, the country is the world's 24th-most populous nation and covers an area of . South Africa has three capital cities, with the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government based in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Cape Town respectively. The largest city is Johannesburg. About 80% of the population are Black South Afri ...
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Incwala
Incwala () is the main ritual of kingship in the Eswatini, Kingdom of Eswatini. This is a national event that takes place during the summer solstice. The main participant in incwala is the King of Eswatini; when there is no king there is no incwala. Incwala takes place over a period of time of about a month, starting with the small incwala, ''incwala lencane'', and culminating in the big incwala, ''incwala lenkhulu''. A number of activities—such as lusekwane, kuhlamahlama, and umdvutjulwa—mark the key events of this age old tradition. Main personnel The incwala ritual is controlled by national priests known as ''Bemanti'' (people of the water), or ''Belwandle'' (people of the sea), because they fetch river- and sea-water to strengthen the King. The leader of these men is a chief of the Ndwandwe clan who is assisted by other male relatives. Another leader is of the Ndwandwe clan from the Elwandle royal village. These men go and fetch water and herbs respectively in the natio ...
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Umhlanga (ceremony)
Umhlanga , or Reed Dance ceremony, is an annual Swazi event. In Eswatini, tens of thousands of unmarried and childless Swazi girls and women travel from the various chiefdoms to the Ludzidzini Royal Village to participate in the eight-day event. The young, unmarried girls were placed in female age-regiments; girls who had fallen pregnant outside wedlock had their families fined a cow. History Umhlanga was created in the 1940s Eswatini under the rule of Sobhuza II, and is an adaptation of the much older Umchwasho ceremony. The reed dance continues to be practised today in Eswatini. In South Africa, the reed dance was introduced in 1991 by Goodwill Zwelithini, the former King of the Zulus. The dance in South Africa takes place in Nongoma, a royal ''kraal'' of the Zulu king. South Africa In South Africa, the ceremony is known as Umkhosi woMhlanga, and takes place every year in September at the Enyokeni Royal Palace in Nongoma Enyokeni, KwaZulu-Natal. The girls come from all p ...
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Kudu
The kudus are two species of antelope of the genus ''Tragelaphus'': * Lesser kudu, ''Tragelaphus imberbis'', of eastern Africa * Greater kudu, ''Tragelaphus strepsiceros'', of eastern and southern Africa The two species look similar, though greaters are larger than lessers. A large adult male greater kudu stands over tall at the shoulder, and a large male lesser kudu stands about tall. Males of both species have long horns, which point upward and slightly back, curling in a corkscrew shape. Etymology The name of the animal was imported into English in the 18th century from isiXhosa ''iqhude'', via Afrikaans ''koedoe''. Kudu, or koodoo, is the Khoikhoi and seTswana name for this antelope. ''Tragos'' (Greek) denotes a he-goat and ''elaphos'' (Greek) a deer. ''Strepho'' (Greek) means "I twist", and ''strephis'' is "twisting". ''Keras'' (Greek) means "horn". Habitat Lesser kudus occupy savanna near '' Acacia'' and ''Commiphora'' shrubs. They rely on thickets for prote ...
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Calabash
Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a utensil, container, or a musical instrument. When it is fresh, the fruit has a light green smooth skin and white flesh. Calabash fruits have a variety of shapes: they can be huge and rounded, small and bottle-shaped, or slim and serpentine, and they can grow to be over a metre long. Rounder varieties are typically called calabash gourds. The gourd was one of the world's first cultivated plants grown not primarily for food, but for use as containers. The bottle gourd may have been carried from Asia to Africa, Europe, and the Americas in the course of human migration, or by seeds floating across the oceans inside the gourd. It has been proven to have been globally domesticated (an ...
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Rattle (percussion Instrument)
A rattle is a type of percussion instrument which produces a sound when shaken. Rattles are described in the Hornbostel–Sachs system as ''Shaken Idiophones or Rattles (112.1)''. According to Sachs, Rattles include: * Maracas, widely used in Cha Cha Cha and jazz. ** Chac-chac, as known in Trinidad, Dominica and the French Antilles. * The egg-shaped plastic chicken shake, filled with steel shot and available in varying tones depending on the size and quantity of shot. * Folk instruments especially used in ceremonial dance. * Toy rattles for infants. Though there are many different sorts of rattles, some music scores indicate simply a rattle (or the corresponding terms French ''claquette'', ''hochet''; Ger. ''Rassel'', ''Schnarre''; It. ''nacchere''). Examples * Chankana * Ganzá * Hosho * Maracas * Maracitos * Katsa * Chajchas * Rainstick * Kashaka History In Ancient Egypt, rattles were used during funerary rituals to signify regeneration in the after-life. Rattles ...
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Reed Flute
The bamboo flute, especially the bone flute, is one of the oldest musical instruments known. Examples of Paleolithic bone flutes have survived for more than 40,000 years, to be discovered by archaeologists. While the oldest flutes currently known were found in Europe, Asia too has a long history with the instrument that has continued into the present day. In China, a playable bone flute was discovered, about 9000 years old. Historians have found the bamboo flute has a long history as well, especially China and India. Flutes made history in records and artworks starting in the Zhou dynasty. The oldest written sources reveal the Chinese were using the kuan (a reed instrument) and hsio (or xiao, an end-blown flute, often of bamboo) in the 12th-11th centuries b.c., followed by the chi (or ch'ih) in the 9th century b.c. and the yüeh in the 8th century b.c. Of these, the chi is the oldest documented cross flute or transverse flute, and was made from bamboo. The Chinese have a word ...
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