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Sintir
The sintir (), also known as the guembri (), gimbri, hejhouj in Hausa language, is a three stringed skin-covered bass plucked lute used by the Gnawa people of Morocco. It is approximately the size of a guitar, with a body carved from a log and covered on the playing side with camel skin. The camel skin has the same acoustic function as the membrane on a banjo. The neck is a simple stick with one short and two long goat strings that produce a percussive sound similar to a pizzicato cello or double bass. The goat gut strings are plucked downward with the knuckle side of the index finger and the inside of the thumb. The hollowed canoe shaped wooden body resonates a percussive tone created by knuckles slapping the camel neck top of the body while the thumb and index finger are plucking the strings. The lowest string on the sintir is a drone note and the second string, the highest in pitch, is tuned an octave higher and is never fretted. The third string is tuned a fourth above the d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Krakebs
Qraqeb or garagab (), in English often transliterated as krakeb, are a large iron castanet-like musical instrument primarily used as the rhythmic aspect of Gnawa music. Gnawa today is part of the North African culture and is inherent in the Maghrebi soundscape. The word qraqeb is a plural form (with the singular being qarqab), with an unclear etymology, as the word does not occur in Standard Arabic with this meaning. Cultural significance Gnawa music is a spiritual music representing the history of sub-Saharan West African people who were sold as slaves in present-day Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia or Greater Maghreb. "...stories are told to those who are connected with their history by the very sound of the ''krakebs'' – they represent the sound of horses hooves hitting the ground as their people were carried away in grain sacks, and the rattling of shackles that used to hold their people captive.". They are also said to represent shackles which slaves removed when th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akonting
The ''akonting'' (, or ''ekonting'' in French transliteration) is the folk lute of the Jola people, found in Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. It is a string instrument with a skin-headed gourd body, two long melody strings, and one short drone string, akin to the short fifth "thumb string" on the five-string banjo. Jola oral tradition places the birthplace of the ''akonting'' in the village of Kanjanka in Lower Casamance (Senegal), near the banks of the Casamance River. The name of the instrument's home village is recalled in the most common tuning pattern for the akonting's three open strings (from the 3rd short "thumb" string to the 1st long melody string): ''kan'' (the 5th note of the scale, tuned an octave higher), ''jan'' (root note), ''ka'' (flatted 7th note). Like in the traditional old-time/folk styles of playing the 5-string banjo, the akonting is tuned in different tunings. Using the ''kanjanka'' tuning pattern of 5/1/-7, a common tuning in Cas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by African Americans and had African antecedents. In the 19th century, interest in the instrument was spread across the United States and United Kingdom by traveling shows of the 19th-century minstrel show fad, followed by mass production and mail-order sales, including instructional books. The inexpensive or home-made banjo remained part of rural folk culture, but five-string and four-string banjos also became popular for home parlor music entertainment, college music clubs, and early 20th century jazz bands. By the early 20th century, the banjo was most frequently associated with folk, cowboy music, and country music. By mid-century it had come to be strongly associated with bluegrass. Eventu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xalam
Xalam (in Serer, khalam in Wolof, and Mɔɣlo in Dagbanli) is a traditional lute from West Africa with 1 to 5 strings. The xalam is commonly played in Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Niger, Northern Nigeria, Northern Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ..., and Western Sahara. The xalam and its variants are known by various names in other languages, including bappe, diassare, hoddu ( Pulaar), koliko ( Gurunsi), kologo ( Frafra), komsa, kontigi, gurmi, garaya ( Hausa), koni, konting ( Mandinka), molo ( Songhay/ Zarma), ndere, ngoni ( Bambara), and tidinit ( Hassaniyya and Berber). In Wolof, a person who plays the xalam is called a ''xalamkat'' (a word composed of the verbal form of xalam, meaning "to play the xalam", and the agentive s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gnawa
The Gnawa () (or Gnaoua, Ghanawa, Ghanawi, Gnawi'; ) are an ethnic group inhabiting Morocco, that had been brought as slaves from the West African Sahel. The name Gnawa originated in the indigenous language of North Africa and the Sahara, Sahara Desert. The phonology of this term according to the grammatical principles of Berber languages, Berber is ''agnaw'' (singular) and ''ignawen'' (plural), which means "black person." Gnawa music was inscribed in 2019 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. History The Gnawa population is generally believed to originate from the Sahelian region of West Africa, which had long and extensive trading and political ties with Morocco. The Gnawa are an ethnic group who were brought to Morocco as slaves, and their ancestry is traced to parts of West Africa. After the abolition of slavery, they became a part of the Sufi order in the Maghreb. While adopting Islam, the Gnawa continued to celebrate ritual possessio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoddu
Xalam (in Serer, khalam in Wolof, and Mɔɣlo in Dagbanli) is a traditional lute from West Africa with 1 to 5 strings. The xalam is commonly played in Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Niger, Northern Nigeria, Northern Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Western Sahara. The xalam and its variants are known by various names in other languages, including bappe, diassare, hoddu (Pulaar), koliko ( Gurunsi), kologo ( Frafra), komsa, kontigi, gurmi, garaya ( Hausa), koni, konting ( Mandinka), molo ( Songhay/ Zarma), ndere, ngoni ( Bambara), and tidinit ( Hassaniyya and Berber). In Wolof, a person who plays the xalam is called a ''xalamkat'' (a word composed of the verbal form of xalam, meaning "to play the xalam", and the agentive suffix ''-kat'', thus meaning "one who xalams"). In Mande, this is ''ngonifola'' or ''konting fola''. In Hausa, this is ''mai gurmi'' or ''mai kontigi''. Construction and tuning The xalam, in its standard form, is a simple lute chordophone with one to five ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kora (instrument)
The kora (Manding languages: ''kɔra'') is a stringed instrument used extensively in West Africa. A kora typically has 21 strings, which are played by plucking with the fingers. It has features of the lute and harp. Description The kora is built from a gourd, cut in half and covered with cow skin to make a resonator with a long hardwood neck. The skin is supported by two handles that run underneath it. It has 21 strings, each of which plays a different note. These strings are supported by a notched, double free-standing bridge. The kora doesn't fit into any one category of musical instrument, but rather several, and must be classified as a "double-bridge-harp-lute." The strings run in two divided ranks, characteristic of a double harp. They do not end in a soundboard but are instead held in notches on a bridge, classifying it as a bridge harp. The strings originate from a string arm or neck and cross a bridge directly supported by a resonating chamber, also making it a lute. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States asserts sovereignty over five Territories of the United States, major island territories and United States Minor Outlying Islands, various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean. It is a megadiverse country, with the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest land area and List of countries and dependencies by population, third-largest population, exceeding 340 million. Its three Metropolitan statistical areas by population, largest metropolitan areas are New York metropolitan area, New York, Greater Los Angeles, Los Angel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa, African countries and territories that are situated fully in that specified region, the term may also include polities that only have part of their territory located in that region, per the definition of the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations (UN). This is considered a non-standardised geographical region with the number of countries included varying from 46 to 48 depending on the organisation describing the region (e.g. United Nations, UN, World Health Organization, WHO, World Bank, etc.). The Regions of the African Union, African Union (AU) uses a different regional breakdown, recognising all 55 member states on the continent—grouping them into five distinct and standard regions. The te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mali
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east by Niger, to the northwest by Mauritania, to the south by Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, and to the west by Guinea and Senegal. The population of Mali is about 23.29 million, 47.19% of which are estimated to be under the age of 15 in 2024. Its Capital city, capital and largest city is Bamako. The country has 13 official languages, of which Bambara language, Bambara is the most commonly spoken. The sovereign state's northern borders reach deep into the middle of the Sahara, Sahara Desert. The country's southern part, where the majority of inhabitants live, is in the Sudanian savanna and has the Niger River, Niger and Senegal River, Senegal rivers running through it. The country's economy centres on agriculture and mining with its most promine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
321
Year 321 ( CCCXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Crispus and Constantinus (or, less frequently, year 1074 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 321 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By topic Roman Empire * Emperor Constantine I expels the Goths from the Danube frontier and repairs Trajan's Bridge. He leads an expedition into the old province Dacia (modern Romania) and makes peace with the barbarians. * March 7 - Constantine I signs legislation directing urban residents to refrain from work, and businesses to be closed, on the " venerable day of the Sun". An exception is made for agriculture. Asia * Tuoba Heru launches a coup d'état against his cousin Tuoba Yulü and becomes the new Prince of Dai. By topic Art and Science * Calcidius tran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sahel
The Sahel region (; ), or Sahelian acacia savanna, is a Biogeography, biogeographical region in Africa. It is the Ecotone, transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has a Semi-arid climate#Hot semi-arid climates, hot semi-arid climate and stretches across the tropics, southernmost latitudes of North Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. Although geographically located in the tropics, the Sahel does not have a tropical climate. Especially in the western Sahel, there are droughts in the Sahel, frequent shortages of food and water due to its very high Corruption Perceptions Index, government corruption and the semi-arid climate. This is exacerbated by very high list of countries by birth rate, birthrates across the region, resulting in a rapid increase in population. In recent times, various Coup Belt, coups, Foreign internal defense#Preemptive counterinsurgency in Africa, insurgencies, terrorism ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
