Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

is an ethnically diverse

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, ...

n country. Each of its regions has its own unique varieties of music and dance. The

Fulani The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. ...

people, for example, use single-reeded flutes, while the ancient

griot A griot (; ; Manding: jali or jeli (in N'Ko: , ''djeli'' or ''djéli'' in French spelling); Serer: kevel or kewel / okawul; Wolof: gewel) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. The griot is a repos ...

tradition uses five-string kinde and various kinds of

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

s, and the Tibesti region uses

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...

s and

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

s. Musical ensembles playing horns and trumpets such as the long royal trumpets known as " waza" or "kakaki" are used in

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a coronation crown, crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the ...

s and other upper-class ceremonies throughout both Chad and

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

. The

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European n ...

of Chad is "

La Tchadienne "" (, ) is the national anthem of Chad. Written by Louis Gidrol and his student group and composed by R. Paul Villard, Paul Villard, it has been the official state anthem of Chad since it gained independence French Chad, from France in January 19 ...

," written in 1960 by

Paul Villard Paul Ulrich Villard (28 September 1860 – 13 January 1934) was a French chemist and physicist. He discovered gamma rays in 1900 while studying the radiation emanating from radium. Early research Villard was born in Saint-Germain-au-Mon ...

and

Louis Gidrol Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis (d ...

with help from Gidrol's student group.

Popular music

Following independence, Chad, like most other African countries, quickly began producing some popular music, primarily in a style similar to the

soukous Soukous (from French '' secousse'', "shock, jolt, jerk") is a genre of dance music from Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville. It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s, becoming known for its fast dance rhythms and intricate guitar improv ...

music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Congolese music is one of the most influential music forms of the African continent since the 1930s. Congolese musicians had a huge impact on the African musical scene and outside. Many contemporary genres of music were created or heavily influe ...

. Styles of Chadian popular music include sai, which used rhythms from the southern part of Chad—this style was popularized by a group called

Tibesti The Tibesti Mountains are a mountain range in the central Sahara, primarily located in the extreme north of Chad, with a small portion located in southern Libya. The highest peak in the range, Emi Koussi, lies to the south at a height of and is ...

. Other bands include the

Sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...

's International Challal and

African Melody African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

, while musicians include the Sudanese-music-influenced

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

ist

Ahmed Pecos Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

and Chadian-French musician

Clément Masdongar Clement or Clément may refer to: People * Clement (name), a given name and surname * Saint Clement (disambiguation)#People Places * Clément, French Guiana, a town * Clement, Missouri, U.S. * Clement Township, Michigan, U.S. Other uses * ...

Folk music

Teda music

The Teda live in the area around the

Tibesti Mountains The Tibesti Mountains are a mountain range in the central Sahara, primarily located in the extreme north of Chad, with a small portion located in southern Libya. The highest peak in the range, Emi Koussi, lies to the south at a height of and i ...

. Their folk music revolves around men's

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...

s and women's vocal music. String instruments like the

keleli The ''keleli'' is a lute of the Teda people of Tibesti, Republic of Chad. The instrument consists of a round bowl covered with camel, goat or zebra-hide soundboard, and a neck to support the strings. The instrument is built by individuals for ...

are used to "speak for" male performers, since it is considered inappropriate for a man to sing in front of an adult woman.

Instruments

Traditional Chadian instruments include the

hu hu The hu hu () is a string instrument originating in 19th century China. It is similar to the erhu and is typically made of wood, snakeskin, fabric, glue, bamboo, and horsehair Horsehair is the long hair growing on the manes and tails of ho ...

(

with

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 ...

loudspeakers),

kakaki The kakaki is a three to four metre long metal trumpet used in Hausa traditional ceremonial music. ''Kakaki'' is the name used in Chad, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin Niger, and Nigeria. The instrument is also known as ''malakat'' in Ethiopia. ...

(a tin

maraca A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were r ...

, kinde (a

bow harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual string (music), strings running at an angle to its sound board (music), soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various way ...

) and various kinds of horns. Other instruments include the flute and drums music of the Kanembu and the

balaphone The balafon is a gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is closely associated with the neighbouring Mandé peoples, Mandé, Senufo people, Senoufo and Gur languages, Gur peoples of West Africa, particularly the Guinean branch ...

, whistle, harp and kodjo drums of the

Sara people The Sara people are a Central Sudanic ethnic group native to southern Chad, the northwestern areas of the Central African Republic, and the southern border of North Sudan. They speak the Sara languages which are a part of the Central Sudanic lang ...

, while the Baguirmians are known for drum and

zither Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat bo ...

music, as well as a folk dance in which a mock battle is conducted between dancers wielding large

pestle Mortar and pestle is a set of two simple tools used from the Stone Age to the present day to prepare ingredients or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder in the kitchen, laboratory, and pharmacy. The ''mortar'' () ...

References

External links

Audio clips - traditional music of Chad.
French National Library. Accessed November 25, 2010.

2009-11-01) {{DEFAULTSORT:Music Of Chad