Nyabinghi, also Nyahbinghi, Niyabinghi, Niyahbinghi, is the gathering of Rastafari people to celebrate and commemorate key dates significant to Rastafari throughout the year. It is essentially an opportunity for the Rastafari to congregate and engage in praise and worship. For example, on July 23rd of each year, a Nyabinghi is held to celebrate the birth of Emperor Haille Selassie I. During a Nyabinghi celebration men and women have different roles and expectations. Men are expected to remove any hair coverings, whilst women must keep their hair covered. A group of men typically organise themselves in a line or semi-circle and are assigned to beat the drums throughout. The remaining congregation continue to sing well known songs or 'chants', some of which are Hebraic scriptural verses that evidence the divinity of Haile Sellassie. For example, 'I have a little light in I and I'm going to make it shine, Rastafariiii, shine' and 'Holy Mount Zion is a holy place and no sinners can enter there, so let the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, of Rastafari'. Nyabinghi is a Rastafari tradition that promotes Rastafari unity, strengthens the Rastafari spirit with fellowship and raises the conciousnes and presence of Rastafafari in the heart of those in attendance. At some points passages of the bible are read. Rastafari recognise the significance of Jesus Christ, due to Haile Sellassie I fulfilling the teachings and prophecy of scripture.
Nyabinghi music
The Niyabinghi resistance inspired a number of
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
n
Rastafarians
Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of ...
, who incorporated what are known as
niyabinghi chants (also binghi) into their celebrations ("
groundations"). The
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...
s of these chants were eventually an influence of popular
ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
,
rocksteady and
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
music. It is the traditional music of the Rastafarian practice and it is used during "reasoning" sessions and consists of chanting and drumming to reach states of heightened spirituality.
Nyabingi music consists of a blend of 19th century gospel music and African drumming.
Niyabinghi drumming is not exclusive to the Niyabinghi order, and is common to all Rastafarians. Its rhythms are the basis of Reggae music, through the influential ska band, the
Skatalites
The Skatalites are a ska band from Jamaica. They played initially between 1963 and 1965, and recorded many of their best known songs in the period, including " Guns of Navarone." They also played on records by Prince Buster and backed many oth ...
. It is said that their drummer revolutionized Jamaican music by combining the various Niyabinghi parts into a 'complete' "drum kit," which combined with jazz to create an entirely new form of music, known as
ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
. Niyabinghi rhythms were largely a creation of Count Ossie, who incorporated influences from traditional Jamaican Kumina drumming (especially the form of the drums themselves) with songs and rhythms learned from the recordings of Nigerian musician
Babatunde Olatunji
Michael Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927 – April 6, 2003) was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist, and recording artist.
Early life
Olatunji was born in the village of Ajido, near Badagry, Lagos State, in southwestern Nige ...
.
Though Niyabinghi music operates as a form of Rasta religious music outside of Reggae, musicians such as
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...
and even non-Rastas such Prince Buster (Muslim) and
Jimmy Cliff
James Chambers OM (born 30 July 1944), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, t ...
used the idiom in some songs. Recently, dancehall artist
Sizzla
Miguel Orlando Collins (born 17 April 1976), known by his stage name Sizzla Kalonji or Sizzla, is a Jamaican reggae musician. He is one of the most commercially and critically successful contemporary reggae artists and is noted for his high num ...
, American roots-Reggae artists such as
Groundation
Groundation is an American roots reggae band with jazz and dub influences, from Sonoma County in Northern California. It is named for Rastafarian ceremony of Grounation.
History
Formed in the fall of 1998 by Harrison Stafford, Marcus ...
and Jah Levi, and
Hip hop have used Niyabinghi drums extensively in their recordings. Though sometimes claimed to be a direct continuation of an African cultural form, Niyabinghi drumming is best seen as the voice of a people rediscovering their African roots.
Combining Jamaican traditions with newly acquired African ones, Count Ossie and others synthesized his country's African traditions and reinvigorated them with the influences of Nigerian master-drummer
Babatunde Olatunji
Michael Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927 – April 6, 2003) was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist, and recording artist.
Early life
Olatunji was born in the village of Ajido, near Badagry, Lagos State, in southwestern Nige ...
, as a comparison of Count Ossie's ''
Tales of Mozambique'' and Olatunji's earlier ''
Drums of Passion
''Drums of Passion'' is an album produced by Babatunde Olatunji, a percussionist from Nigeria, in 1960. It was the first recording to popularize African music in the West, becoming immensely successful and selling over five million copies. In 200 ...
'' will reveal. Indeed, it is that combination of inherited traditions and conscious rediscovery of lost African traditions that makes Niyabinghi drumming—and
Rasta—so powerful.
The music originates from the
Asante of modern-day
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
(which is also the name of the dance which the drums are used for) via the
trans-Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
and then in
Burru Burru is an Ashanti-born style of drumming used in Jamaican music.
Description of the rhythm and of the types of drums
"Burru" consists of alternations of a beat made by one drummer, and another beat by another drummer, like a conversation betwe ...
music, which was played in Jamaica as far back as the early 20th century.
They became commonly used in
Kingston ghettos in the mid 20th century, after being introduced by migrants from rural Jamaica.
Drums
Three kinds of drums (called harps or collectively akete) are used in niyabinghi: A larger bass (also called "baandu" or thunder) drum, a middle pitched "funde" (or "fundeh"), and a high pitched repeater or kete.
The funde and repeater are of similar size, but the funde has a slack drum head while the repeater has a tighter head, giving a higher note.
The drums are double-membraned, with heads are generally made of
goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...
skin.
[Garfield Smith, Michael; Augier, Roy; Nettleford, Rex M. (1978), ''The Rastafari movement in Kingston, Jamaica'', University of the West Indies, p. 14.]
The akete (also known as the "repeater") plays an
improvised
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
syncopation, the funde plays a regular one-two beat and the bass drum strikes loudly on the first beat, and softly on the third beat (of four). When groups of players get together, only one akete player may play at any one time. The other drums keep regular rhythms while the akete players solo in the form of a conversation. Only Rastamen are allowed to play drums at Nyahbingi.
There are
membranophone
A membranophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of a vibrating stretched membrane. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification. ...
s played at a groundation ceremony in
rasta culture. Nyabinghi music is played in 4/4 time on three
drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...
s:
* Thunder: It is a double-headed bass drum, played with a
mallet. The
strokes
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop funct ...
are an open tone on 1 and a dampened stroke on 3. Occasionally, the thunder player will syncopate the rhythm. It is typically held in the lap and beaten with a padded stick (a tennis ball is often used).
* Funde: The funde is the middle drum. It maintains the rhythms, on 2 and 4. It is held on the floor between the knees and played with the palms.
* Repeater: The repeater or kete, is the smallest and highest pitched drum. It is somewhat of a single elongated bongo. The drummer tends to play around 2 and 4, with a syncopated, rather than a backbeat feel. These beats are important to the overall feel of the Nyahbingi rhythm, but the repeater has a very improvisational role in bingi because it is seen as the carrier of spirit. It is held on the floor between the knees and played with the fingertips.
Shekere
The
shekere
The shekere (from Yoruba Ṣẹ̀kẹ̀rẹ̀) is a West African percussion instrument consisting of a dried gourd with beads or cowries woven into a net covering the gourd. The Shekere originated in a tribe in Nigeria called the Yoruba. The in ...
or shaka, which is commonly found throughout Africa and the Caribbean Latin America is also used in Nyahbingi. The shekere player has a somewhat flexible role: He/she has been known to play on “1”, “1&”, “1” and “3” or “1&”…“3&”
Chants
Niyabinghi chanting
typically includes recitation of the
Psalms
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
, but may also include variations of well-known
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
hymns and adopted by
Rastafarians
Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of ...
. The rhythms of these chants were eventually an influence of popular
ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
,
rocksteady and
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
music.
The chants contain ideas of black redemption and repatriation. They help people to participate and feel included in the Rastafarian community.
See also
*
Mansions of Rastafari
Mansions of Rastafari is an umbrella term for the various groups of the Rastafari movement. Such groups include the Bobo Ashanti, the Nyabinghi (Mansion of Rastafari), Niyabinghi, the Twelve Tribes of Israel (Rastafari), Twelve Tribes of Israel, ...
*
Reggae genres
There are several subgenres of reggae music including various predecessors to the form.
Pre-reggae styles
Mento
Reggae grew out of earlier musical styles such as mento, ska and rocksteady. Mento is a Jamaican folk music based on traditions bro ...
References
Further reading
* Hopkins, Elizabeth. “The Nyabingi Cult of Southwestern Uganda.” Protest and Power in Black Africa. Ed. Robert I. Rotberg and Ali A. Mazrui. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. 258-336.
* Kiyaga-Mulindwa, D. “Nyabingi Cult and Resistance.” Encyclopedia of African History. Ed. Kevin Shillington. 3 vols. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005.
External links
Historia Nyahbinghi Order Reggae Musicat the Open Directory Project
Nyabinghi History
{{Reggae
Reggae
Jamaican music