MAURITANIA – GUINEA – BENIN – IVORY COAST Afrique Vol. 4 – Collection du Musée de l'Homme – Vogue EXTP 1032

MAURITANIA – GUINEA – BENIN – IVORY COAST

Afrique Vol. 4 – Collection du Musée de l'Homme – Vogue EXTP 1032, recorded by Gilbert Rouget in 1952 (7 in, 45 RPM)

This seminal 7-inch album, recorded during the 1952 IFAN (Institut Français d’Afrique Noire) mission by the eminent French ethnomusicologist Gilbert Rouget (1916-2017), showcases great traditional West African music recorded in Mauritania, Guinea, Benin and Ivory Coast.

 

Ce remarquable 45 tours, enregistré en 1952 à l’occasion d’une mission de l’IFAN (Institut Français d’Afrique Noire) par l’éminent ethnomusicologue Gilbert Rouget (1916-2017), présente d’authentiques musiques ouest-africaines du monde traditionnel d’antan enregistrées en Mauritanie, en Guinée, au Bénin et en Côte d’Ivoire.

A1 – MAURITANIA (Moorish)

Mohamed Mbarek ould Manou plays the four-string tidinit lute and sings a poetic love song in Arabic composed by the Arab poet Medjoun. Ould Manou, a professional singer renowned throughout Mauritania, played in the style of the Trarza and Brakna provinces in southern Mauritania.

 

A2 – GUINEA (Malinke or Mandinka)

Mamadi Dioubaté (cover photograph), famous throughout Guinea at the time, plays variations on a theme to accompany an epic song on the 19-string kora lute.

 

A3 – BENIN (Yoruba)

Adjado sings and plays the single-string fiddle accompanied by three other singers, who also play calabash percussion and sakara drum. The musicians sing moral tales interspersed with praises addressed to the audience.

 

B1 – IVORY COAST (Adjoukrou)

Lohou Ceremony. This rite of passage initiates boys into the society of men. The boy’s choir engages in a call response with both the lead singer and the drums offering insight into the functioning of the African drum language.

 

B2 – IVORY COAST (Baoulé)

Two musicians play a small rudimentary xylophone with six raw wooden blades, the kind that farmers played when they spent time in the bush.

 

B3 – IVORY COAST (Ebrié)

The musician holds a musical bow’s vine between his lips to create a resonance, striking it with a long stick accompanied by a calabash rattle and a bottle rhythmically struck with a nail. The song is about a type of bird which always nods (saying yes), an allusion to an easy woman.

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Our other Gilbert Rouget music posts:

Chants des Maures Vol. 2 (includes performances by Mohamed Mbarek ould Manou A1) – recorded in 1952 here
Guinea & Ivory Coast – Musique d’Afrique Occidentale LDM – recorded in 1952 here

Photographs below are from a vintage postcard, Les Hommes de la Danse by Keita Fodeba & Michel Huet, 1954, Parures Africaines by Denise Paulme & Jacques Brosse, Hachette, 1956, and The Dances of Africa by Claude Savary & Michel Huet, Harry N. Abrams, 1996:

Musician, Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast:

Traditional acrobats, Man region, Ivory Coast:

Young Coniagui man with an imposing coif, Guinea:

Calabash dance, Labé, Fouta-Djalon, Guinea:

Nyon Néa mask and guide, Kono, Guinea:

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