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The Culture and Variety of Forms of the Thumb Piano played by the Tshokwe in Northeastern Angola

2002; Japan Association for African Studies; Volume: 2002; Issue: 60 Linguagem: Inglês

10.11619/africa1964.2002.75

1884-5533

Kazunobu Ikeya,

Music History and Culture

The thumb piano originated in Africa and is still played in various areas south of the Sahara. I am interested in clarifying the historical process in which this instrument has spread throughout the regions, and the role of music played on the instrument in people's everyday life.This paper focuses on thumb pianos, one example of the Tshokwe sound culture, and aims to clarify the relationship between the the Tshokwe sound culture and their lives by studying the forms of thumb pianos and lyrics of thumb-piano music.From mid-January to early in February 2001, I listered to nine thumb-piano players living in Dundo and its neighboring areas in the northeastern regions of Angola, and recorded their musical performance. I also studied artifacts preserved at the Dundo Museum, and obtained information on the variety of forms of Tshokwe thumb pianos.The Tshokwe people mainly live the in eastern parts of Angola, and belong to the Bantu. With farming such as cassava growing as their central source of livelihood, the Tshokwe make a living by a combination of hunting, fishing, and seasonal labor.As a result of this field study, I identified the following three facts.(1) There are eight types of Tshokwe thumb pianos, each of which has a different name according to its form, although a previous study specified only four to five types.(2) 43 pieces of music are songs performed solo by men, and the all have lyrics. I studied the lyrics of 31 songs, and classified them the following themes: economic life, such as hunting; the relationship between a child and parent or between the sexes; everyday life, such as asking who is pounding cassava in a mortar; teachings such as which birds and mice are inedible; the incident of a man who left his family to travel and suddenly came home, or of a man killed by bees; circumcision rituals; and the history of the colonial era, including the violent acts of Portuguese officials. None of the collected songs, however, refer to the Angolan civil war, which lasted for 25 years. I suppose this is because the people studied experienced the war around 1998, which is relatively recently.(3) The thumb piano is usually played for recreation, rituals, and making money. I found instances of recreation and rituals, but no one in Tshokwe society plays it as an occupation. Playing the thumb piano also has another role, other than the above, of handing down the Tshokwe people's personal history, reflecting their lives and surroundings, because incidents described in the lyrics are passed down from generation to generation. By comparing a report in the 1960s with this one, it is also clear that the thumb piano is no longer used in rituals although it is used for recreation. There are now fewer people to pass down the lyrics than in the past as some of the thumb piano players have died.This study showed that the music is performed by thumb piano has a variety of forms and that the role of this music in people's lives is declining, unlike in the past when it was closely related to everyday life.