FREE ESSAY ON AFRICAN CULTURE

AFRICAN CULTURE

When trying to compare and contrast the music-culture and society of the Mbuti and that of
the Venda, it becomes difficult to comment on sound when we haven't heard any Venda
music. It's easy to recognize that for the Mbuti the music embodies the heart of the
forest, and for the Venda the relation to nature is the act of a mother giving birth.
Thinking about concept and behavior this makes the music performed by the two cultures
separate and distinguishable. This is where culture and environment become important
factors. How noticeable is this when listening to the music of both peoples? When given
the opportunity to listen, without a trained ear, it would be difficult to find
differences in the sound of the music. There are obvious differences in instrumentation
between the two cultures. While the Mbuti mainly performs music with their voices, the
Venda use drums, flutes, and various other instruments.
There are similarities between the two groups with 'rights of passage.' The Venda girls
perform the Domba, and the Mbuti girls practice and perform the Elima. Clear. Cultural
distinctions can be made between the two groups concerning 'rights of passage.' When it
is time for the Mbuti girls to perform the Elima, they go into a hut and are secluded
from the rest of the world. The boys of the clan try to push their way into the hut to
find the woman of their choice. The Venda girls performing the Domba, are out in the open
and visible for the men and everyone around to see. Since the Mbuti is of the forest, and
the Venda is a village-based group, there are probably many cultural traditions and
practices that are very different. These differences may be difficult to distinguish with
the materials available to us as Westerners. Seeing the two cultures perform live would
enable a person to find differences and draw upon parallels. In both societies there is a
visible comparison between the separation males and females when performing 'rights of
passage.' 
In both cultures we see a universal participation in music as a common thread to
survival, and an individuality is kept within the music as it's being performed. The
Venda believes that all human beings have the capacity to be musical. Blacking solidifies
this thought when stating that, The Venda may not consider the possibility of unmusical
human beings, but they do recognize that some people perform better than others. (pg.46
Blacking, 1973) The same general concept may hold true with the Mbuti, the concept that
we are all somehow children of the forest. The relationship that the Mbuti has with the
outside villages for provisions and the treatment they receive in these villages can be
viewed as a distinction. How close does the Venda come to resembling the village groups
sited in Turnbulls research? Is this where most of the distinctions can be made? The
Mbuti is primarily a forest dwelling group, relying on the forest for most of their
subsistence. The Mbuti uses the molimo as their main instrument, when an elder dies,
ceremonies take place using this instrument by the men. The Venda is more complex
socially, and they use more instruments. Even the attitude the Mbuti has toward daily
life and music seems much more relaxed and simple. Are there the same circular flow or
looping patterns in the music of both cultures? Do both cultures have a downward motion
in melodies? The Mbuti is very humorous with a sometimes very serious side to their
humor. Does this exist at all in Venda culture? The Mbuti has a ritualistic feeding of
the molimo, using fire and water to please the spirit of the instrument. Is this sort of
ritual activity common at all in the Venda? The Mbuti women usually do not participate
when the molimo is present, but the music seems to break down any gender barriers as it
was mentioned in class that the women, know what's going on. 
Western practitioners of music have the luxury of a pen and notebook paper, headphones
and CD players, modern instruments and studio equipment. While the cultures we are
learning about have no such luxury. Nettle takes this fact a step further by saying, We
think of a piece of music as existing in its truest form on a piece of paper. The
academics among us can hardly conceive of discussing music without knowledge of a single,
authoritative, visible version. (pg.65 Nettle, 1983) When listening to the Mbuti music in
class a complex system is clearly audible. In Western society notation helps with the
conception and birth of a musical idea but, It equates composing with writing and accepts
the creation of music on paper even when the composer can barely imagine its sound until
he has heard it, of music which contains devices that can only be appreciated by the eye.
(pg.65 Nettle, 1983) The music of the Mbuti is a constant flow of creation encompassing
writing and composing while performing. This is why the task of the ethnomusicologist is
noble. 
The first reaction most scientists or any rational minded person will have to a new idea
that isn't easily understood is to reject it. If the importance and emphasis in the
conception of music in these African cultures have been placed on sound, as in producing
and listening, from generation to generation for hundreds if not thousands of years what
can this tell us about Western music? Is it possible that the music produced within these
societies has evolved much more rapidly than in Western music? In Western society we have
been slaving away with our pencils and paper for centuries. Can we say that environmental
and cultural difference is the reason we have difficulty understanding music structured
differently than our own? The task of transcription would seem excruciatingly painful
coming from a Western background. Are there many western musicians who would consider
singing for twenty-four hours straight without a proper break? While westerners are more
concerned with the complexity of music, it is clear that people such as the Mbuti and
Venda are more concerned with remaining loyal to wherever it is that music comes from.
Nettle does try to forge us into the future when he says, A central problem for future
research is the degree to which social function, style, and content coincide and
correlate, and the degree to which the cultural characteristics of a music community are
reflected in the traits of the music it claims as its own. The way in which the world of
music is divided into musics, and the criteria for the divisions, are major issues that
have perhaps not been given sufficient explicit recognition. (pg.51 Nettle, 1983) Nettle
is saying how can we determine what's borrowed from what is culturally distinctive. 
It is recognizable that as our society becomes more technologically advanced and corrupt,
it becomes visible within popular music. In the same way as the sounds of the rainforests
are incorporated in the vocal acrobats of the Mbuti. Which music is more musical in
nature? I have recently discovered in this class that it isn't safe to assume anything,
especially when concerning yourself with music, something more complex than nature
itself. Geologists are capable of determining climate fluctuations that occurred well
more than one million years ago, but it's a struggle to understand music that we can hear
and watch as it is being performed. We haven't really talked about the human need that
drives us toward something greater. The accumulation of different sounds combining to
make something larger than the individual components of itself, is this how music is
relative to society? If we ask where music comes from, we can answer it comes from
humans. Some people who play music may tell you that music comes from our brains or our
hearts, and still some may say it comes from the cosmos. Are we conditioned to believe
that music comes from only one of these? A safe and logical response would be that music
comes from a blending of all the things mentioned above. If something is considered as
primitive, then it can be considered old. If something is old enough than it could be
considered as ancient, and if it's ancient then it is from a relatively unknown source.
If it's unknown then how can it be misconstrued in a Western social context as primitive?
We tack on our own societal and cultural biases to what primitive means. Primitive
doesn't necessarily mean less technically developed when concerned with music. If music
that is considered by some to be primitive could actually be more advanced in a human
spiritual realm, how would we know? Is it within the perception of something that can
pass in the blink of an eye that only trained developed listeners are capable of tuning
into? Or possibly the knowledge and answers to these questions may be found in a
spiritual enlightenment phase where time, because a trance state exists, becomes
fluctuated and distorts. If it takes entering these states to gain a broader
understanding, how can a person remember the answers to the questions? Music is capable
of many things.