Mundang people
The Mundang people are an ethnic group in West Africa who live in parts of Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria.[1] They speak the Mundang language, a subset of Mbum languages.[2]
Historically, the Mundang were an agricultural people; in the beginning of the 20th century they grew and harvested peas, beans, potatoes, nuts and durra.[3] They also branched out into cotton production and raised cattle and goats.[3] They brewed beer as well, from millet.[3] Mundang people in Léré built mud houses with straight roofs and polished interior walls.[3] They also constructed circular corn silos or granaries, accessed through the roof.[3]
Sultan Lamido Ganthiome and his two wives in Léré, Chad in 1913.
Corn towers of the Sultan Lamido Ganthiome in Léré, Chad.
Mundang village of Léré, Chad in about 1913.
A woman carries water before the village of Léré, Chad. Illustration by Ernst M. Heims.
Music
The Mundang people of Chad use the billim drum, a "double-headed cylindrical drum with laced membranes" to accompany dance rhythmically, alonside an end-blown trumpet and gourd-vessel wrattle.[4] The drum is struck on each side with a hand by the drummer, as the instrument sits on the ground.[4]
Beyond the Mundang's folk music, the communities also have families of musicians called griots by western writers.[5] One of these includes a modern performing act outside of Africa, Sona Jobarteh who acknowledges her Mundang heritage and sees its influence in the bluesy sound of her music.[6]
References
- ^ Gates, Jr. and, Henry Louis; Appiah, Kwame Anthony, eds. (2010). "Mundang". Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195337709.
- ^ Binam Bikoi, Charles, ed. (2012). Atlas linguistique du Cameroun (ALCAM) [Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon]. Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique centrale (ALAC) (in French). Vol. 1: Inventaire des langues. Yaoundé: CERDOTOLA. ISBN 9789956796069.
- ^ a b c d e Friedrich, Adolf (1913). From the Congo to the Niger and the Nile: an account of The German Central African expedition of 1910-1911. London: Duckworth. pp. 109–111.
- ^ a b Sadie Stanley, ed. (1984). "Billim". The New Grove Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. MacMillan Press LTD. p. 229.
- ^ Charry, Eric (March 1996). "Plucked Lutes in West Africa: An Historical Overview". The Galpin Society Journal. 49. Galpin Society: 4.
hereditary professional musical/verbal artesians called griots by non-Africans
- ^ Gokhman, Roman (26 June 2023). "Interview: Kora master Sona Jobarteh on education reform in Africa". RIFF magazine.
Sona Jobarteh was not supposed to learn to play the kora, even though she does come from a line of families known as griots...The men play while the women sing. But Jobarteh asked her older brother, Tunde Jegede, and then her father, to teach her the kora....she was careful to point out that her cultural heritage is Mundang...her playing on it isn't the American iteration but rather the genre known as Mali blues or desert blues. 'I'm squarely within my Mundang heritage there. That is a style of music that originates in Mali,' she said.