Country in West Africa. It has an area of 274,122 km2, with a rapidly expanding population estimated at 12·06 million in 2000, representing 54–60 ethnic groups. The country was annexed by France in 1896 and granted independence in 1960; the colonial period had a profound effect in the absorption of French customs and the French language. There are, however, three general musical areas, the Voltaic, Mande and Sahelian, which correspond fairly closely with the linguistic, ethnic and geographic divisions of the country, although such generalizations often misrepresent the degree of variation in musical styles.
The Voltaic area, made up of central, southern, eastern and south-western Burkina Faso, includes the following groups (fig.1): the Mossi, Gurma, Kurumba, Yarse, Bwa (Bobo), Lela (Lyela), Kasena, Nuna, Ko, Pwo (Pwẽ), Nankanse (Nankani), Birifor, Dagara, Lobi, Gan, Komono (Khisa), Sénoufo (Senufo), Karaboro, Gouin, Wara and Ble (Blé). These groups, as well as the Mande groups listed below, use gourd drums, hourglass tension drums, cylindrical and conical drums to perform complex interwoven rhythms based on ostinato-like figures. There is a strong emphasis on chanting, while solo singing is less common. The Birifor, Dagara, Lobi and Sénoufo also use xylophones, often for funeral music but also for recreation. These instruments usually have 14–18 keys with gourd resonators. The style and pitch of the instruments vary greatly across the region, with the northern instruments resembling the Malinké bala. There is very little information on the music of other Voltaic groups, such as the Bolon, Dorosie (Doghosié), Dyan, Pana, Natioro, Sambla, Siamou, Sisala, Kusasi (Kusaal), Tiefo, Vigye (Viemo), Wala (Dagaari Dioula), Tusia (Toussian), Turka, Nabe (Téén), Degha and Padoro (Kpatogo) from within Burkina Faso, but some studies exist from neighbouring countries such as Ghana.
The Mande area that constitutes western and north-western Burkina Faso includes the following ethnic groups: the Samo, Bisa (Bissa), Bobo, Dyula (Jula), Bobo-Dyula and Marka. Mande music is distinguished from Voltaic music by the emphasis placed on solo singers; chanting and chorus singing are secondary. Both Mande and Voltaic groups use music in the same or similar social and cultural situations.
The Sahelian area in northern Burkina Faso includes the following ethnic groups: the Fulani (Fula or Fulɓe), Bella, Tuareg and Songhay (Songhai). Their music shows prominent Saharan and Islamic influences in the use of melisma, a tense voice production and songs that often have a religious and moral content. The most commonly used instruments are the single-string plucked lute, the three-string plucked lute, the single-string fiddle, transverse bamboo flutes, oblique end-blown flutes and inverted gourd percussion vessels. Drums are rare, although the Songhay use hourglass tension drums and barrel drums, and some Fulani use hourglass tension drums and cylindrical drums. Hand-clapping and the use of inverted gourds and bracelets provide complex interwoven rhythms based on ostinato-like figures.
Musical patterns do overlap in these three cultural areas and extend beyond artificial international frontiers. Both Voltaic and Mande societies, but not Sahelian societies, use gourd drums, mirlitons, the bala, lamellophones, water-drums, gourd rattles, vertical end-blown flutes, trumpets, musical bows, raft zithers and harp-lutes (bridge-harps). Voltaic and Sahelian societies, but not Mande societies, use oblique end-blown flutes. In addition, many peoples from surrounding countries have settled in Burkina Faso, bringing their music with them. The Yoruba are found in urban communities, the Hausa in urban trade centres and in rural south-east Burkina Faso, the Dogon and the Somono in rural north-west Burkina Faso, and the Bamanakan and Bambara in the west of the country.
The most common occasions for music-making in most societies in Burkina Faso are name-giving celebrations, initiation rites, marriages, Christian, Islamic and animist religious rites and celebrations, funerals, post-funeral celebrations, agricultural and household work, harvest celebrations, and the praising of chiefs, elders and other important men and women. Drums, xylophones, flutes, rattles and iron plates struck with a ring are used to accompany singing and chanting for agricultural work. Household work done in rhythm and usually involving singing or hand-clapping includes grinding and pounding grain and leaves for food, pounding floors, weaving and spinning cotton, building and other work.
Most of the Voltaic and Mande languages are tonal so that messages and signals can be sounded on gourd, hourglass, conical and cylindrical drums. In many cases, especially with the xylophone, flutes and drums, music has a linguistic basis, so that even in the absence of singing or chanting, an underlying text is understood. Mossi musicians transmit the history of their empire, dating back to the 14th century, by the use of gourd, hourglass and cylindrical drums. This tradition may or may not be accompanied by a voice which translates the drum language.
In many groups in Burkina Faso, musicians form a professional caste and belong to families that specialize in one instrument or in one category of instruments. Mossi and Gurma drummers who belong to specialist families perform mainly in the courts of chiefs and pass on their tradition from generation to generation. Fulani professional musicians who perform on the three-string plucked lute travel extensively in the savanna of West Africa, singing the history of empires, chiefdoms and families, and praising men and women as a means of livelihood. On the other hand, many professional musicians in these and other societies do not belong to an accepted musical family.
Some of the finest and most renowned musicians are blind and have become musicians because of the lack of opportunities for other work. Many blind Mossi men and boys travel throughout Burkina Faso and the coastal countries to the south making a living by performing on fiddles and by singing historical accounts, praise-songs and songs of amusement. Most musicians are, however, amateurs and perform most often for amusement and village activities, such as work parties, marriages and name-giving celebrations usually involving dance.
The gourd drum is made from a spherical gourd with a large hole cut out and covered with goatskin (fig.2). The hourglass tension drum, the cylindrical drum and the conical drum are all made from a hollowed-out trunk or branch of a tree covered with goatskin or cowhide. The frame drum is made from rectangular slats of wood and goatskin and the barrel drum from a metal barrel covered with cowhide. The various kinds of drum can all be struck with one or two hands, with one hand and a stick (except gourd and frame drums), or with two sticks in the case of cylindrical and conical drums.
Bamboo transverse flutes and oblique end-blown flutes, which are made of millet stalk or a metal tube, have four finger-holes. Vertical end-blown flutes have one, two or three finger-holes, or none at all, and are all made of wood. Ocarinas are made of clay or a globular fruit and have one or two finger-holes. The gourd clarinet is made from a hollowed-out millet stalk with an idioglot reed, one finger-hole and two small gourd-resonators placed over the ends of the stalk (fig.3). Another clarinet is formed from a thinner hollowed-out millet stalk with an idioglot reed, no finger-holes and the right or left hand used as a resonating chamber. Trumpets are made of wood or of antelope or cow horn. Bullroarers and whirling discs are also used.
The stick zither is made from a solid millet stalk with a single idiochord string that is struck by a stick. The eight-string gourd-resonated zither and the twelve-string raft zither are made of millet stalks, the former with a large gourd-resonator attached beneath (fig.4). Harp-lutes with seven or twelve strings, plucked lutes and bowed harps have strings made of nylon, goat leather or wire. Harp-lutes in Burkina Faso are similar in construction to the Kora of Mali, Senegal, Guinea and The Gambia and, like bow harps, have a large gourd as resonator (fig.5). The one-string plucked lute has a tin can as a resonator, the two-string plucked lute a gourd-resonator and the three-string plucked lute a hollowed-out block of wood (fig.6). The single-string fiddle is made of a hemispherical gourd covered with an iguana skin and has a wooden neck; its strings and bow are made of horsehair. Musical bows can be mouth- or gourd-resonated. Struck idiophones include pentatonic xylophones, iron forks or plates struck with a ring or stick, wooden slit-drums, concussion sticks, percussion vessels made from inverted gourds, and water-drums. Shaken idiophones include gourd rattles, wickerwork rattles, metal-can rattles and suspension rattles of various kinds. Scraped idiophones include notched iron rods and plucked idiophones include lamellophones with five or 12 keys.
Xylophones are made with 12–21 wooden keys on a frame with a gourd-resonator attached beneath each key. These are struck with wooden sticks, the heads of which are traditionally covered with rubber, but the rubber is now frequently replaced by a disc cut from a truck tyre (fig.7). Mirlitons are made from membranes taken from a spider’s egg-case and glued over holes in the gourd-resonators of a xylophone to add a vibrating buzz. With the increase of concrete housing, the spider is becoming scarce and mirlitons are now often cut from a high-density plastic bag.
The ocarina, lamellophone, water-drum and stick zither are children's instruments. The water-drum is an inverted half-gourd placed in a larger gourd or pan containing water and struck with a spoon. The inverted half-gourd is struck with hands, elbows or fingers, or is rubbed with the hands. The five-key lamellophone is made from umbrella supports attached to a soundboard placed or fixed on to a tin can. The twelve-key lamellophone is similarly constructed with a larger can as resonator.
There is a strong Western music influence in Burkina Faso, especially in urban areas and trade centres where youths play Spanish guitars and perform in rock and highlife bands using electric guitars, electric pianos, saxophones, trumpets, flutes, drum kits, conga drums, güiro and maracas. Sometimes these musicians use traditional instruments such as the gourd rattle or the hourglass drum. They look to Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea and AfricanAmerica for inspiration, imitation and adaptation. Western popular music heard on radio or cassette has permeated traditional music and dance ensembles, even at the village level. Xylophone and drum ensembles, children’s singing groups using hand-clapping and the water-drum, as well as modern bands, perform their own versions of popular tunes.
National ensembles sponsored by the government have adapted traditional music and dance forms for theatre audiences in Burkina Faso, other African countries, Europe and America. Religious belief in the region is divided between animism, Christianity and Islam. Christian churches often adapt and use traditional musics. Traditional music and dance ensembles perform at government-sponsored competitions, regional fairs, youth weeks, Independence Day activities, state receptions and the public opening of new buildings. At the same time modern band leaders and musicians compose in new forms and adapt traditional songs and dances to popular music styles.
There are few traditional music apprentices today, and rapid social and economic changes are largely responsible for the orientation of the young people towards the modern urban culture with an almost total abandonment of traditional music, dance forms and styles in their traditional contexts. There is a growing awareness of the importance of cultural heritages. Some traditional music is preserved by semi-professional and cultural ensembles, and the influence of traditional styles is a continuing strand through much local popular music.
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Haute Volte, Ocora SOR 10 (1962)
Musiques du pays Lobi, Ocora OCR 51 (1970)
Savannah Rhythms: Music of Upper Volta, Nonesuch H-72087 (1981)
Rhythms of the Grasslands, Nonesuch 72090 (1983)
Dances of Burkina Faso: balafons, percussion, chanteurs de Bobo Dioulasso, Buda Records 82481-2 (1992)
Bolomakote, perf. Farafina, Intuition INT 2026 2 (1992)
Anka Dia: musique et chant de Burkina Faso, perf. Les Frères Coulibaly, Ethnic SAGA Label B6775 (1992)
Faso denou, perf. Farafina, RealWorld CAROL 2328-2 (1993)
Balafons & tambours d'Afrique, perf. Koko du Burkina Faso, PlayaSound PS 65101 (1993)
Balafons et tambours d'Afrique, perf. Sababougnouma, PlayaSound PS 65156 (1995)
JIM ROSELLINI/TREVOR WIGGINS