Introduction to concepts of human mass migration and the resulting traditional music,
martial arts, cultural resistance and resilience movements in the African diaspora. An
immersion class for middle school aged students.
This Rhythm-Moves learning extension uses:
-Live music (demonstrations and interactive playing with students utilizing provided world
percussion instruments) as "
- Capoeira - Afro-Brazilian dance/fight/game as well as the stick fight game called maculele
-Story telling (virtual global immersion experience through multi-media video's, pictures, and
song), lyric (examples of epic poetry/griot tradition), from both Africa and the America's
(investigations into Africa's oral history and spiritual traditions in the 1960's and beyond by
Afro-American musical and performance artists)
-Play (interactive game of capoeira, it's songs, movements, disquise (mandginga). explorations
of various examples of slavery's reverberations on different societies throughout modern
history with regards to government, industry, art, language, commerce, language, religion and
demographics.
Mass migrations of Africans and examples of the resulting cultural and musical traditions of
North and South America and the Caribbean.
Examples: Mako Jumbi, carnival, festivals of saint veneration, condomble', New Orleans "third
line" tradition, revival
-Fela Kuti' Afro-beat, Jazz, Bob Marley and Reggae influence
zouk, soca, calypso, Jamaican dancehall, jazz, gospel
Relative to North America - Interactive worksheets illustrating the correlation and
connections between contemporary American hip-hop and various Carribean musical traditions
as well as spoken word, poetic lyric/structures and oral history/griot traditions of West Africa.
Ex. Marcus Garvey and early Pan-African movements, marooned peoples and newly freed
slaves, the correlation of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie's coronation as the "King of Kings,
Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah."
Live musical examples, dance and movement, archival footage from electronic sources,
Relative to South America : Brazil
Interactive worksheets, live demonstration, multi-media examples. Students will explore the
fundementals of the artform and it's development by enslaved Africans in Brazil. Additionally,
students will gain insight into the physical, spiritual, socio-cultural and re-creational lives of
Africans both before and during enslavement through three main facets:
Songs - how lyrics act as disquised instructions of how to escape slavery and navigate the
routes to freedom
-correlation to concept of underground railroad in United States.
Song Examples to be interpreted/deciphered :
"Sao Bento Mi Chama" - use of religious symbolism, disquised African religions in saint
veneration; religions of Condomble, Santeria, Vodun, Orisha, Yoruba
"Sim Sim Sim" - use of song to convey messages of hope, self and group empowerment, humor,
and cultural heritage.
"Hey Parana" - song that identifies that the river Parana was the route to freedom that existed
in the quilombos of Brazil's western jungle.
Demonstration of instruments and their correlation to cultural resilience:
Berimbau - (based on traditional instrument from Swaziland)
Pandero - Tamborine like drum
Agogo Bell - Based on traditional West African "double bell"
Atabaque Drum - Based on traditional West African drum, using organic regional materials
caxixi - shaker made of organic woven shell and beads inside, used alone or with berimbau
Capoeira - numerous elements of the game taken from different facets of African life and
culture - Zebra Dance, impersonation of animal movements, Chamada (to call someone to
play), call and response, oral history, geography and concepts of group/individual reciprocity.
Samba- culture of group drum and dance, carnival, societal release valve as a way of
maintaining function.