The migration of Guinean artists to Mexico and the Afro Urban identities around West African dance and percussion

Authors

  • Igael González Sánchez Universidad Pedagógica Nacional

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the appropriations of Guinean folklore related to the emergence of an afromestiza identity in Mexico. It also analyzes the role played by Guinean performers and instructors living in Mexico and teaching West African dances and music. By gathering participant observation notes and conducting ethnographic interviews, the paper builds up an interpreting path to better understand the global circulation of traditions and their resigni cation by local and indigenous players. Several contradictions arise between the community practicing dance and percussion in Guinea and the role of instructors as professionals or cultural specialists, conceived as critical agents in channeling musical heritage of the population in a global scenario.

Keywords:

musical migrations, African emigrants, afro-mestizo identity, African traditional music

References

Adepoju, A. (1995). Emigration Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa. International Migration, 33(3–4), 313–390. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1995.tb00032.x

Adepoju, A. (2003). Migration in West Africa. Development, 46(3), 37–41. https://doi. org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1110465

Alencar, A. E. (2009). Dançando novas africanidades [Universidade Federal de Santa Cata- rina]. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/92399

Appadurai, A. (2001). La modernidad desbordada. Dimensiones culturales de la globaliza- ción. Buenos Aires: FCE/Trilce.

Argiriadys, K. (2011). “Formas de organización de los actores y modos de circulación de las prácticas y los bienes simbólicos”. En: En sentido contrario, editado por Kali Argyriadis, Stefania Capone, Renée de la Torre y André Mary, (pp.49–61). Méxi- co: Publicaciones de la Casa Chata, CIESAS.

Ávila, F., Pérez, R. & Rinaudo, C. (2013). Circulaciones culturales. Lo afrocaribeño entre Cartagena, Veracruz y La Habana. México: Publicaciones de la Casa Chata.

Barrero, C. F. (2017). Djembé chilango. La escena de la música de África del Oeste en la Ciu- dad de México. México: Ediciones UNAM.

Bennet, A., & Peterson, R. (2004). Music Scenes. Vanderbilt Place, Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.

Casteal, D. B. (2010). Breaking the circle: The migration and return of the jembe. A qua- litative study of the exportation of the jembe and its impact on the role of the jembe and drumming education in West Africa [Capella University]. En: Pro- Quest Dissertations and Theses. http://search.proquest.com/docview/74122444 5?accountid=10217

Castellanos, A. (2010a). El devenir de la tradición: la danza del dundumba en los con- textos rurales y urbanos de Guinea. Regiones, Suplemento de Antropología, 40, 21–25. http://www.suplementoregiones.com/suplementos/040/a03.html

Castellanos, A. (2010b). Procesos de continuidad y cambio en la música mandinga de Guinea. Tesis de Licenciatura en Antropología. México: Escuela Nacional de Antropolo- gía e Historia.

Charry, E. (1996). A Guide to the Jembe. Percusive Notes, 34(2), 66–72.

Citro, S. & Aschieri, P. (2012). El multiculturalismo en los cuerpos y las paradojas de la desigualdad poscolonial. Boletín de Antropología, 25 (42), pp. 102–128. http:// aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/boletin/article/view/11227

Cohen, J. (2012). Stages in Transition: Les Ballets Africains and Independence, 1959 to 1960. Journal of Black Studies, 43 (1). https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934711426628

Dor, W. K. (2014). West African Drumming and Dance in North American Universities: An Eth- nomusicological Perspective (1st ed.). Missisippi: University Press of Missisippi.

Ebron, P. A. (2002). Performing Africa. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. El-Bejjani, C. H. (2016). Guinea’s Demysti cation Era and The Ballets Africains de la Répu-
blique de Guineé’s "The Sacred Forest". New York: State University of New York. Erlmann, V. (1996). The Aesthetics of the Global Imagination: Re ections on World Music
in the 1990s. Public Culture, 8, 467–487.

Flaig, V. H. (2010). The politics of representation and transmission in the globalization of
Guinea’s djembe [University of Michigan]. http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/75801

Gaudette, P. (2013). Jembe Hero: West African Drummers, Global Mobility and Cosmo- politanism as Status. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 39(2), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2013.723259

Groelsema, R. J. (1998). The Dialectics of Citizenship and Ethnicity in Guinea. Source: Afri- ca Today, 45(34), 411–421. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4187236

Jahn, J.(1954) Las culturas Neoafricanas. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Hannerz, U. (1996), Conexiones transnacionales. Cultura, gente, lugares. Madrid: Cátedra.

Hirai, S. (2012). “Sigue los símbolos del terruño”: etnografía multilocal y migración trans- nacional. En: Métodos cualitativos y su aplicación empírica. Por los caminos de la investigación sobre migracion internacional (pp. 82–111). Instituto de Investiga- ciones Sociales - El Colegio de la Frontera Norte.

Kokelaere, F., & Saïdani, N. (1997). 90: Les années djembé. Percussions, 54(nov-dic), np. http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher/Music/kokelaere/index.html

Luna, F. (2010). The Structural and Cultural Factors that Shaped the Emergence of a Cultural Afro-Mestizo Identity in the Colectivo Maiz Negro (CMN). The Berkeley McNair Research Journal, 17(Spring), 87–102.

Marcus, G. E. (2001). Etnografía en/del sistema mundo. El surgimiento de la etnogra- fía multilocal. Alteridades, 11(22), 111–127. http://www.redalyc.org/resumen. oa?id=74702209

Martínez, L. M. (1993). La cultura africana: Tercera raíz. En: Bon l Batalla, G. (Ed.), Sim- biosis de Culturas (pp. 111–180). México: CONACULTA - FCE.

Mendívil, J. & Spencer, C. (2016). "Debating genre, class and identity: Popular music and music scenes from the Latin American World”. En: Mendívil, J. y Spencer, C. (eds.) Made in Latin America: Studies in Popular Music. New York: Rutledge.

Ortiz, F. (1983). Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y del azúcar. La Habana: Editorial de Cien- cias Sociales.

Polak, R. (2000). A Musical Instrument Travels Around the World: Jenbe Playing in Ba- mako, West Africa, and Beyond. The World of Music, 42(3), 7–46. http://www. jstor.org/stable/41692764

Polak, R. (2005). Drumming for Money and Respect. En: Jansen, J. & Wooten, S. (Eds.). Wari Matters: Ethnographic Explorations of Money in the Mande World (pp. 135– 161). LIT.

Polak, R. (2012). Urban Drumming Traditional Jembe Celebration Music in a West African City (Bamako). En: E. S. Charry (Ed.), Hip Hop Africa: New African Music in a Glo- balizing World (pp. 261–315). Indiana University Press.

Quintero, A. G. (2005). El debate sociedad-comunidad en la sonoridad. El desafío de las músicas “mulatas” a la modernidad eurocéntrica convencional. En: Mato, D. (Ed.), Cultura, política y sociedad Perspectivas latinoamericanas (pp. 267–282). CLACSO. http://www.clacso.org.ar/biblioteca r

Raout, J. (2009). Au rythme du tourisme. Cahiers d’études africaines, 193-194(1), 175–202. http://www.cairn.info/article.php?ID_ARTICLE=CEA_193_0175

Robertson, R. (2000). “Glocalización: tiempo-espacio y homogeneidad- heterogeneidad”. Zona Abierta, 92–93, 213-242.

Ross, A. (2008). The Changing Faces of Drum and Dance in Senegal---jembe and Sabar Re- pertoire in Traditional and Contemporary Contexts, from Dakar to Boston. Pro- Quest.

Singer, M. (1974). When a Great Tradition modernizes. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.

Talmor, R. (2012). Masks, Elephants, and Djembe Drums: Craft as Historical Experience in Ghana. The Journal of Modern Craft, 5(3), 295–319. https://doi.org/10.2752/17 4967812X13511744764480

Wosenyelesh, M. (2006). Modern-day Griots: Imagining Africa, Choreographing Experience, in a West African Performance in New York. New York: The City University of New York.