Beni (music)

Beni dance performed in the Mangochi District of southern Malawi

Beni, also spelled Mbeni,[1] is an indigenized East African form of brass band music and dance.[2] The word beni derives from the English word "band."[3] Beni appropriated symbols of colonial authority such as military drill, uniforms, and elaborate hierarchies.[4]

The beni ngoma is a competitive dance genre based on a military drill performed to brass band music. The corresponding Beni dance was developed during the colonial era and mimicked military and colonial traditions with Africanized music and movement of the dancers.[5][6] This kind of dance to brass music may also include Swahili songs.[4][7] It is a popular form of wedding entertainment with a strong focus on rhythm and dance, and audience participation.

History

Military brass band of the Kaiser's Schutztruppe in German East Africa, 1901

Brass band music was performed in German East Africa[8] and for British audiences in East Africa during colonial times. Further, it was also used by missionaries to introduce European culture to young people, for example in Zanzibar.

Beni had its origins in urban Swahili communities on the Kenyan coast in the 1890s,[9] where it came to be part of the culture of competitions between neighbourhood cultural associations.[10] Beni musicians used large military drums and brass instruments to interpret their new popular musical genre according to indigenous ngoma rhythms.[8] According to ethnomusicologists Vander Biesen and De Beukelaer, the way Beni adapted European marching brass bands was an expression of the culture of upinzani (literally, the habit of opposition).[8]

Around 1914, the style spread to Tanga and Dar es Salaam. The first accounts of Beni in Nyasaland date to around 1918. During the First World War, Beni was danced by askari soldiers.[11] Prisoners of war also danced it in the detention camp at Zomba in Malawi, and by detachments of the 2nd KAR when they returned to Nairobi.[9] Beni dancers were also instrumental in structured communication during the 1935 Copperbelt strike in Northern Rhodesia.[5][4]: 139 

As Beni was adapted by Africans, western instruments were sometimes exchanged with local instruments, and march time was replaced by African cross beats and polyrhythm.[12] In Kenya, for example, wooden wind instruments were substituted for western trumpets.[13]

At the same time, in the late colonial period, Beni was a way for young people to express their independence.[9][4] In 20th-century Zanzibar, Beni has been performed both as a street parade and stationary as a wedding dance.[14] As Beni had never been as popular there as on the Swahili coast, the performance of a Beni band at the Sauti za Busara Festival 2009 was called an invented tradition for a tourist audience.[8]

In 21-st century Dar es Salaam, so-called Matarumbeta (trumpets) bands with brass instruments, percussion and large marching drums have been playing for weddings and other joyous occasions.[15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Muthini, Charles, Danson Siminyu, and Kenya Presidential National Music Commission. (2007). "Mbeni: dance of the Akamba". search.worldcat.org. Nairobi: Permanent Presidential Music Commission. Retrieved 2024-11-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ Manuh, Takyiwaa; Sutherland-Addy, Esi (2013). Africa in contemporary perspective: a textbook for undergraduate students (1. publ ed.). Oxford: Sub Saharan Publ. p. 447. ISBN 9789988647377.
  3. ↑ The Garland Handbook of African Music. p. 305.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Ranger, T. O. (2023-04-28). Dance and Society in Eastern Africa 1890–1970: The Beni Ngoma. University of California Press. doi:10.2307/jj.2711640. ISBN 978-0-520-32836-5.
  5. 1 2 Freund, Bill (2016). The Making of Contemporary Africa: The Development of African Society Since 1800. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-137-60620-4.
  6. ↑ Ranger, Terence O. (1975). Dance and Society in Eastern Africa, 1890–1970: The Beni Ngoma. University of California Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-520-02729-9.
  7. ↑ Brucher, Katherine (15 April 2016). Brass Bands of the World: Militarism, Colonial Legacies, and Local Music Making. Routledge. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-317-17266-6.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Vander Biesen, Ivan; De Beukelaer, Christiaan (January 2014). "Tourism and Imagining Musical Traditions on the East African Coast: Harmony and Disharmony" (PDF). World of Music. 3 (1): 133–54 – via researchgate.net.
  9. 1 2 3 McCracken, John (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859–1966. Woodbridge, Suffolk (GB). pp. 156–158. ISBN 978-1-78204-028-6. OCLC 815390658.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ↑ Playing with identities in contemporary music in Africa. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet in cooperation with The Sibelius Museum/Dept. of Musicology, Åbo Akademi University, Finland. 2002. p. 171. ISBN 9789171064967.
  11. ↑ Garofalo, Reebee (1992). Rockin' the Boat: Mass Music and Mass Movements. South End Press. ISBN 978-0-89608-427-8.
  12. ↑ Antwi, Patrick Awuah (2013). Africa in Contemporary Perspective: A Textbook for Undergraduate Students. Accra, Ghana: Sub Saharan Publishers. ISBN 9789988647490.
  13. ↑ The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 1. Routledge. 11 January 2013. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-136-09570-2.
  14. ↑ McIntyre, Chris; McIntyre, Susan (2013). Zanzibar. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 978-1-84162-458-7.
  15. ↑ "The Tarumbeta Brass Tradition of Dar es Salaam – World Music Central". worldmusiccentral.org. Retrieved 2026-06-19.

Literature


This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.