2LP by SUBLIME FREQUENCIES USA 2015
LP is sold out

Music of Tanzania is a spectacular collection of field recordings gathered by Laurent Jeanneau between December 1999 and March 2000. This debut volume of Sublime Frequencies' exploration of indigenous Tanzanian music compiles sacred and profane songs and dances of the Hadza, Datoga, and Makonde people. Highlights include stoned ecstatic dancing in a Hadza encampment; a drunken celebration of preteen sexual initiation from a Makonde fishing village; baboon imitations performed on the malimba; electrified Islamic trance percussion; and useful tips for amateur hyrax hunters. Many of these poignant, exhilarating performances come from dwindling minority groups whose way of life stretches back to the Stone Age, and who are capable of creating breathtaking music with anything from agricultural tools to tin cans and plastic tubes. Laurent Jeanneau is absolutely fearless in his pursuit of rare, exceptional and vibrant performances. He views his ongoing documentation of ethnic minority music as an act of resistance to globalization, state-sanctioned "peasant traditions," and cultural homogeneity, and accordingly spends months living under harsh and dangerous conditions in order to capture impromptu performances in their everyday cultural context. Using this method, Jeanneau has self-produced almost 100 albums preserving threatened musical traditions from some of the most remote regions on earth, in addition to compiling multiple volumes for Sublime Frequencies.

released April 28, 2015

ETHNIC MINORITIES MUSIC OF TANZANIA

LP 1 NORTHERN TANZANIA

Tanzania got its name in 1964, 3 years after it gained its independence from British colonization, 120 ethnic groups co-exist and Swahili is the official language, allowing the different groups to communicate with each others. Starting end of the 60s the government of Tanzania tried to change the life styles of various ethnic groups.

The HADZAs, the last Bushmen (hunters-gatherers) who live in the bassin of the Eyasi lake (a salted lake) were compiled to settle down, they were given grain and tools to cultivate the land. The settling program has failed and the Hadzas, who have no agriculture spirit, have returned to the bush and their primitive state. In 1999 the Hadzas were approximately 1000 over a territory that goes from the south of Oldeani ( where very ancient human bones were found) to the southern side of EYASI lake bassin.
Other tribes have settled in the region after the climatic phenomena "El Nino" made the environing land fertile again, like the DATOGAs (also called the Mangati : the enemies of the Maasai) with their herds of cattle, and others (Irawk, Mbulu) who practice various forms of cultivation. The drought had chased the game away towards the nearby national park of Serengeti, agriculture did the rest, for the Hadzas whose way of life dates back to the stone ages, the battle is lost, they have no social or political organization. They gather in small groups of approximately 25 persons, they own next to nothing and find shelter in rudimentary huts made from branches and animal skins, meant to protect people and fire from the rain. Some of them have already been gained by the fascination of modernity and booze (the pombe produced with corn by the sedentary members of other tribes) has led them to all kind of disasters!
The DATOGAs are nilotic people with 7 sub groups, estimated 88 000 people in year 2000. Men wear their reddish blankets and carry long spears like the Maasai, many men and women have scarified dots around the eyes, herding goats but mostly cattle and farming onions and corn. Nothing is simple and if they are seen by the bushmen as invaders, the Datogas are also victims of other stronger ethnic groups or people in power who might steal their lands and oppress them !


A SIDE
HADZA Men play (with various talents) the MALIMBA (small metal tongues attached to a wooden resonance box) or the ZEZE (a single-stringed fiddle with a gourd as resonance box played with a bow). Similar themes come up, on various tempi, played solo or with singing, frequently taking place in the hot afternoon, resting under the shade of the trees or at night by the fire. Both instruments belong to other local tribes (MBULU, DATOGA). Recorded in Mangola and Gilgoa.
1 SITOTI plays MALIMBA with the rhythm of people walking.
2 SITOTI plays MALIMBA imitating the swaggering walk of the baboon and sings : " a thorn has hurt my foot / a thorn has hurt my foot / a thorn has hurt my foot / take it out soon or it will get much worse (repeated) / at the end other people say : this man really plays well ! / this marijuana is really strong !
3 MALIMBA and SONG the malimba is modified by a metal chain that jingles on all the tongues, bringing about extra harmonics. A game with children, one person hides an object and the others have to find it : 'there s nothing here, my friend / there s nothing there / keep looking till you find it / ah you found it.
4 SITOTI plays MALIMBA and sings in IRAWK language : this land is ruined / you woman Homari / don t stand up, sit down / this man here is Gisanoga / Gisanoga has seen us / our food is kongolobe / here there are no kongolobe / kongolobe, kongolobe / this man is Gisanoga / he has cut the kongolobe / just to make a boma (fence around a farm in swahili) for his cows. Gisanoga is a Datoga name, Hadzas often complain that pastoralists destroy many berry-bushes to make their cattle enclosures.
5 ZEZE and SONG early at night, while about 10 people prepare the dik dik meat around the fire, gradually several men join in the singing. " everyone sing together / kid : don t hold the zeze so tight, it won t sing, hold it lightly.
Song : Hyrax (a small furry animal) hunting is for the brave / the hyrax lives in a rocky cave / if you hit him, he ll run and hide / if you reach down deep inside / you may find a snake instead / if it bites you you ll be dead / remember if your life you d save / hyrax hunting is for the brave / when there is no food at home / you ll never have to search alone / 2 birds will help you without fail / while you forage on the trail / the woodpecker s alarm will sound / whenever danger is around / the honeyguide will lead your feet / to all the honey you can eat / before you smoke a stone pipe / put some little stones in it / then you won t suck hot ashes into your lungs… / kid : what shall i do, dance ? the music is ready

B SIDE
The Hadza NGOMA (Swahili term for musical ceremony) performed at moonless nights are animist ceremonies called EPEME in hadza language aiming to a collective trance that liaises with the world of ancestors, lasting from 5 to 10 hours. Everyone is fairly drunk in complete darkness, men take turn to dance and the women sing, the dancer wears an ostrich feather in his hair and metal bells or rattles at his ankles, the women try to guess who is dancing. Children are excluded. Recorded in Mangola s Matayo s camp.
1 HADZA EPEME The rain has fallen since ancient times it falls on the forest mountain of Oldeani / it supplies the Chemchem springs that we use / the springs that never dry up / hey mama why are you sleeping instead of singing ? /this spring is our good luck / without this we could not live here / without this we would not be so many in this country / such is the work of our fathers and mothers. (the spring is a metaphor for the vagina)
This is not a spring that everyone can see, it s secret / if women stay together in a group, even if they are naked , men will fear to approach them / and if men stay together in a group even if they are naked the women will fear to approach them / this was taught to us by Haine ( the first man/god/creator) / if men are putting on their clothes and ornaments, women are not allowed to look / they can only look when the men are on the dance floor / in this dance they are our fathers, brothers, sons and husbands / when we dance the Epeme we dance in the darkness of the night / woman can know who is dancing / but they cannot say / this is just a secret of Haine who taught us / children go to sleep / this dance is only for adults to see / if you see the ostrich plumes on our heads / if you hear the iron bells on our ankles / you will think it s a spirit and be afraid !
2 HADZA EPEME The starry sky reveals silhouettes dancing in the dark, there is a man still stomping and a polyphony involving a variable numbers of participants has set up while dawn is about to break…
in the camp of the Hadzabe everyone is asleep / but a dog has smelt something and is barking / dog get out of the way so we can shoot / look what is that out there ? / i m going to shoot it anyway / a woman says : sing bwana sing ! / kids shut up you can t look at the dancers (kids are sitting together away from the dance floor)
the dancing man asks : who am I ? / we don t know, reply the women / because you can t guess, i ll tell you I m a crazy person ! (It s Matayo the head of this camp, quite drunk)
3 HADZA BERIMBAU (Brazilian term) a percussive stringed instrument hit by a wooden stick on one metallic string attached to both extremities of a wooden bow attached to a gourd as resonator with 2 men singers and little stones inside a can shaken by one singer.
4 DATOGA troubadour or griot (west african term) a man plays his 2 stringed fiddle while singing, entertaining crowds in a market in Endamagay
5 DATOGA dance, 4 women are jumping, clapping hands and singing and one is using an harmonica.

LP 2 SOUTHERN TANZANIA

C SIDE
The MAKONDE were 1.3 million people in southeast Tanzania and Northern Mozambique (over a million on Tanzanian side) in 2000. Traditionally a matrilineal society with animist beliefs, they belong to the BANTU ethno-liguistic family and have managed for centuries to stay away from Islamization. The Makonde village of RAVULA outside of MTWARA town being right on the cost of the Indian ocean is a fishermen s village.
The MAKONDE ceremony is a celebration of the end of sexual initiation of young girls, 12 years old girls are taken for a week to a remote area by older women who teach them sex and how to handle a wooden dildo in their vagina, the party taking place is a gathering of all members of this fishermen community in Ravula village (about 100 people), fueled by limitless consumption of local fermented corn alcohol (something in between beer and porridge). The drums are ordinary plastic containers, the metallic percussions are ordinary agriculture tools and they also use various one meter long plastic tubes like didgeridoos for the bass frequencies, with some women singing, the party lasting several days often reach a kind of exuberant trance.

D SIDE
The majority of the population of southern Tanzanian province of MTWARA is Muslim. In comparison to C side, the MUSLIM ceremony taking place all night long in the small town of Msimbati is codified, following muslim religious principles, prohibiting alcohol and sexual frenzy. It is still a very trancy gathering of about 1500 people with religious prayers being chanted through an electrified sound system with an arabic flavored flute being played, to go along with an ensemble of percussions of various sizes and large choirs of young girls all dressed in white , gradually evolving into a faster tempo with the young singing girls dancing faster.

The 5 tracks of A side and tracks 1,2 on B side were previously released on a double CD (sold out) on the french label Musique du Monde / buda musique in 2003. Songs translation : from Hadza to Swahili by Guido, from Swahili to English by David Bygott.
RECORDED BY LAURENT JEANNEAU between December 1999 and March 2000. This project was achieved thanks to JAMES STEPHENSON author of the book " the language of the Land, living among the Hadzabe in Africa" (St Martin s press, New York 2000) and the hero of the Discovery Channel documentary " Poison Arrow" in 2000. My american friend James is a very special fearless man who enjoyed being wild with those local Tanzanian ethnic minority people and shared with me his contacts developed through the 90s. Without him I would have not gone and discovered those areas and lived the way we did, always sleeping outside, getting drunk, stoned, half starving, walking through the heat, the rain, experiencing this environment the hard way no tourist wish to suffer like that… There are nowadays lots of tourist reports on internet displaying their holidays videos, stepping out of the 4 wheel drive safari cars with driver, with clean clothes, coming to see real savages, spending an hour trying bow and arrows in between a good meal and taking photos of giraffe and lions in a national park, where Hadzas have to sneak illegally in order to feed themselves. You can only understand people once you ve shared their way of life, even if James and me always had the option to leave after loosing kilos in the bush, we walked with them, James played the hunter and spoke broken swahili with them and they respected him for coming back every year.
Photos by James Stephenson