The guitar is not new to Africa. Its story is rich and diverse, influenced by various cultures and traditions. Portable, rugged, versatile, and relatively easy to construct, the guitar has thrived in African settings to the point where today it is among the most pervasive instruments continent-wide, second only to the drum.
African Drums
Early Influences and the Spread of the Guitar
The Portuguese brought the guitar to Angola and Mozambique early on. Likewise, the spread of Muslim culture brought the 'ud around the coasts and along the trade routes. The 'ud is the twin of the Renaissance lute (it's the same word; lute = al'ud) and grandpappy of the guitar as we now pick it (via Spain). Popular belief is that Portuguese sailors visiting the port city of Lourenço Marques in Mozambique during the late 19th century introduced the acoustic guitar in Africa.
The popularity of the guitar in Africa probably corresponded with the widespread 19th century adoption of this originally Spanish instrument in Europe and America, and was subsequently introduced to Africa during the late 19th century in a variety of possible ways. Whatever the route, the initial Africanisation of the guitar was carried out by the Kru or Kroo people of southern Liberia who, because of their maritime experience as long distance fishermen, had been employed on European sailing ships from the late 18th century. Onboard ship they played the light portable instruments of fellow sailors (accordions, harmonicas, penny whistles, etc) - and in the case of the guitar they developed a distinct West African two-finger plucking technique and seminal riffs and songs such as Mainline, Fireman and Dagomba Wiya. These they disseminated in their 19th and early 20 century Kroo-Town settlements which they established in the port towns of the Atlantic seaboard of Africa as far south as Angola.
In Ghana this coastal style was first recorded in the 1920’s (by George Wiliam Aingo and Jacob Sam/Kwame Asare) and spread inland during the 1930’s where it was influenced by the music of the local seprewa harp-lute, so producing a distinct regional rustic style called Odonson (or Akan Blues or Palmwine Music).
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As a result, the increasing Muslim community settlements in Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Senegal and other West African countries in the early 20th century spread guitar playing in the region. In the early 1900s, members of the Liberian and Ivorian Kru ethnic groups working on European ships passed the time by playing instruments, including acoustic guitars.
The Pioneers of African Guitar Music
Mwenda Jean Bosco
A prime figure in this new sound was a young self-taught guitarist from Katanga province in the Belgian Congo (now Shaba in Zaire) called Mwenda Jean Bosco. He was "discovered" by the musicologist Hugh Tracey in 1949 and in four recording sessions between 1952 and 1962 he literally recorded 78 records (156 titles) which influenced guitarists and singers throughout Africa. Bosco played acoustic guitar (known in Africa as box or dry guitar) with a capo at the fifth fret to give the strings a clear, bright zing, and he picked with his thumb and first finger.
His top string figures counterbalance bass runs and passages in sixths filling in between the vocals, and all played with precision and bounce. It sounds similar to ragtime picking in its technique, and via record Bosco influenced the white ragtime folk guitarists in the 1960s.
Dr. Nico
When Jimi Hendrix passed through Paris on one of his tours, a guitarist he was keen to meet was Nicolas Kasanda wa Mikalay - the Congolese fingerpicking electric guitar master more widely known as Dr. Nico, or to many across mid-20th century Africa, L’ Eternel Docteur Nico. At around the same time that “Clapton is God” graffiti was appearing on London walls, Africans were calling Dr. Nico the Guitar God.
In 1960, his native country - what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo - won its freedom from Belgian colonial rule. The people were ready to celebrate their liberation. Dr. Nico helped forge the soundtrack for that party, initially as a guitarist for Le Grand Kalle et l’African Jazz, called the first great Congolese band. He was only 14 when he first joined Kalle in 1953, and played lead guitar on the group’s iconic 1960 single, Independence Cha Cha.
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What Charlie Christian is to American jazz guitar, Dr. Nico is to Africa’s vibrant guitar legacy - an originator and innovator. He played a major role in the creation of the unique, three-guitar style heard in Congolese rumba and subsequent genres such as soukous.
Franco Luambo Makiadi
A major force in Congolese music is Franco (alias Luambo Makiadi) with his Orchestra TP OK Jazz. Starting in the late 1950s with the Orchestra African Jazz, alongside Rochereau (aka Tabu Ley) and Dr Nico, he evolved an electric guitar style which drew heavily on Bosco and on traditional thumb-piano music, where he would play riffs in sixths. The style hasn't changed much in itself, but instead remains consistent as Franco continually modernises his bands' sound.
There’s a well known photo of Dr. Nico stylishly dressed in a blue blazer and tie, white shirt and trousers, leaning on the front grille of bright red 1965 Plymouth Barracuda and holding a Egmond Typhoon electric guitar - a cheap Dutch import - in a matching shade of red. Other photos show him with a blond German archtop and a white Hofner solidbody. None of these are great guitars, obviously, but Dr. Nico embraced their lo-fi tonalities to create a wild and beguiling range of guitar timbres. He’s known for introducing things like tremolo and reverb into African guitar music.
Actually, Dr. Nico is one of two great Congolese guitar originators. The other is Franco Luambo Makiadi, leader of the group TPOK Jazz. Both were boldly innovative and much-imitated stylists - the Hendrix and Clapton of their time and place. But where Franco was a bit more geared toward using the electric guitar to emulate traditional African instruments, Dr. Nico dove head-first into the fuzzy, tremoloed-out, mid-century modernism of the electric guitar.
Regional Styles and Genres
Congolese Rumba and Soukous
Congolese bands have the blend of guitars off to a fine art: their guitars form an intricate web of overlaid patterns. Most Congolese (aka Zaïrois) songs are divided into two parts which conveniently fit on side A and side B of a single. Part one is the slower, more romantic; part two the serious dancing, more flamboyant, up-tempo section in which the guitarists take off. Somewhere in part two there will be a "drop-out" which is where the rhythmist comes to the fore, because it's just the rhythm guitar and skeletal drums for the pulse.
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The major recording centre for modern Congolese music is now Paris and there is a "studio Mafia" of guitarists who give records their distinctive sound. The lead guitar is very clean (modern Fender-type out-of-phase sound DI into the desk with slight chorus and flanging to distinguish the various layers).
In the '70s and '80s, the Congolese rumba music of Dr. Nico and his contemporaries became the basis for soukous, which would foster phenomenal guitarists like Diblo Dibala - known as “Machine Gun” for the rapid-fire accuracy of his playing. Soukous, in turn, spawned the stylish dance genres kwasa kwasa and zouk.
Highlife
The west coast of Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, mainly) is home to the many different forms of Highlife. "Highlife" itself is the name of a dance originating in the bourgeois nightclubs or in the streets, depending on whose history you follow.
Juju Music
From Nigeria comes JuJu music, based in Yoruba tradition, but with practitioners such as Sunne Adé, Segun Adewale, Dele Abiodun and Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey the sound is aggressively modern. The guitars play picked patterns; for example, the rhythm and tenor players will rhythmically outline the chord of A minor while the lead guitar runs up and down the pentatonic scale of A minor (A C D E G A) rather like the way a blues player would use a lead break.
Chimurenga Music
In recent years, a whole new style of guitar music has developed in Zimbabwe through the efforts of Thomas Mapfumo and his band The Blacks Unlimited. Although they originally started playing cover versions of American music and "progressive" rock (Grand Funk Railroad, Jethro Tull...), during the independence struggle they evolved a new music - Chimurenga or "liberation" music - drawing on the mbira (thumb-piano) tradition but using electric guitars and full band.
Mbaqanga Music
Mbaqlanqa music features guitarists who play machine-gun licks of paired notes like Chuck Berry sped up to an incredible pace. Usually there is just one guitarist who uses a very hard, bright sound with few or no FX and who whizzes up and down the fretboard like greased lightning. It there is a rhythm guitar the player will put in chopped chords marking the beats.
Mbaqanga Music
East African Benga Music
My own favourite guitar playing comes from East Africa. It's the music of the Luo people of West Kenya, and they play their version of the East African Benga music. Its sparks and velocity make you want to check the record deck. And, yes, it is playing at the right speed.
The Role of the Rhythm Guitarist
You know what a rhythm guitarist is, don't you? Well, maybe where you live, but not in Africa. In Africa the rhythm guitarist is a prized player, fundamental to the swing and groove of the band. The rhythm guitarist often plays lots more notes than the lead guitarist. Lead guitarists may get to play lying down, strum with their teeth and generally pose more, but the rhythm guitarist is the backbone.
Rhythm guitarists will hardly ever play six-string chords. Instead, they'll play a complex rhythm pattern of single notes recurring in a sequence (rather like piano playing in Latin/Salsa bands, from which source there is some influence). BETWEEN the lead and rhythm guitarists there are often other guitarists - in West Africa they are called tenor guitarists; in Zaire and French-speaking Africa they are called mi-solo players.
The tenor players provide a counter-rhythm guitar part in a higher register with a harder sound than the rhythmist.
The Graveyard of Lost Guitars
Of course you don't really need any special guitar or FX to play "African" (apart, perhaps, from the beloved Copicat). There is a preference for the Fender sound, but anything will do. For many of the players, owning an instrument is an impossibility. There isn't the outrageous selection that we have available to us in Britain, and if there is gear available it's often ridiculously expensive.
This means that any guitar is treasured, and many guitars are still around that were last seen in Europe 20 years ago. It's truly the Graveyard of Lost Guitars: all those Hofners with rows of push-in switches, Egmonds, Burns, Ekos, Fenton-Weills, plenty of false mother-of-pearl inlay and whammy-bars. Beat group fugitives. And they all sound marvellous in the heat.
Basic Chords
Here are some basic chords that can be used as a sequence or transposed as needed:
- BASIC THREE-NOTE C: Use the first three chords here as a sequence, or move this one up and down as needed. You could let the G ring.
- BASIC TOP-STRING F: Again, could be used transposed in any position. Just play the top four strings.
- BASIC "INSIDE" G: The last of this simple sequence - just play the inside four strings, hence the terminology.
Here are some all-purpose chords:
- ALL-PURPOSE CHORD I: As this stands, it's a G9. Play the D-string (G) and it suggests a C. Play the B- and E-string (F and A) and it suggests an F. G and B (D and F) suggest G7.
- ALL-PURPOSE CHORD II: As it stands, Dm9. Play the B- and E-string (C and E) and it suggests a C. Play the G- and B-string (F and C) and it suggests F. The D- and G-string (D and F) suggest G7.
African Guitar Today
African guitarists are now beginning to earn widespread recognition, and their work is sure to have further impact around the world in years to come. Paul Simon drew upon guitarists Ray Phiri of South Africa and Vincent Nguini of Cameroon while creating the music for his Grammy Award-winning Graceland project. Ry Cooder also won a Grammy Award in 1994 for his collaboration with northern Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré,TalkingTimbuktu (WorldCircuit/Rykodisc 1994).
Beyond this, rhythmically interlocking electric guitar patterns have become integral to so many musical styles all across Africa, from Tuareg bands and artists like Tinarawen and Mdou Moctar in the North to mbanqua groups like the Makgona Tsohle Band from South Africa. In the vast continent of African electric guitar music, all roads ultimately lead back to Dr. Nico.
Although the music from West African Francophone countries by Youssou N’Dour, Salif Keita and Oumou Sangare are currently very popular with World Music fans, it should be noted that the development of a distinct local popular music and corresponding guitar styles only began in these countries after independence in the 1960’s.
Before that the French ‘direct rule’ colonial policy of either being purely French or purely indigenous prevented or slowed down the blending of musical cultures that is so much a feature elsehere in Africa.
Before independence (beginning in Guinea in 1958) the popular music of Francophone West Africa was mainly Cuban Sons, Rumbas, Boleros and Chachacha’s sung in Spanish.
However the first generation of independence leaders (Sekou Toure of Guinea, Keita of Mali and Senghor of Senegal ) encouraged Africanisation and Negritude - and as a result local popular music styles (mbalax, ‘electro-griot’, ‘Afro-mandingo’, Wussulu, etc) rapidly evolved. This involved crossovers between the western guitars and traditional griot/jali/hunters instruments such as the kora harp-lute, balafon-xylophone and ngoni/nkoni lute.
African Guitar Discography
Many African records are available on import only in Britain. Although Virgin and Island have both tried to some extent with African music, it remains the independent record labels (Earthworks, Sterns, Oval, Celluloid, GlobeStyle, Original) who best understand the music and the artistes. Most of the record chain-stores and larger record shops have at least a token African rack.
| Artist | Album | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Mwenda Jean Bosco | Guitars Of Africa (two volumes) | Kaleidophon records (US) |
| Franco and T P OK Jazz | Visa 1980 | Fran 004/005 |
| Orchestra Virunga | Malako | Earthworks |
| Thomas Mapfumo | The Chimurenga Singles | Earthworks |
| Sunny Adé | Various | Island and Nigerian labels |
| Les Ambassadeurs | Best Of | Celluloid |
| Youssou N'Dour | Immigre | Celluloid |
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