AGAWU, Kofi - Representing African Music

Representing African Music
Author(s): Kofi Agawu

Source: Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Winter, 1992), pp. 245-266
Published by: University of Chicago Press
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Representing African Music
Kofi Agawu
Of all the currentsof change that have swept the humanitiesduring

thelast half-century, the most far-reachingrevolve around language.
Philosophy,history, and literarycriticism,among other language-based
disciplines,have developed what is oftenpresentedas a largelyunprece-
dented self-consciousnessabout representation.The message to scholars
in nonlanguage-based disciplinesis clear: to be taken seriously,one can
no longer view language as a transparentwindowto an objective reality
but mustconfrontthe foundationalpoliticaland ideological baggage of
the medium itself,as well as its constant slippage in the hands of the
producer.
Among the fields of music study,ethnomusicologyhas wrestled
most self-consciouslywithmattersof representation.Since its inception
in the late nineteenthcenturyas vergleichende Musikwissenschaft [com-
parative musicology]and throughoutits turbulenthistory,ethnomusic-
ology has been centrallyand vitallyconcerned withat least three basic
issues and theirnumerous ramifications.Firstis the problem of locating
disciplinaryboundaries: is ethnomusicologya subfield of musicology,
does it belong under anthropologyor ethnology,or is it an autonomous
Earlier versions of this paper were read at UniversityCollege, London, in April

1989 and at Yale Universityin December 1990. I am gratefulto Stephen Blum, David
Lumsdaine, PatrickMensah, Paul Richards,and Kay Shelemayforreading and comment-
ing on earlier drafts.
CriticalInquiry 18 (Winter 1992)

o 1992 by The Universityof Chicago. 0093-1896/92/1802-0001$01.00. All rightsreserved.
245
246 Kofi Agawu AfricanMusic
Representing
discipline?' Second is the probem of translation:what factorsinfluence

the attemptto translatethe realityof other musical culturesinto audio
and visual recordings, verbal accounts, and transcriptionsin musical
notation?Is therea viable "theoryof translatability"?2
Third is a network
of politicaland ideological matters:whatsortsof ethicalissuesconstrain
the practicaleffortto understandanother culture?What is the relation
between empire and ethnomusicologicalrepresentation?Can we-that
is, is it a good thing to-study any music without taking note of
the social, economic, political, and technological circumstancesof its
producers?
Ethnomusicologicalwriting,then,foregroundsa numberof contem-
poraryconcernsin waysthatmake it a suitablesubjectforcritique,and it
is partof myaim in thispaper to develop sucha critiqueon thesiteofwrit-
ing about Africanmusic. Despite the growingliteratureon postcolonial
discourses,3and despitethe long involvementwiththeentiregamutof tra-
ditional,popular,and art musicsof AfricabyEuropean and NorthAmeri-
can scholars,no writerto date has focusedexclusivelyon the ideologiesof
representingAfricanmusic.Of course,theabsence of a singletraditionof
Africanmusic studyendows even the plainestof ethnologicalreporting
witha metacriticaland self-reflexivefunction-metacriticismby default,
ifyou like.But we need morethanincidentalreflectionon representation.
In undertakingsuch a task,however,we mustnot underestimatethe spe-
cial difficulties
posed by musicalpractice.Extantmusictheorytextsfrom
WesternEurope, India, China, and Indonesia-to name onlythosetradi-
tionswithindigenouswritingsystems-make clear thatthereare funda-
mental,perhaps even irreconcilable,differencesbetweenthe representa-
tion of language-based systemsof thought and expression and the
representationof systemsof sound. We would do wellto keep thistension
in mind.
1. A concise introductionto the fieldofethnomusicology,itshistory,personalities,and

methodmaybe foundin Barbara Krader,"Ethnomusicology," in TheNewGroveDictionary of
Musicand Musicians,ed. StanleySadie, 20 vols. (London, 1980), 6:275-82. The mostcom-
prehensiverecent discussionof key issues in ethnomusicologicalresearch is Bruno Nettl,
The Studyof Ethnomusicology: Twenty-nine Issues and Concepts(Urbana, Ill., 1983).
2. See Johannes Fabian, Timeand theOther:How Anthropology Makes Its Object(New
York, 1983), p. 43.
3. The foundationaltext is Edward W. Said, Orientalism(New York, 1978). See also
V. Y. Mudimbe, The Inventionof Africa: Gnosis,Philosophy,and the Order of Knowledge
(Bloomington, Ind., 1988).
Kofi Agawu teachesat Cornell University and is theauthorofPlaying

withSigns: A SemioticInterpretation
of Classic Music (1991).
CriticalInquiry Winter1992 247
In its broadest sense, representationof African music takes three

forms: iconographic, metalinguistic, and metamusical. That is, it
includes pictorialillustrationsof music-makingfoundin anthropological
and historicaldocuments,verbal accounts of music-makingfound in the
same or similarsources,and-especially in the modernperiod-musical
worksbased on existing"traditional"musics.4I shallconfinemyremarks
here to the second category,not necessarilybecause it is the mostimpor-
tantof the three,but because a proper considerationof the otherswould
require an extensivetechnicalexegesis not appropriatein thisparticular
context.
We may distinguishroughlyfour successivephases in the historyof
discourseabout Africanmusic:first,theperiod up to 1900, whichis domi-
nated by nonspecialist,and for the most part incidental,accounts of
music-makingand descriptions of musical instrumentsby travellers,
explorers,and geographers;second,theperiod 1900-1950 in whichvari-
ous writers,firedby a missionaryzeal-"missionary" in both literaland
metaphoricalsenses-search for a voice; third,the period 1950-1975,
whichrepresentsthe stabilizingof a professionalethnomusicologicaldis-
course; and fourth,the period since 1975, whichis markedbyan intensi-
fied self-consciousnessabout language and metalanguage. As with any
periodization,this one is problematicin failingto convey associations
betweennoncontiguousphases,and in stressingdiscontinuities overconti-
nuities.Nonetheless,itmayserveas a convenientprop fortheanalysis.
Pre-1900
It is doubtfulwhetherpre-1900 writingabout Africanmusiccan be
legitimatelydescribed as ethnomusicologicalsince it was produced by
nonspecialists-Europeans engaged in naval expeditions,Moslem writers
pursuinga religious mission,correspondentsfor learned societies,mis-
sionaries,traders,and biographersof explorers. These accounts are of
interestchieflybecause they adumbrate some of the major issues that
card-carryingethnomusicologists of later yearshave had to reckon with.
Furthermore,because earlierwritersare not constrainedbya prescribed,
institutionalmode of musicaldiscourse,theyfrequentlyask more funda-
mental questions about the nature and meaning of Africanmusic than
those who have, as it were, been taught to speak properly.
The followingpassage from Richard Lander's Recordsof Captain
4. For iconographic and historicaldata, see Zentralafrika, ed. Jos Gansemans et al.
ed. Gerhard Kubik et al. (Leipzig, 1989). On trendsin mod-
(Leipzig, 1986), and Westafrika,
ern composition,see Akin Euba, Essayson Music in Africa,2 vols. (Bayreuth, 1989).
Representing
Clapperton'sLast ExpeditiontoAfrica,publishedin 1830, maybe consid-

ered representativeof the pre-1900 styleof discourse:
On the morningof Thursday,the 12th,we leftChiadoo, followedby

the chiefand an immensecrowd of both sexes, amongstwhomwere
hundredsof children,the ladies enliveningus withsongsat intervals,
and the men blowing on horns and beating on gongs and drums,
withoutany regard to time, formingaltogethera most barbarous
concert of vocal and instrumentalmusic, which continued to our
great inconvenienceand annoyancetillwe arrivedat Matone, when
they took leave of us and returned.
It would be as difficultto detach singingand dancing fromthe
characterof an African,as to change the colour of his skin.I do not
thinkhe would livea singleweekin his countrywithoutparticipating
in these his favouriteamusements;to deprivehimof whichwould be
indeed worsethandeath.... Yet even on theseinstruments theyper-
formmostvilely,and produce a horriblydiscordantnoise,whichmay,
perhaps,be delightfulto theirown ears; but to strangers,iftheyhave
the misfortuneto be too near the performers, no soundscan be more
harsh and disagreeable than such a concert.
Of all theamusementsof Africans,none can equal theirsongand
dance in the still,clear hours of night,when the moon, walkingin
beauty in the heavens, awakens all the milder affectionsof their
nature, and invitesthem to gladness and mirth.
On theseoccasionsall care is completelylaid aside, and everyone
delivers himselfup to the dissipation of the moment, without a
thoughtof the morrow,his heart havingno vacuumformelancholy
anticipations.5
Although this is clearly not a "scholarly"account, it nevertheless

toucheson a numberof scholarlyissues. Firstis the functionalas opposed
to the contemplativenatureof Africanmusic,a distinctionthat,whileby
no means hard and fast,providesa frameworkforpinpointingthe differ-
ing emphasesbetweenthecompositionalintentionsof folkand art music.6
Second, and related, is the sheer need for Africansto make music. The
motif of the music-makingAfrican-with its implicationthat leisure
abounds-continues to be reproduced in twentieth-century writingsby
both Africanand non-Africanwriters.J. H. Kwabena Nketia,forexam-
5. Richard Lander, Recordsof Captain Clapperton'sLast Expeditionto Africa,2 vols.

(1830; London, 1967), 1:90, 292-96. Of related interestare Walter Hirschberg,"Early
Historical Illustrationsof West and Central AfricanMusic,"AfricanMusic 4 (1969):6-18;
Henry George Farmer,"Early Referencesto Music in the WesternSudan,"Journalofthe
RoyalAsiaticSociety(Oct. 1939): 569-80; and Amnon Shiloah, The TheoryofMusicin Arabic
Writings(c. 900-1900): DescriptiveCatalogueofManuscriptsin LibrariesofEurope and the
U.S.A. (Munich, 1979).
6. For a discussionof the problematicsof the folk/artdistinction,see the prefaceand
firstchapter of John Blacking,How Musical Is Man? (Seattle, 1973).
ple, discussing"music in communitylife,"writesabout "societieswhich

are not sociallystratified"as follows:
Music makingis regarded as a part of the traditionalwayof lifeand

not an embellishmentof it. It is as necessaryto the fullnessof livingas
any other human need that has to be satisfied.A village thathas no
organised music or neglects communitysinging, drumming and
dancing is said to be dead. Music makingis, therefore,an index of a
living communityand a measure of the degree of social cohesion
among its respectiveunits.7
Nketia does not go on to cite examples of Africanvillagesthathave been
"said to be dead" on account of not singingor dancing,and the factthat
modern conveniencesof mobile cinemas, videos, transistorradios, and
cassette playerscan now be found in many remote and rural parts of
Africa suggests that there is at least less music-makingof the sort
describedby Nketia,but no resulting"death." Only a scholarlyplot seek-
ing differencebetweenAfricaand the Westwillinsiston propagatingthis
myth.
A thirdissue raised by Lander emergesfromhis negativeevaluation
of the sound of Africanmusic. Music is performed"vilely,"producinga
"horribly discordant noise"; sounds are "harsh and disagreeable."
Althoughthissortof descriptionhas been permanentlyexcised frompro-
fessional ethnomusicologicaldiscourse, it is not without one possible
advantage: theprejudicesof Lander's own musicalcultureare made clear,
hispersonalconstraintssituated.The idea thata semiotic,prelinguistic, or
purelyphysiologicalresponse to the sound of musicis much more intense
and immediatethan the parallel responseto performative acts in the ver-
bal arts explains-but by no meansjustifies-Lander's impatiencewith
thismusic.To put it simply,Lander actuallyuses hisears, whichis whyhe
is uncomfortablewith African drumming. When in later periods of
"proper" ethnomusicologicaldiscoursesuch descriptivelanguage and its
attendantideologyare excised, we enteralso a period in which,perhaps
only coincidentally,writersare less confidentabout what theirears tell
them.Withthisnew,mediatedresponse,thiselevationof symbolicabove
semioticorder,comes a substitutionof a falsepietyforan authentic,per-
sonal engagementwiththe phenomenologist'sSachenselbst.The fateof
African music reception is not helped by such piety.
Fourth,Lander's account should not be assumed to representonlya
uniform "Westerner's" response. How do we know what the people
themselves-Nigerians-felt about this music?Since there is no mono-
lithic"Nigerian,"we have to at least retain the possibilitythat some of
themfoundthismusic"discordant,""barbarous,"or "vile."A group voice
7. J. H. Kwabena Nketia,Music in AfricanCultures:A ReviewoftheMeaningand Signifi-

cance of TraditionalAfricanMusic (Legon, Ghana, 1966), p. 15.
Representing
mustnot be allowed to swallowindividualdiscerningresponses.Indeed, a

vigorous pursuitof individualresponsesto music-makinghas become a
prominentpart of the ideology of contemporaryethnomusicology, but
such investigationsseldom yield clear-cut, dichotomous views.8 The
notoriousdistinctionbetweenwhat"we"as Westernersand what"they"as
Africanshear mustbe replaced bydistinctionsbetweenwhatany twoindi-
viduals hear. But to argue for this democratizationof representationis
perhaps to overlook aspects of politicaleconomy.9
In sum,pre-1900 writingsshowunself-conscious explorationof musi-
cal possibilities.Writerswrote themselvesinto their texts,so to speak,
because theyknew no other way.Few limitswere placed on the kindsof
aesthetic and evaluative questions that could be asked about African
music.
1900-1950
The search fora voice duringthisperiod produced an eclecticbody
of texts.Three featuresmarkthisperiod. Firstwas theinstitutionalization
of comparativemusicology,spelledout in 1885 byGuido Adler'oand pur-
sued througha varietyof regional interestsby several other European
scholars, including Carl Stumpf,Robert Lach, and Erich Moritz von
Hornbostel. Witha backgroundin Gestaltpsychologyand a concern for
empiricism,Hornbostel, for example, made importantcontributionsto
the studyof Africanmusic." He wrestledwithproblemsof tuning,with
issues of rhythmicand metricorganization(includingthe psychological
realityof musicians'actions),and withthe vexingproblemof therelation-
ship betweenspeech tone and melody.Second, thiswas a period of colo-
nial dominationand of the emergenceof the governmentanthropologist.
Teachers,colonial officers,and militarypersonnelwho tookan interestin
music produced accounts of musical practice and, in some cases, pre-
scribedprogramsforthe musicaleducationof colonized people. Third, a
8. Blacking pursues this idea throughoutHow Musical Is Man?

9. Such democratizationis onlyconceivable in a worldin whichrepresenterand repre-
sented inhabit the same socioeconomic and political spheres. Ethnomusicologycannot
claim such a conditionof work,not even in cases involving"nativescholars."For a related
discussion of the field of anthropology,see Said, "Representingthe Colonized: Anthro-
pology's Interlocutors,"CriticalInquiry15 (Winter 1989): 205-25.
10. See Guido Adler,"Umfang,Methode und Ziel der Musikwissenschaft," Vierteljahr-
esschriftfiir Musikwissenschaft1 (1885): 5-20.
11. See E. M. von Hornbostel,"AfricanNegro Music,"Africa1 (Jan. 1928): 30-62, and
HornbostelOpera Omnia, ed. Klaus P. Wachsmann, Dieter Christensen,and Hans-Peter
Reinecke (The Hague, 1976); the lattercontainsarticlesand reviewson musicfromdiffer-
ent parts of the world. Stephen Blum, "European Musical Terminologyand the Music of
Africa,"in Comparative Musicology and Anthropology
ofMusic: Essayson theHistoryofEthno-
musicology, ed. Nettl and Philip V. Bohlman (Chicago, 1991), pp. 1-36, includesan exten-
sive discussion of key termsand concepts used by Hornbostel.
missionarydiscourse,initiatedin the previousphase, was vigorouslypur-

sued in thecontextof translatinghymnbooks,liturgies,and the Bible into
Africanlanguages. The crucial turn in these discourseswas the gradual
emergence of an explicit,institutionallymarked writingstylealongside
the amateur discourses that persistedfromthe previous era.
One example of the best writingfromthisperiod is W. E. F. Ward's
"Music in the Gold Coast," whichappeared in the short-livedGold Coast
Reviewin 1927. Ward,a historian,educationist,and amateurmusician,is
perhaps best known for his sometimestandard workson the historyof
Gold Coast/Ghana.'2 The principalvirtueof Ward's studystemsfromhis
adoption of a frameworkthatallowssimilaritiesand contraststo be drawn
betweenEuropean and Africanmusics.In so doing,he sidestepsthe solip-
sismof later ethnomusicology, and puts a dent in the oft-heardexhorta-
tionto scholarsto considerAfricanmusicalcultures"on theirown terms."
Such a strategy,however,is problematicfortwobasic reasons. First,itcan-
not be implementedon logical grounds since the language in whichthe
resultsof fieldworkare reported(usuallyEnglish,French,Portuguese,or
German) carries irreducible conceptual baggage. Second, the phrase
encourages the formulationof what is essentiallya political distinction
between "our theory"and "theirtheory,"betweena general theoryand
so-called ethnotheory.
Ward's frameworkallows him,forexample, to reject the theoryof a
peculiarly African tonal scale and to note the relative modesty with
whichharmonyis explored in Africanmusic.The comparisonis between
a timeless African folk traditionand two hundred years of European
functional harmony, culminating not (predictably) in the musics of
Wagner, Strauss, and Schoenberg, but in the works of Alexander
Scriabin. Ward's is not a one-sided comparison, however.Africanhar-
mony may be "as far developed as European harmonyin the sixteenth
century,"but "Africanshave not merelycultivatedtheirsense of rhythm
far beyond ours, but musthave startedwitha superior sense of rhythm
from the beginning."'3 There may be room for argument about the
details of these particularcomparisons,but there is no room for argu-
ment about comparison as such.
Elsewherein the article,Ward exploresthe comparativeweightingof
parametersin Africansong and concludes that rhythmand phrase con-
tour are primary.He does not, however,attemptto link this order of
parametricinteractionto an abstractedsocial order in the waythatAlan
Lomax and othershave done.'4 His solutionto the notorioustone/tune
12. See W. E. F. Ward,"Music in the Gold Coast," Gold CoastReview3 (July-Dec. 1927):
199-223. See also Ward,A HistoryoftheGold Coast(London, 1948) and A HistoryofGhana
(London, 1958), the latter being a revised and retitlededition of the former.
13. Ward, "Music in the Gold Coast," pp. 223, 222.
14. See Alan Lomax, "Song Structureand Social Structure,"Ethnology, no. 1(1962):
Representing
problemremainsunimproved:speech tonesmayinfluencemelodicdirec-
tion,but theycannot be said to determinemelodic structure.Best of all,
perhaps, Ward provides a sensitive discussion of African rhythmas
expressivebehavior,includingthe technicalproceduresthatsupportsuch
expression:the virtualabsence of tripletimein Africanmusic;the prefer-
ence forpolymeterand polyrhythm; and the comparativelylonger units
(bars) of Africanmusic.An amateurhe mayhave been, but Ward'swriting
gets at essentials.
The eclecticismof the 1900-1950 period is hard to illustratecon-
cisely,but we maycontrastWard's studywiththe contributionsof one of
the major figuresin Africanmusic research,the Reverend A. M. Jones,
whose numerous and unfailinglyenthusiasticwritingscome close to
exhaustingthe dimensionsof Africanmusicstudy.Jones'smagnumopus,
the two-volumeStudiesin AfricanMusic,althoughpublishedin 1959 and
thereforestrictly belongingto the thirdphase of myperiodization,mani-
festsan eclecticstylecharacteristicof the 1900-1950 writing.A separate
paper is needed to fullyassessJones's contribution,but it is noteworthy
that in this properly ethnomusicological age, Jones has often been
attackednot so much forwhathe said but forhow he said it. The distinc-
tion is fragile,of course, but it allows a glimpseinto how scholarlyplots
concerned to excavate Jones's ethnocentricism,his pretenses towards
omniscience,and his knackforexaggeration,can missthevalue of hisspe-
cificallytechnicaldemonstration.'5
The most profoundcondemnationof Jones, however,has been the
systematicrefusalof scholarsto deal withthe fullimplicationsof histran-
scriptionsin extenso,transcriptions that remain,to my mind,among the
mostimportantin the field.Again and again, the age-old questionsabout
pulse, bar lines, meter,and rhythmdealt withbyJones returnto haunt
later writersin a curiouslycircularhistoricalmovement.At a timewhen
we have become more sensitiveto the heterogeneityof Africanmusic,itis
easy to criticizeJones for allowing his work on the Icila of the then-
Northern Rhodesia or the Ewe of the then-Gold Coast to stand as
425-51. A more comprehensiveanalysismaybe found in Lomax, FolkSongStyleand Cul-

ture(Washington,D.C., 1968). Among recent contributions,see especially Steven Feld,
"Sound Structure as Social Structure,"Ethnomusicology 28 (Sept. 1984): 383-410, and
Marina Roseman, "The Social Structuringof Sound: The Temiar of PeninsularMalaysia,"
Ethnomusicology 28 (Sept. 1984): 411-45. See also the numerous responses to Feld and
Roseman in the same issue of thatjournal, pp. 446-66.
15. See Blacking,reviewof Studiesin AfricanMusic,by A. M. Jones,AfricanStudies19
(1960): 98-101. See also the reviewsby the Reverend Brian Kingslake,Doctor the Rever-
end BrotherBasile,JamesMcHarg, and BlackinginAfricanMusic2 (1959): 84-89. It is per-
haps symptomaticof thisattitudethatLucy Durain'sbriefentryon Jones in TheNewGrove
Dictionaryfocuses almost exclusivelyon the "controversial"aspects of his work. See Lucy
Durain,"ArthurMorrisJones,"in TheNewGroveDictionary ofMusicand Musicians,9:697.
paradigmaticAfricanmusics. But only those who interpretthe relative

securityof local historyas an invitationnot to reckonwith"global" trends
willfailto appreciatetheboldnessand value ofJones'sgeneralizations,the
mostmemorableof whichis his map of the distributionof intervalsinging
throughoutsub-SaharanAfrica.'6Only by placingJones'seclecticdiscus-
sions in the centerof our own efforts,and then attemptingto falsifythe
paradigmstheyfoster,are we likelyto escape the charge of reinventing
wheels.
1950-1975
The search fora voice between 1900 and 1950 came to an end with
tworelated events:the formationof the AfricanMusic Societyin 1947 in
South Africa,and the inaugurationof the SocietyforEthnomusicologyin
the United States in 1955. Like the AfricanMusic Society,which pub-
lishesAfricanMusic,the SocietyforEthnomusicologybegan bypublishing
a newsletterfollowedby a full-fledged By con-
journal, Ethnomusicology.
solidatingprevious efforts and isolatedtendencies intocentralizedorgani-
zations,both eventspromised,ifnot an entirelynew beginning,at least a
more responsiblecontinuation.AfricanMusicand Ethnomusicology shared
one broad aim, in the latter'swords: "the advancementof researchand
studyin the field of ethnomusicology,for which purpose all interested
persons,regardlessof race, creed, color, or national origin,are encour-
aged to become members."" Gone, it would seem, were the days of the
amateur; the new era christenedand traineda freshbreed of ethnomusi-
cologistswhom it sent with the appropriate blessingsinto the field.'8
By centralizingtheiractivities,thetwosocietiesprescribed(withvary-
ing degrees of strictness)a mode of discoursefortheirmembers.But the
gap between intentionand execution was especiallypronounced in the
offeringsofAfricanMusic.Thejournal remainedlargelyeclectic,continu-
ing much of the amateur and energeticdiscourseof the 1900-1950 per-
iod, but placingalongsidethisa properlycontrolledand "serious"body of
ethnomusicological writing. The possible dryness of the scholarly
approach was mediated by the inclusionof anecdotal pieces, news items,
reportsof workin progress,competitions,and informalcorrespondence.
16. See Jones, Studiesin AfricanMusic, 2 vols. (London, 1959), p. 231.

17. Norma McLeod, "From the Editor,"Ethnomusicology 17 (Sept. 1973): iv.
18. One indicationof the confidencegeneratedbythismovementis the followingeval-
uation of the UCLA program in ethnomusicologymade by David McAllester: "A strong
aspect of the UCLA program is the presence of nativemusiciansfromthe manycultures
represented.Equally importantis the practiceof sendingthe advanced studentto the coun-
trywhose music he is studyingforone or two yearsof researchand apprenticeship.When
he returnssuch a studentis likelyto be in a positionto writethefirstdefinitive
bookin English
on the music of his area of study"(David P. McAllester,"Ethnomusicology,the Field and
the Society,"Ethnomusicology 7 [Sept. 1963]: 183; emphasis added).
Representing
One was not surprisedto find,forexample, David Rycroftbeginningan

article in purely evaluative termsas follows:
One of the oddest and loudest formsof Africannoise to be heard

nightlyin some of the largerSouth Africantownsis describedby its
makersas 'Zulu Male Traditional Singing'. This is theirpolite (and
inaccurate)descriptionof it when speakingto non-Zulus.Such sing-
ing, by small, all male, choirs and the restrainedkind of strutting
dance or slouch whichgoes withit is, however,a new tradition,ifthe
term'traditional'is to be allowed. Amongstthe singersthemselvesit
is called 'Bombing',a termcoined duringthe war,as theyfeltit was
just that kind of noise.'19
This kindof writingis unlikelyto haveappeared in thepages ofEthno-

musicology.So, althoughtheeclecticismand amateurismofthepreviousera
werein decline,theywerenevercompletelyeliminated.Indeed, one ofthe
thingsthatdiscouragestoo close an associationbetweenthe twojournals,
and underlinesAfricanMusic'smore explicitlypoliticalrole, is an astonish-
ingseriesofeditorialsthatappeared in thelate 1950s and early1960s. This
was a period of greatpoliticalfermentin Africa,as the shacklesof colonial
rule were brokenone afteranotherin what,in retrospect,seems to have
been more of a programmaticaffirmation of politicalindependencethana
genuine-economically based-eradication of dependencyon Europe. In
the United States,the civil rightsmovementforegroundedsimilarcon-
cerns.AfricanMusictookan activeinterestin thesedevelopments, and pub-
lished editorials condemning the uprisings,and, by implication,the
African'ssearch fora voice of his own. Motivatedby noble archivalcon-
cerns,Hugh Tracey,editorof thejournal since itsinception,advocated a
folktraditionin Africa,and preferredto emphasizenot the similarities but
the differences betweenmen. Writingin 1960, he dismissed"thatconten-
tious sentence,writtenin 1776, whichclaimed thatall men were created
equal," and put forwardtheviewthat"all menare createdspecial"and that
"a culturalstatementof thiskindholdsfarmore promiseforfuturerecog-
nitionof individualtalentin a highlycompetitiveworldthantheegalitarian
shibbolethsof popularpoliticians."20The statementmighthavegone unno-
ticed had it not been for the not-so-coincidental location of its author:
Roodeport, Nr. Johannesburg,South Africa.
The 1950s marked the institutionally sanctioned arrival of North
Americans on the ethnomusicologicalscene. Earlier contributionsby
Melville Herskovits,Richard Waterman,George Herzog, and others in
the 1930s and 1940s were supplantedby the more concertedeffortssig-
nalled by the institutionalproduction of ethnomusicologists.With an
infectiousenthusiasmand a concernforpositivistic accuracy,and without
19. David Rycroft,"Zulu Male Traditional Singing,"AfricanMusic 1 (1957): 33.

20. Hugh Tracey, "Editorial,"AfricanMusic 2 (1960): 5.
the complicityof empire to contend with,American ethnomusicologists

approached the studyof Africanmusic withthe highestof ideals. Alan
Merriam'sdominatingrole in thismovementwas not onlyto intensify the
shift from musicological to anthropological ethnomusicology (for
Merriamethnomusicologywas "the studyof music in culture"),21but to
bring a measure of responsibilityto intellectualaccounting.
The institutionalizationof ethnomusicologybroughtlossesas well as
gains. Perhaps the most radical aspect of this movementwas the nearly
total obliterationof aestheticand evaluativedimensionsin the stylesof
discourse. Ethnomusicologists could no longer get awaywitha statement
such as "thisis a beautifulmelody,"fortheywere soon havingto explain
how it was thattheyperceivedbeautyand whetherthe nativesperceived
the same beautyin the same places and in the same way.The writer'saes-
theticresponse was no longer a thingto writehome about; it remained
implicitin the choice of subject.
The 1950s also saw the emergenceof the firstgenerationof African
scholars of music,trained in the language, methods,and techniquesof
Western Europe, but also steeped in indigenous traditions.The best-
knownof these is Nketia,who publishedseveralmonographsand articles
on Africanmusicand language.22Writingin two languages and withina
prefabricatedintellectualframework, and usingthisframeworkto convey
whatever"native"insightshe had, Nketia ensured thathis workwas not
only immediately comprehensible but judged according to then-
"universal"criteria.It comes as somethingofan irony,perhapseven a hint
at academic neocolonialism,to findreviewersberatingNketiaand other
AfricanscholarsforproducingWesternizedaccountsof the musicoftheir
own people. The statusof the Africanscholarcontinuesto offerreal diffi-
cultiesto commentatorsarmed withclassificatory schemesdeterminedby
a criterionof essentialism.23
1975 to thePresent
Since about 1975, with greater political instabilitythroughout
Africa,the field conditionshave become somewhattreacherous.While
21. Alan P. Merriam, "Ethnomusicology:Discussion and Definition of the Field,"

Ethnomusicology 4 (Sept. 1960): 109.
22. See especially Nketia, Funeral DirgesoftheAkanPeople(Achimota, Ghana, 1955),
Drummingin Akan Communities ofGhana (Edinburgh, 1963), and TheMusic ofAfrica(New
York, 1974). A complete bibliographyand a biographicalportraitof Nketia maybe found
in AfricanMusicology:CurrentTrends;Vol.1: A Festschrift
PresentedtoJ.H. KwabenaNketia,ed.
Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje and William G. Carter (Los Angeles, 1989).
23. A wide-rangingand perceptivediscussionof matterssurroundingthe ideology of
knowingas expressed in Africanliteratureand criticismmaybe foundin Kwame Anthony
Appiah, "Out of Africa: Topologies of Nativism,"YaleJournalof Criticism2 (Fall 1988):
153-78.
Representing
the actual quantityof fieldworkhas decreased significantly,

therehas not
been a correspondingshortage in the quantityof published material.
Scholarshipoutside Africa has continued to ransack materialcollected
during earlier,safe periods, to analyze materialcollected by others,or
simplyto turnattentionfromthe natureof the materialto the natureof
discourse about the material.
Probablythe moststrikingdevelopmentsince 1975 is the movement
away fromearlier generalizationsabout Africanmusic toward regional
and subregional characterizations(Venda music, Yoruba music, Kpelle
music,Ganda music,and so on). And withthisobsessionwithspecificity
comes a sometimesnumbingsituatingof scholarlyconstraints:wherethe
researcherhas been, withwhom,how long,underwhatconditions,and so
on. Ethnomusicologists are thusremindedof somethingtheyhave always
contended with,namely,the inescapablyideological nature of writing.
One question,however,is seldomasked: ifno discourseis freeof ideology,
if such ideologycan be easilydecoded fromwriting,thenwhyshould we
continue to rituallyunmask our identitiesinstead of simplygettingon
withthejob at hand?Is not the veryprocessof unmasking,itselfcontami-
nated by language,a productof certainideologicalchoices,and therefore
likelyto produce a distorted"truth"?
One finaldevelopmentsince 1975 is a foregroundingof the differ-
ences betweenEuropean and NorthAmericanethnomusicologists writing
about Africa.Althoughthere is not a unifiedEuropean view of African
music, there is a scholarlyculture that linksGilbertRouget and Simha
Arom of France, Gerhard Kubik of Austria,Veit Erlmannof Germany,
and John Blacking of the United Kingdom togetheras humanistswho
have accepted in varyingdegrees the intellectualchallengesof semiotics/
structuralism, hermeneutics,and now post-structuralism.
While some of
theirAmericancounterpartshavedanced in the same intellectualarena, it
is strikingthat many American scholars have preferredAfricaninstru-
mental music to vocal music as subjects of research. Probablythe most
importanttheoreticalcontributionsto the subject of Africanmusic by
Americans concern rhythmicorganization.24Unlike their European
counterparts,proportionallyfewerAmericanshave wished to workwith
genres that require command of indigenous languages. Yet these very
scholarsofteninsiston a "native'spointof view."How are ethnographers
able to distilla native'spointofview-assuming sucha thingexists-from
a language theycannot speak?
24. These include Richard A. Waterman,"'Hot' Rhythmin Negro Music,"Journalof

theAmericanMusicologicalSociety1 (Spring 1948): 24-37; Rose Brandel, "The African
Hemiola Style,"Ethnomusicology 3 (Sept. 1959): 106-17; HewittPantaleoni,"Three Princi-
ples of Timing in Anlo Dance Drumming,"AfricanMusic5 (1972): 50-63; David Laurence
Locke, "The Music of Atsiagbeko" (Ph.D. diss., Wesleyan University,1978); and James
Koetting,"Analysisand Notation of WestAfricanDrum Ensemble Music,"SelectedReports
in Ethnomusicology 1 (1970): 115-46.
It would seem fromthisaccount thatwritingabout Africanmusicis

characterizedby a healthypluralism.But that impressionis deceptive.
Under a pluralisticimpulse,a numberof theoreticalconstructsand pre-
sentationalmodes have gained ascendancy,helped along by referees,edi-
tors,and reviewers.No one reading books or articleson Africanmusic
publishedin the lastten yearscould possiblyconclude thatanythinggoes.
Pluralismin practicereinscribescertainreifiedmodes of representation,
and it is these thatI wishto critiquein the second halfof thisessay.I shall
consider,in turn,"the writerin the text,""us and them,""ethnotheory,"
and "the burden of context."
The Writerin theText

One resultof the contemporaryconcern witha scholar'sconstraints
is a styleof discoursein whichthe authorial"I" exertsa strongpresence.
In a sense,all ethnomusicologicalwriting,likeanthropologicalwriting,is
autobiographic,25but beyond providingthe reader with essentialback-
ground information, the act of situatinglimitscan oftenaccumulatea sur-
plus of authorialsignature.Since ethnomusicologists do not normallyuse
thisplatformto actuallyacknowledgelimits-one rarelyencountersstate-
mentslike,"I was thereforonlytwo weeks,""I lived in a hotel in the city
and visitedthe villagesdaily,""I did not speak a word of the language,""I
could not stand the music I was recording;I wenthome and listenedto
Mozart"-authorial motivationfor such gestures must be sought else-
where.Often,such motivationresidesin a networkof scholarlyvaluesand
their attendantpolitics.
Consider the followingstatementfroma 1982 studyof the principles
of Ewe drumming:
My performancetrainingincludes: 1969 (Columbia University),Eve

musicand dance withAlfredLadzekpo and Nicholas England; 1971-
1975 (WesleyanUniversity),repertoryof the Ghana National Dance
Ensemble with Abraham Adzinyah; 1972-1975 (WesieyanUniver-
sity)Eve musicand dance withFreeman Donkor; 1975-1977 (Insti-
tute of AfricanStudies, Legon) Akan drummingwith Kwasi Adei,
Eve drummingand dance withGideon Foli Alorwoyie;1975-1977
25. See, forexample, the claim by George Marcus and Michael Fischerthat"the pres-
ence in the textof the writerand the exposure of reflectionsconcerningboth his fieldwork
and the textualstrategyof the resultingaccount have become, forveryimportanttheoreti-
cal reasons,pervasivemarksof currentexperiments"(George E. Marcus and Michael M.J.
Fischer,Anthropology as Cultural Critique:An Experimental Momentin theHuman Sciences
[Chicago, 1986], p. 42). Fabian also refersto "the inherentlyautobiographic nature of
much anthropological writing"(Fabian, Timeand theOther,p. 74).
Representing
(Art Council of Ghana FolkloricCompany,Accra), Eve drumming

and dance with Godwin Agbeli, Dagomba music and dance with
Abubakari Lunna; 1975-1977 (Volta Region,Ghana), the musicand
dance of Atsiagbeko with dance clubs from the towns of Afia-
denyigba,Aflao and Anyako.26
Why do we need to know all thisabout the author? Does the listingof
teachers,places of study(includingseveral simultaneouslocations),and
periods of apprenticeshiptell us much besides the factthatthe author is
not an armchairethnomusicologist, but one withhands-onexperienceof
Africanmusic?For this biographicalinformationto be pertinent,some
indication of the author's competence as drummer or dancer must be
given. More important,a necessaryconnectionbetweenpossessingsuch
competenceand successfully"doing theory"needs to be established.One
need not underplaythe importanceof Locke's particularstudyin orderto
hold the view that it is not on the impliedoppositionbetweenarmchair
theoristand one with hands-on experience that the success of theory
turns, especially where theory includes both speculative and practical
aspects.
The "I" that signals hands-on experience also gestures towards
authenticity,whichin turngivesfieldworkan iconicstatus.And it is but a
small step fromthere to the claim that researchthat is not based on the
fruitsof labor in the field-regardless of its cogency and theoretical
sophistication-is somehow suspect. ReviewingRose Brandel's Music of
CentralAfrica(1961), Gerhard Kubik criticizesthe author forbasing her
analysison recordingsratherthanon firsthandcontactwiththemusicand
musicians.27Similarly,Ruth Stone forgoeseveryopportunityto confront
the maintheoreticalsubstanceof myanalysisoftwopieces of WestAfrican
drummingby focusingon the factthatthe musicanalyzedwas "recorded
by others."28
The great irony is that one of the major texts on Africanmusic,
Jones's Studiesin AfricanMusic was researched in the comfortsof the
School of Africanand OrientalStudiesof the University of London witha
singleinformant.29 AlthoughJonesdid have firsthandexperienceof Afri-
can musicin NorthernRhodesia, he did not have firsthandexperienceof
Anlo drummingin situ.His opponentsberated himfornot havingunder-
gone the fieldworkritual-those deadly Ewe mosquitoes needed to be
26. Locke, "Principlesof Offbeat Timing and Cross-Rhythmin Southern Eve Dance
Drumming,"Ethnomusicology 26 (May 1982): 245.
27. Kubik, review of The Music of Central Africa:An Ethnomusicological Study,by
Brandel, AfricanMusic 3 (1962): 116-18.
28. Ruth M. Stone, "Commentary:The Value of Local Ideas in UnderstandingWest
African Rhythm,"Ethnomusicology 30 (Winter 1986): 54.
29. Jones's single informantwas Desmond Tay, the Gold Coast's cultural attache to
London in the 1950s.
appeased! But surelythe most importantthingis whatJones had to say,

whattheorieshe put forwardto explain the rhythmic organizationof Ewe
drumming, not the tattooson his rightshoulder.To keep harpingon the
factthathe did his researchin London is likesayingthathe had jumped a
particularinitiationceremony.And why not?
The illogic of such politickingis exposed by what Fabian calls a
"denialofcoevalness," thatis, "a persistent
and systematic
tendency toplace the
referent(s)ofanthropology in a Timeotherthanthepresentoftheproducerof
anthropologicaldiscourse."30 Almost all ethnomusicological writingis
markedbythisfeature,regardlessof whetherthetemporaland spatialdis-
tances are large or small. The distancingand inauthenticity produced by
the act of recordingare unavoidable,whetherscholarsrecord the mate-
rial themselves,or use materialrecorded by previousresearchers.Fabian
does not suggestwaysin whichwe mightavoid thisdenial beyondacknowl-
edging it. But it would alreadybe a significantstep ifethnomusicologists
made such an acknowledgement.
The time has come for us to openlyadmit thatalthoughit can pro-
vide a valuable stimulusto understanding,fieldworkis not necessaryfor
the ethnomusicologicalenterprise.I am not suggestingthatwe followin
the traditionof writingabout writing,or of the poetics of ethnography,
for example. The nature of our primarymaterial-organized sound-
discourages a hastyadoption of such a practice.In view,however,of the
increasinglysophisticatedtechnologyforpreservingmaterialboth visual
and aural, and withthelarge extantbody ofdata collectedin thepast sixty
yearsand depositedin major librariesthroughoutEurope and the United
States, it seems strange to insistthat analysisof the materialsmay not
begin untilone has undergone the ritualof fieldwork.Perhapsthe inter-
ests of proponentsof thispositionare not onlyepistemologicalbut politi-
cal as well. Instead of creatinga public forumforthe open confrontation
of ideas-such as publishingcompetingtranscriptions ofthe "same" musi-
cal objects,or developingalternativeinterpretations ofthe same systemof
cultural expression-ethnomusicologists writingon Africa have been
more interestedin establishingownershipof unstudiedor little-studied
musicalareas thanin going over previouslychartedterrain.The imperial
urge dies hard.
Us and Them
One of the mostpersistentand at the same timecontroversialdichot-
omies used by ethnomusicologistsis the us/them construct.(It is also
givenin a varietyof synonyms:insider/outsider, -etic/-emic,experience-
near/experience-far, and so on.)31The constructaims at recognizingthe
30. Fabian, Timeand theOther,p. 31.

31. The -emic/-eticconstruct,coined by Kenneth L. Pike from the linguisticterms
Representing
differencesbetweenresearcherand researched,between"thosewho seek

knowledge about other musical traditionsand those that impart the
knowledge,"32and between colonizer and colonized. There is hardlya
studyof Africanmusicthatdoes not make implicituse of thisopposition.
What is the value of this dichotomy?Are there thingsthat can only be
understood by Africansas opposed to Westerners?
A collective"us," whethera referenceto Westerners,whitemales,or
ethnomusicologists, is no morevalidthana collective"them,"whichlumps
togetherpeople with differentabilitiesand levelsof knowledgeabout tra-
dition and culture. It is not, however,in this nominal sense that the
us/themdichotomyis problematic.The problemarises whenthe dichot-
omy is viewed in relationto the contributionsof Africanscholars,whose
worknominallystridesthe two pronoun areas. ReviewingNketia'sinflu-
entialtextbook,TheMusicofAfrica, A. M. Joneswrotethat"thebook does
not sound likeAfricaas anyonewho has livedthereknowsit."33Insteadof
creatinga sense of the "other"Africa,Jones implies,Nketia errsby nor-
malizingthe exotic. Similarly,Blacking findsthe book "rathershorton
informationabout Africanconcepts of sonic organization."34And Stone
findsit "ironic"that I should relyon a "thoroughlyWesterntheoretical
framework," while,perhaps unwittingly, relyingnonethelesson "African
ideas of musical organization.""35The insistenceon an Africanepistemol-
ogy, distinctfrom European epistemology, but given in European lan-
guage, shows no of in
sign abating ethnomusicologicalcircles.
What lies behind the criticismsofJones,Blacking,Stone, and others
is, fear,a politicalissue:thedesireto silencetheAfrican'sparticipationin
I
the larger discussion. To insist that African scholars think African
thoughtsis an exclusionarytactic,harboringthe implicitclaim that the
Africanis onlycapable of-or allowed-one styleof discourse,and thata
departure fromthis representsa betrayalof sorts.
In AfricanPhilosophy: Mythand Reality,Paulin Hountondji lays this
matterto restby arguingagainsta peculiarlyAfricanphilosophyand the
phonemicand phonetic,aims to distinguishbetween insiderand outsideraccounts, subjec-

tiveand objective evaluations,and so on. The constructhas had somethingof a checkered
historyin linguistics,anthropology,and ethnomusicology.For a straightforward general
discussion, see CliffordGeertz, "'From the Native's Point of View': On the Nature of
AnthropologicalUnderstanding,"Local Knowledge:FurtherEssaysin Interpretive Anthropol-
ogy(New York, 1983), pp. 55-70. Of more immediaterelevance is Kubik, "AfricanMusic:
The Dimension of Cross-CulturalUnderstanding,"SouthAfricanJournal ofMusicology5
(1985):1-5.
32. Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy,reviewof TheStudyofEthnomusicology: Twenty-nineIssuesand
Concepts,by Nettl,Journal of theAmericanMusicologicalSociety42 (Fall 1989): 628.
33. Jones, review of The Music ofAfrica,by Nketia, Music and Letters56 (July-Oct.
1975): 397.
34. Blacking,reviewof TheMusicofAfrica,by Nketia,AfricanMusic5 (1975-76): 155.
35. Stone, "Commentary,"p. 55.
attendantconcept of ethnophilosophy,and calling for philosophypure

and simple,a philosophythatis to be definedby textswrittenby Africans
and judged to be philosophicalby them. Although not everyonefinds
Hountondji's essentialistdefinitionof African philosophy acceptable,
there is, I imagine,less oppositionto his effortto counter the academic
imperialismsymbolizedby the desire to see AfricansthinkingAfrican
thoughts:
To requirethinkersto be contentwithreaffirming the beliefsof their

people or social is
group exactly the same as prohibitingthemfrom
thinkingfreely and condemning them in the long termto intellectual
asphyxia. Deep down in such a demand lies radical scepticismand
stubbornrelativism;and, perhaps worse still,behind the apparently
anti-racialand anti-Eurocentricstance lurksa secret contemptfor
non-Westernthinkers,who are thus subtlyexcluded fromany claim .
to universality-that is to say truth-and denied the rightto any
authenticresearch,simplybeing expected to displaythe peculiarities
of their culture in philosophicalform.36
In the same vein, and beyond the political dimension addressed by

Hountondji, V. Y. Mudimbe findsthat "in spite of the apparent clarity,
European knowledgeand Africanwisdomare, as expressions,opaque and
thusinsufficient to demonstratesupportfora processof a computationof
propositions and analysisof propositionalvariables."' On epistemological
grounds,then, the us/themdichotomyis an illusion;on moral grounds,
its use is indefensible.
But we cannot do withoutillusions.Notions of othernessand differ-
ence serveas the observer'smirror,enablingthesubjectto see himor her-
self more clearly.In the war of pronouns, however,both sides are not
comparablyarmed. It is unlikelythat differencecan be eliminatedcom-
pletelyin therepresentationof Africanmusic;nor am I suggestingthatwe
do so. However,itseemsimportantto at leastacknowledgetheself-serving
natureof difference-the factthat,at theend of theday,the glanceof the
ethnomusicologicalenterpriseis on itself-rather than to pretendto be
engaged in a dialogue with the Other.
Ethnotheory
Allied to the persistenceof an us/themdichotomyis the application
of the prefixethno-to theoryto create a speciesof theorythatis claimed
to be systematicforthe natives,even wheretheorizing--whichessentially
36. Paulin J. Hountondji, AfricanPhilosophy:

Mythand Reality,trans.Henri Evans and
Jonathan Ree (Bloomington, Ind., 1983), p. 129.
37. Mudimbe, "AfricanPhilosophyas an Ideological Practice: The Case of French-
speaking Africa,"AfricanStudiesReview26 (Sept.-Dec. 1983): 139.
Representing
means verbalizingabout music-occurs sporadically.While thereare dif-

ferences between them, ethnoscience,ethnophilosophy,and ethnoaes-
theticsall promisea greatersensitivity to the indigenousperceptionsand
formulationsof the makeup and significanceof their objects.
Although no single and comprehensivestatementabout the scope
and nature of musicalethnotheoryas it applies to Africanmusichas yet
been made, there is enough in general ethnomusicologyto indicatethe
issues involved.Previousdistinctionsbetweena "folkevaluation"and an
"analyticalevaluation,"38parallelingthe -emic/-eticdivision,easilylegiti-
mize the constructionof the formercategoryin sucha waythattheresult-
ing patterncan be christened"ethnotheory."
There are two preliminaryreasons-one epistemological,the other
political-why musical ethnotheorymustbe contested.The assumption
that there is an ethnotheorydistinctfrom some general theory only
begins to make sense withina verynarrowconceptionof "theory."For
eitherall theoryis ethnotheory, since all musictheory,practicalor specu-
lative, uses as primarydata materialfromspecificsocietiesand cultures,
or ethnotheoryrepresentsno more thana change of emphasis,thatis,an
emphasison ethnicperceptionwithinthe generalcategoryof theory.Nei-
ther of these makes a very strongargumentfor ethnotheory.
Second, ethnotheoryreinscribesthe dichotomybetween "us" and
"them"in waysthatare not politicallyadvantageous to "them."Theirs is
ethnotheory(overseenby us, of course); ours is theory.And yet,I see no
fundamentaldifferencebetween a theory of sixteenth-century modal
counterpointand a theoryof,say,harmonicorganizationin Mende music
where both theoriesmeet the stated requirementsfor a general theory.
Moreover,since ethnotheoryis constructedfor"them,"we reinforcethe
viewthattheyneed to be spokenfortheoretically. We need themas infor-
mants,but not as theorists.Thus, by magicallysteppingoutside the tem-
poral and spatialframeworkof theorymaking,the musicalethnographer
constructsa nativeworldviewas it is manifestin musicalproductionand
consumption.
One furtherchallenge to the logical and epistemologicalvalidityof
ethnotheorystemsfromlanguage,and concerns,first,the use of colonial
languages in fieldwork,and second, the use of indigenouslanguages.39It
is oftenassumed thatthe ethnomusicologist workingin English-speaking
Africa can get along perfectlywell using English. But the status of
"standardEnglish"is hardlya stableone. Problemsarise in the verbatim
transcriptionsof conversationswith musicians,an act that assumes the
transparencyof English. Beyond the loading of language itself,the
38. See Paul Bohannan, Social Anthropology (New York, 1963).

39. For a thoroughdiscussionof the role of nativelanguages in fieldwork,see Maxwell
Owusu, "Ethnographyof Africa: The Usefulnessof the Useless," AmericanAnthropologist
80 (June 1978): 310-34.
regional varietiesof Englishin Africa,especiallythosethatare spokenby

semiliteratemusicians, are often motivated by indigenous languages,
makingit necessaryforthe ethnographerto translatematerialfromsuch
English into a "standard" English. Such translationwould improve,for
example, James Koetting's interviewwith a Ghanaian musician,which
appears in an introductoryarticle on Africanmusic,and in which such
mattersas "talent"and "perfection," introducedbytheresearcherand dis-
cussed freelyby the informant,desperatelyneed elucidation.40
The technicalproblemsraisedbyusingindigenousAfricanlanguages
as media forcollectingmusicaldata are constrainedbya more fundamen-
tal question regardingmotivation:are the categoriesprovided by infor-
mants willinglydeveloped by them?"Workingwithmusicianswho have
nothingto sayis frustrating," writesKlaus Wachsmannin his 1982 Charles
Seeger lecture.4' So why bother? The relentlesseffortto get nativesto
name instruments, describepartsof song,articulateaestheticresponsesto
musical performances,and compose oral textson meaningof music
.the
places all of the material thus collected in a particular-dare I say
suspicious?--light.If the Yoruba or Mende do not, of theirown accord,
produce a theoryof rhythmic organization,thensurelyany theorythatis
constructedfrominformationattributedto themmustacknowledgethe
verycircumstancesthatmade such theorizingpossible.For it is likelythat
the creativityof local musiciansextendsto the inventionof metaphorsto
describe musical practice. While we should not seek to deprive the
researcherof an opportunityto build an entiretheoryon thebasis of "sys-
tematicdeception,"42we shouldexpectto be warnedof suchdeception.
One finalwayin whichethnotheorywreakshavoc is in theimpression
it gives thatapproachingmusical materialfromanother culturemustbe
mediated by some formof theoryover and above our own ineradicably
theoreticalconstitution.The gap betweenan educated ear and an unedu-
cated one maynotalwaysbe as big as thosewho use ethnotheoryforpoliti-
cal purposes would wish to have it. Hearing a piece of West African
drumming,forexample,we are likelyto noticedifferent instrumentsplay-
ing differentrhythmicpatterns; the resultinghierarchywould probably
be lostonlyon the deaf. No amount of ethnotheorywillenlightenthe lis-
tener who cannot perceive these patterns. It is dishonestto ignore or
underplaytheiraccessibilityin order to introducean artificialdistinction
between what we hear and what theyhear. This is not to deny that,in a
detailed analysis,additional informationregarding,say,the performer's
40. See Koetting,"Africa/Ghana,"in WorldsofMusic:An Introduction

totheMusicofthe
World'sPeoples,ed. JeffTodd Titon (New York, 1984), pp. 64-104. The interviewwith
William Alban Ayipaga Connelly appears on pp. 77-83.
41. Wachsmann,"The Changeabilityof Musical Experience,"Ethnomusicology26 (May
1982): 198.
42. Owusu, "Ethnographyof Africa,"p. 315.
Representing
conceptionof movement,mayaid an appreciationof the piece. But this

extra tutelage must not be allowed to obscure the level of the music's
immediateaccessibility. Ethnotheorists wishto appropriateboththe natu-
ral (or "semiotic")and the learned (or "symbolic")aspectsof thisactivity,
but the end resultis oftena furtherdistancingof the musicalobject from
the listener.
The Burden of Context

An enduringprejudice about ethnomusicologicalresearchis that it
does not deal sufficientlywiththe music.It is said thatresearchersare so
in
wrapped up the intricaciesof context(social situation,dynamicsof per-
formingspace, instrumental symbolism, audience makeup,and so on) that
they somehow never get around to the thing itself.Joseph Kerman,
respondingto a commentof Seeger's, argues that"contextualstudies...
are usually tilted much too far towardsthe considerationof contexts.
They usuallydeal too littlewiththe musicas music."43Ethnomusicologists
have been quick to point out, however,that to equate the music with
sounds is highlyproblematic.There are manylanguagesthatdo not have
a singleword forwhatin Englishis meantby the wordmusic.That is why
the "musicsound" is consideredbysome to be onlyone parameteramong
many.44
If contextis simplymore text,and ifthereis no limitto the produc-
tion of such texts(especiallyifone includesall subsequentperformances
in the definitionof a work'sontology),thenit is clear thatno singlemodel
formusicalunderstandingcan captureall of thecomplexityof themusical
object. Pragmaticlimitationson whatto include in a model are therefore
dictatedby practicalor pragmaticconcerns.This simplelessoncontinues
to elude thosewho cannotaccept an analysisof pitchwithouta considera-
tionof rhythm, an analysisof harmonywithouta considerationof timbre,
or an analysisof a song thatsaysnothingabout the occupationsof itsper-
formers.Argumentsabout what is legitimatelyisolatable strikeme as
uninteresting preciselybecause itis onlyafterexaminingthe resultsof the
particularrestrictedmode of inquirythatwe can judge itsusefulness.To
refuse to isolate is to refuse to do research. The method of throwing
everythinginto the sack (as practicedby Lomax, forexample) oftenpro-
duces a residueof undigestedinformation.Rarelydoes it lead to a pursuit
of interdimensionalequations; it is satisfiedwithan argumentforcoexis-
43. Joseph Kerman, Contemplating Music: ChallengestoMusicology

(Cambridge, Mass.,
1985), p. 180.
44. Conceptions of music among various Africanpeoples sometimesinclude drum-
ming,dance, words,melody,rhythm,and so on. While care is needed in transferring the
Westerntermmusicto these contexts,it should also be said that there is oftenlittledoubt
about whatconstitutesmusicas opposed, say,to walkingor sleeping.We mustguard against
the urge to exaggerate the differencebetweenWesternand Africanconceptionsof music.
tence. Context, in this view,comprisesa potentiallyinfinitenumber of

existingelementsand processes.But thisis not a theoreticalposition,only
a descriptionof initialconditions.For contextto cease to be a burden,we
need to go beyondthe listsof elements(thatis, the numberof factorsthat
impingeon a single musicalevent) and develop algebraic equations that
capture all the bases forconnectionbetweenevents.We need, in short,a
syntaxof networks.
The emphasison contextbreeds another problem,namely,the qui-
etly assumed and increasinglyutilizedhomologybetween musical struc-
ture and social structure.The researchof Lomax, Steven Feld, Blacking,
and othersleaves us no choice in the matter:we mustalwayslook out for
possible alliances or purposefulnonalliances between musical organiza-
tion and societalstructure.45 Had the homologybeen theoreticallyvalid,
however,it would by now have produced, if not an analyticalmodel that
successfullyintegratesmattersmusicalwithmattersextramusical,thenat
least some specificationfor makingthe transferfromsocial structureto
musical structure,or vice versa. But there is no such model. Nor has
anyone seriouslydisputed the possibilitythat there is a level of musical
organizationthat is autonomous, in other words,a level that is not re-
ducible to a particularsocial construct,but is made up of a purelymusical
and relationaldeep structure.Emphasison contexthas thenegativeeffect
of discouragingthe search for such purely musical deep structures.
Ethnomusicologicalwritingabout Africahas showna markedambiv-
alence to the issue of musical structureversus social structure.Wachs-
mann is careful to credit only "the hypothesisthat the structureof all
music depends on social organization."46SimilarlyBlacking, although
largelyconcerned to provide as much contextas is necessary,contends
that"the meaningof musicrestsultimately'in the notes' thathuman ears
perceive."4'Yet thepursuitof purelymusicaldeep structureshas notbeen
the priorityof anthropologicallyorientedethnomusicologists workingon
Africa.Writingon jiuju, an urban West Africanpopular music,Christo-
pher Watermanhas recentlyproposed thatthe overall profilegenerated
byindividualperformingunitswithinthejij*uband "metaphorically pred-
icatesan idealized social order: a congeriesof localized networksfocused
on big men."48The difficulty here is not withWaterman'sinterpretation
of the dynamicsof interactionin Yoruba society;it is rather with the
natureof the metaphoricaltransferfromsocietyto music(or vice versa).
Oppositionsbetweenbig men and smallmen,or betweenhierarchicaland
egalitariansocieties,are far too fragileand predictableto supportsuch
45. See Lomax and Feld's studies cited above in n. 14.

46. Wachsmann,"Folk Music,"in TheNewGroveDictionary ofMusicand Musicians,6: 693.
47. Blacking, How Musical Is Man? p. 19.
48. ChristopherA. Waterman,"'Our Tradition Is a Very Modern Tradition': Popular
Music and the Constructionof Pan-YorubaIdentity,"Ethnomusicology34 (Fall 1990): 374.
Representing
transfers.To alleviatethe burden of context,it is necessaryto undermine

the last vestigesof anthropologicalethnomusicologynot by showingits
irrelevanceto the field of Africanmusic but by contextualizingits rele-
vance, by showing this relevance to lie in a hierarchical formation
wherebythe music sound becomes the point of departureas well as the
source of the "ultimatemeaning"ofa work.That we can everdecode such
meaningis of course open to question,but to retainsuch an illusionmay
prove far more productivethan resortingto simple dichotomies.
RepresentingAfricanmusic is of course a complex affair,and it has
been partof myaim in developingthiscritiquenot to suggestthatthereis
a single,propermethodof representation.I am especiallyconsciousofthe
manygaps leftin thisessay.The contributionsof numerousscholarshave
gone unmentioned,there has been littlediscussionof Africanpopular
music or so-called art music, and no referencehas been made to the
semioticaspects of musical notation,an area of representationin which
musicianscan claim a "native"interest.I hope, however,thatthe narrow-
ness of focus has not obscured the underlyingview thatwe are our dis-
courses (just as we say "the clothesmake the man" or "you are what you
eat"). This means that we have to be carefulnot to fall prey to simple
dichotomies,especiallythosepropped up by a vulgaressentialism.Differ-
ences betweenNorthAmericanand European ethnomusicologists writing
about Africa,between Africanscholarsand theirWesterncounterparts,
between musicologicallyoriented ethnomusicologists and anthropologi-
cally oriented ones, between armchair ethnomusicologists and those who
have done fieldwork:theseand otheridentitieschange withtime,circum-
stance,and occasion. And thisis as it should be, forthe musicalobject is
far too complex to allow a satisfactoryview fromonly one angle.

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Representing African Music

Author(s): Kofi Agawu

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Of all the currentsof change that have swept the humanitiesduring

Earlier versions of this paper were read at UniversityCollege, London, in April

CriticalInquiry 18 (Winter 1992)

discipline?' Second is the probem of translation:what factorsinfluence

1. A concise introductionto the fieldofethnomusicology,itshistory,personalities,and

Kofi Agawu teachesat Cornell University and is theauthorofPlaying

In its broadest sense, representationof African music takes three

Clapperton'sLast ExpeditiontoAfrica,publishedin 1830, maybe consid-

On the morningof Thursday,the 12th,we leftChiadoo, followedby

Although this is clearly not a "scholarly"account, it nevertheless

5. Richard Lander, Recordsof Captain Clapperton'sLast Expeditionto Africa,2 vols.

ple, discussing"music in communitylife,"writesabout "societieswhich

Music makingis regarded as a part of the traditionalwayof lifeand

7. J. H. Kwabena Nketia,Music in AfricanCultures:A ReviewoftheMeaningand Signifi-

mustnot be allowed to swallowindividualdiscerningresponses.Indeed, a

8. Blacking pursues this idea throughoutHow Musical Is Man?

missionarydiscourse,initiatedin the previousphase, was vigorouslypur-

425-51. A more comprehensiveanalysismaybe found in Lomax, FolkSongStyleand Cul-

paradigmaticAfricanmusics. But only those who interpretthe relative

16. See Jones, Studiesin AfricanMusic, 2 vols. (London, 1959), p. 231.

One was not surprisedto find,forexample, David Rycroftbeginningan

One of the oddest and loudest formsof Africannoise to be heard

This kindof writingis unlikelyto haveappeared in thepages ofEthno-

19. David Rycroft,"Zulu Male Traditional Singing,"AfricanMusic 1 (1957): 33.

the complicityof empire to contend with,American ethnomusicologists

21. Alan P. Merriam, "Ethnomusicology:Discussion and Definition of the Field,"

the actual quantityof fieldworkhas decreased significantly,

24. These include Richard A. Waterman,"'Hot' Rhythmin Negro Music,"Journalof

It would seem fromthisaccount thatwritingabout Africanmusicis

The Writerin theText

My performancetrainingincludes: 1969 (Columbia University),Eve

(Art Council of Ghana FolkloricCompany,Accra), Eve drumming

appeased! But surelythe most importantthingis whatJones had to say,

30. Fabian, Timeand theOther,p. 31.

differencesbetweenresearcherand researched,between"thosewho seek

phonemicand phonetic,aims to distinguishbetween insiderand outsideraccounts, subjec-

attendantconcept of ethnophilosophy,and calling for philosophypure

To requirethinkersto be contentwithreaffirming the beliefsof their

In the same vein, and beyond the political dimension addressed by

36. Paulin J. Hountondji, AfricanPhilosophy:

means verbalizingabout music-occurs sporadically.While thereare dif-

38. See Paul Bohannan, Social Anthropology (New York, 1963).

regional varietiesof Englishin Africa,especiallythosethatare spokenby

40. See Koetting,"Africa/Ghana,"in WorldsofMusic:An Introduction

conceptionof movement,mayaid an appreciationof the piece. But this

The Burden of Context

43. Joseph Kerman, Contemplating Music: ChallengestoMusicology

tence. Context, in this view,comprisesa potentiallyinfinitenumber of

45. See Lomax and Feld's studies cited above in n. 14.

transfers.To alleviatethe burden of context,it is necessaryto undermine

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