Author Question: In what general area of Africa do the Mande live? (See if you can locate the Gambia, where Lambango ... (Read 62 times)

SGallaher96 · **on:** Jul 25, 2018

In what general area of Africa do the Mande live? (See if you can locate the Gambia, where Lambango was recorded, on the map in Worlds of Music, page 99). Why is this area referred to as a Cultural Crossroads?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What are the musicians of the Mande ethnic tradition called? With what significant African empire are they associated? What was the geographic range of this empire? (See also map in Worlds of Music at the beginning of Chapter Three.) In addition to creating music, what other role(s) do these musicians play within their society?

What will be an ideal response?

lorealeza · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 25, 2018

Answer to Question 1

The Mande live in the West African savanna, south of the Sahara desert and north of the forest. (A savanna is a grassland containing scattered trees and drought-resistant undergrowth Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, tenth edition, p. 1039.)
Routes of intercultural communication run through this area in all directions.

Answer to Question 2

These musicians are called griots or jalolu (singular jali). (Jaliya is what jalolu do.)
The Mali empire, which at its height during the 14th 16th centuries exerted authority west from the Upper Niger to the Atlantic coast.
These performers are professional sound artisans of the Mande ethnic tradition as well as counselors to royalty, entertainers for the public, and guardians of history.