Jack Behrend Collection

African Rhythms

Transcript (Download)

This is Africa.

Below our airplane are heavy forests, jungle.

If we were to shut off our engines, we would at first notice only the silence.

Then, as in our own forests at night, we would hear the chirping birds, the croaking bullfrogs, and the chattering crickets.

Once in a while a sleepless monkey would remind us that this is Africa.

Scattered throughout the forest, here and there, everywhere, villages with straw huts would appear.

And this makes the African forest very different from our North American forests.

Monkeys, villages, straw huts, and then another sound.

A sound that is very African.

Listen.

These are drums, African drums.

A night dance is in progress.

There's nothing to be frightened of, even if it looks very different from the kinds of dancing we are familiar with.

The African dances have the same meaning as do our holidays that celebrate the first day of spring or our confirmation parties.

But this dance tonight is what the people call a plague.

There's no special meaning to it.

Everyone has come together just to enjoy each other's company, to have a good time.

Today, as we have come to know the people of Africa as neighbors only a few hours away by airplane, it has become possible to study their forms of dance.

And by understanding its meanings, we have come to know the people better.

In the Republic of Liberia, which lies just under the hump of West Africa on the Atlantic Ocean, we find a great richness of tribal music.

And we can see how the dance is part of the everyday life of the African.

The dance, the music, the art and language of a group of people do not come into being by accident.

All the different ways in which people express their feelings come from the ways in which they live.

In America, there are no dancers who specialize in dancing on long stilts, as does this Liberian dancer.

But throughout, his technique is common.

A different way of living creates different kinds of costumes and customs.

Different designs in the things people make and different musical rhythms and techniques.

Even within Africa, there are differences.

While there are many similarities between the dance of Liberia and other forested sections of Africa, it is very different from the dances of the people who live in the deserts of North Africa or the people who live in the mountainous regions near the source of the Nile.

So to know a little about the dance of Liberia, we must know a little about the people's history and the way they live.

We had always looked upon Africa as a strange land, populated by warlike tribes who led a way of life that we called barbarian.

But it was not until recent times that we came to know them and possibly to understand that they were less hostile than we thought.

And like all peoples, they would fight to protect their land from invasion.

From the beginning of their civilization, life has been very difficult.

There was little cultivation of food crops, for there was little understanding of the ways of nature.

In the forests, the hunter searched for wild fruits and followed the tracks of wild game.

But many dangers lurked there, and the heavy foliage made travel between the people very difficult.

Even where small plots of rice were grown, it took all the energies of the people to keep the great forests from growing over the clearings.

So food was very scarce, and the people came to know that it was the forests that greatly affected their lives.

In primitive times, Liberia's coastline was not very important to her people.

The fishing boats had to go a long way out to make a catch, and even then, without modern refrigeration, the fish could not be transported fresh to the people who lived inland.

But in the year 1820, the waters of the Atlantic Ocean did bring a change.

Some American slaves, the grandchildren of Africans who were once taken from Africa, were now freed and returned to Liberia to set up a colony, to start a new life.

From this beginning, there grew the Republic of Liberia, whose constitution was shaped after our own.

The capital city of Monrovia, named after the American president James Monroe, has become a modern city, a port, and a center of great business activity.

And it serves as a bridge between the new world and the ways of the tribal people.

The African tribal dancer is a professional, as are the various drummers who accompany him.

They visit all the villages of their tribe, they sing the songs that tell of the origin of their people, and the exploits of their heroes.

Few of the tribes have an alphabet with which to write.

Only in our present time have the Africans had the opportunity to see the value of reading and writing.

Even today among the tribal people, there are practically no books or newspapers.

So it has always been the storyteller that keeps the history alive and the people informed.

He is a living newspaper.

And it is by this means that these singers and dancers make their living.

They cannot be sloppy in their profession, but must be highly skilled, as is this entertainer who is using a hollowed out, dried gourd rather than a drum.

And as the group's singing and drumming and the dancers' movements bring their audience together, they play with the precision of the most highly trained and rehearsed symphonic orchestra.

They are artists in their work.

But the African dancer and the African musician are not just entertainers who choose to do as they like, any way they wish.

The costume, the music, and the dance reflect the way the people live.

Some have even said that Africa and the dance are the same thing.

The jungle is very important in the lives of the African people.

It holds many dangers, many mysteries that the people do not understand.

It stretches not only for such long distances that without horses or cars it seems endless, but also so high that men, armed only with primitive knives and axes, feel very small.

When part of the forest is to be cleared for farming, the men who cut it down keep a fast chopping tempo with a work song.

All people have work songs for many of the difficult jobs they must perform together.

Sometimes they are called chants, such as the sea chanties sung by the sailors on the old sailing ships.

Here a professional drummer sets the tempo, and in this way the men have a sense of unity against the greatness of the forest.

The people say that the devil, who is their god, lives in the forest, which they call the bush.

He is known as the bush or country devil.

They believe he possesses great powers of magic and can appear out of nowhere and then vanish.

He is not like our devil who represents all that is wrong and evil.

The African people believe their devil cures and drives away the strange curses that bring illness, bad luck and broken friendships.

Therefore, they do not fear him, but pay the highest respect to his magic ability.

Finally, the horns have called the bush devil into the center of the village.

The village drums join in.

The people collect in a circle and sing.

When a stranger knows that he is going to watch an African dance, he does not think he will feel any excitement.

He thinks that only his curiosity toward the strangeness will hold his attention.

But as the beating of all the drums and the chanting voices mix with the heat of the sun, the stranger is a stranger no longer.

The pounding rhythm strikes the outside of his body and the beating tempo of his own heart within him matches the musical accents of the drums.

And this is what happens to everyone.

When the heart beats in time with everyone else's heart and all match the beat of the music, all men feel that they are no longer small beings in a world that is strange.

They are all in rhythm with each other.

They sense that this has made them larger in size and importance.

And the mysteries of the earth seem to be less frightening.

Just watch this bush devil whose specialty is to increase and diminish in size.

His costume is made from the trees of the forest.

One instant he is taller than any man can be, which is like a tree.

And the next instant he is a small bundle of quiet straw, even smaller than the height of a child.

Every village has its big devil who administers the magic medicine for good health, good hunting, and a good life.

And every big devil has his assistants who perform the dances.

Few know the identity of the dancers behind the masks, but they are usually members of the village in which they perform.

Here is the tall -legged devil, frolicking on stilts ten feet high.

From the time he was a young boy approaching manhood, he was trained in the secret society of the bush.

By torture and painful experience, all the boys served their apprenticeship for manhood in the secret societies, as did the young girls in preparation for womanhood.

All dances are meant to bring a sense of good feeling to all those who join in.

The dance is the time for getting together, and the greater the joy that everyone feels, the more difficult it will be for a curse to fall upon them.

Watch this dancer twist and turn above our heads.

See the ease with which he keeps time to the music, even on the stilts, and measure the giant steps he takes with them.

Now that we know that the great heights and great depths of the jungle shape the daily lives of the people, we can begin to understand their admiration for a devil dancer whose tallness approaches the trees and whose giant steps could conquer great distances.

Some dances have no special meaning, while others do.

These are called rituals.

They are danced on special occasions or at special times of the year, such as spring.

In the hope that the sun and the rain and the soil will be good to their crops, the people place great importance on the magic of the dance.

It may be that there is a shortage of game, and the devil comes forth in a monkey mask.

If the dance is successful, the hunters will soon find much fine game.

Sometimes the devil dancer sings silly songs with the villagers.

Here, they humorously criticize his ugly face, and they ask him, who is the ugliest of all people? He answers, me and your father.

While this entertainment was happening, another dancer became jealous of the attention being given the monkey devil, and came out to take his turn at the center of the stage.

Neither would give in to the other, so both danced together to the added joy of the villagers.

The gliding dancer reveals extreme skill in his ability to move as if he were on a wheel, when actually he possesses the same kind of feet as the rest of us.

After gliding smoothly about, he suddenly halts and slowly shimmies and shakes.

Perhaps he means to imitate the flow of the seasons.

One season moves into another with very little change, and then all of a sudden, a new season of violent rainstorms drenches the earth.

Of course, the most often repeated dance is the wedding dance.

A marriage is not only important to the two young people who hold love for each other, but each marriage represents to the tribe that life is good in their village.

The married couple will have children, and the tribe will grow and prosper.

There is much special preparation in the way the man seeks the hand of the young girl, and the established custom for courting is carefully followed.

But once all the parties have agreed and the vows have been taken, day and night the drums and the chanting voices fill the air.

As the children of this couple are born, and as they grow up, each important step in their lives will also be marked by a dance, a dance in which everyone else will share.

Yes, it can be said that Africa and the dance are the same thing.

Today, Liberia is a country that is rapidly changing, and so too are the sounds in Liberia changing.

The drummers, who once played only for the devil dancers, now beat the rhythm for the street construction workers.

Nearby, the pneumatic hammers of the new industrial world join in.

In recent years, the growing of rubber was begun, and today is Liberia's principal export.

This new science of agriculture, represented by the orderly rows of rubber trees, is different from the primitive ways, with its belief in luck and magic.

The new magic is based upon the sciences of agriculture, chemistry, and engineering.

The 30 ,000 Liberians who work on the plantations and in the processing factories have seen a great industrial city take its place in their country.

And they know that this has happened by simply understanding nature's ways.

A whole new generation is being taught, not in the secret societies of the bush, but in modern public schools.

The world of knowledge they depend on increases in size, and so they study about us.

We study their lives, and our area of interest and knowledge also grows.

This change is attracting the interest and the attention of the whole world.

At this garden party, ambassadors from over 36 nations celebrate the inauguration of the president of Liberia, the Honorable William V .S.

Tubman.

And the most interesting comparison is to be seen in the different kinds of dress, today worn by the Liberian people.

And alongside the traditional robed tribal dress, the formal attire of London and Washington takes its place.

Under these changing conditions, the musical expression of the country is also bound to change.

As their jobs have changed and their knowledge of the world has grown, many of the people have taken to new forms of entertainment and relaxation, and new forms of music.

Watch them dance to an American foxtrot.

Just listen to their own perfect imitation of a famous American vocal group.

They even jitterbug to their own special fast -tempo cotillion.

Once the African music blended into the culture of North America, and the musical results took their world -famous place as spirituals, the blues, and jazz.

Today, this American music returns to Africa to influence their tribal songs, rhythms, and customs.

Yes, the African music is changing, but its roots are always deep in Africa.

Always, its music will carry a quality that is very specially African.

Thank you.

Identifier
F.2004-02-0036
Date Of Production
1961
Abstract
Educational film showing the culture of Africa through music, dance, costume, religion, work, and education. The films shows traditional African villages explaining their way of life. Later scenes show the effect of Western culture as tribes adopt the trends, education, and modern business building modern cities of their own. Narrator explains no matter what changes, the roots are always of Africa. Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, and President of Liberia William V. S. Tubman are featured.
Log
00:00 - title, MS ZOOM IN African man playing drum
00:14 - aerial TS plane POV jungle of Africa below, fly lower over a village of straw huts
01:08 - Var MS, CU African villagers having a night dance, playing drums and dancing in circles indoors, narrator explains their reasons for dancing are similar to ours, for celebration
01:54 - RA LS plane landing on strip clearing of trees in forest
02:11 - ZOOM IN on globe, Africa, narrator talks about the different dances, dress, designs, music, culture that can be found here
02:25 - Liberian man dances on stilts, people circle around him dancing, huts in background
02:48 - MS woman tying baby to her back
03:08 - CU hand carved bowls, MS man dancing with bowls as people gather behind, some playing stringed instruments with bows, people wearing polo shirts and vests, trousers, modern hats
03:27 - CU books on African peoples, there are many differences between areas of the continent
03:35 - people dancing in grass costume, shots of tribes rising from grass field, narrator says we once thought them barbaric, now we got to know them, they fight to protect their land
04:09 - LS, FA, SA man crossing rope bridge, MS shoots arrow
04:32 - Var shots people collecting food from forest, carrying buckets on heads, woman with baby on back
04:53 - MLS boat POV four small fishing boats filled with standing fisherman, dark silhouettes, light behind them, TS
05:11 - ocean waves coming in to shore, fade in group of well dressed people, former slaves who had been freed and returned to Liberia to set up a colony
05:24 - LS exterior Republic of Liberia building, Var shots busy streets in modern capital city of Monrovia, cars, port and business center, people eating on balcony PAN RIGHT overlooking forested cityscape, narrator says city serves as bridge between new world and tribal peoples
05:58 - CU drums being played, MLS grass huts
06:12 - CU writing on paper, African alphabet, Var MS children writing
06:24 - tribes acting out a battle in traditional dress, narrator says tribes used storytelling rather than writing to keep history and people informed
06:34 - women beating grain and chopping wood
06:50 - Montage of men playing drums, performers dancing, men are living newspapers, must be skilled at their profession, performance reflects their lives
07:55 - Montage of people working in forest to the beat of a professional drummer to set the tempo, men chop down large trees with axes, trees falling
09:03 - narrator says the people believe the devil, who is their god, lives in the forests, called the bush devil, rather than being evil, their devil drives away curses that cause bad luck, illness, broken friendships, devil is acted out with a large puppet-like prop while man plays horn, draws devil into center of village, begins African dance
11:26 - Montage different village with their devil on stilts, village of men preparing for manhood, shots of girls dancing preparing for womanhood
13:02 - Montage costumed dancer in monkey mask, narrator discusses some dances are rituals, battling dancers, seasons moving in
14:39 - Montage of tribe dancing for marriage, narrator discussed courting and rituals
15:37 - exterior large white building in Liberia, montage of industrial workers, TS forest of rubber trees, CU Var rubber dripping from spouts, Montage of interiors, aerials of rubber processing factories
16:44 - Var shots children in modern public schools
17:04 - Var shots garden party, ambassadors from around the world honoring the inauguration of the president of Liberia, William V. S. Tubman, CU of President Tubman, MS shots traditional dress and formal London attire sit by side
17:36-19:17 - Montage African people dancing the fox trot in to live band in ballroom, formal dress, they adapt new music and blend it with their own, cut to people tribal dancing, the roots of their dance will always be African
Run Time
0:19:17
Format
16mm
Extent
700 feet
Color
Color
Sound
Optical
Reel/Tape Number
1/1
Has Been Digitized?
Yes
Language Of Materials
English
Element
Answer Print
Genre
Educational
Ethnographic
Form
Short
Subject
Cultural relations
Industrialization
Indigenous peoples
Manners and customs
Africa
Related Collections
Jack Behrend Collection

Related Places
Africa

Distributor
Association Films

Sponsor/client
Firestone Plantation Company
Association Films Sponsor

Main Credits
Weisenborn, Gordon (is director)
Vogue Wright (is production company)

Additional Credits
Vogue Wright (is contributor)
Weisenborn, Gordon (is contributor)

 
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