Jean Jenkins (ethnomusicologist)

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Jean Jenkins (17 March 1922 - 12 September 1990) was an American-born ethnomusicologist who spent most of her career based in the UK and travelled all over the world to collect sound recordings, slides and musical instruments.

[edit] Biography

Jean Jenkins was born in Arkansas and studied anthropology and musicology in Missouri during the 1940s. In 1949 she arrived in Britain with her first husband, and continued her studies at the University of London, at the School of Oriental and African Studies. In 1954 she joined the staff of the Horniman Museum in South London. During her time at the museum she built up the musical instrument collections from developing countries, conducted important fieldwork in Ethiopia (throughout the 1960s) and created a centre for ethnomusicology. Meanwhile she married her second husband and obtained a British passport in order to avoid being deported to the US for her trade union work. The marriage was dissolved in 1961.

A strong-willed and energetic woman, during the 1960s and 1970s Jean Jenkins traveled extensively throughout Southern Europe, Asia and Africa. Among many other places, she visited Uganda (1966 and 68), Malaysia (1972), Indonesia (1973) Afghanistan (1974) Algeria and Morocco, and Turkey and Syria (1975). During these extended trips she collected a wealth of information in the form of sound recordings, slides and photographs, and also kept regular diaries. In addition, she collected a vast range of musical instruments.

After curating the 1976 exhibition “Music and Musical Instruments for the World of Islam” at the Horniman Museum, thereby introducing the collections to a much wider audience, in 1978 she left the museum and continued to work independently in Edinburgh, France and Germany. In 1983 she curated the important exhibition “Man and Music” at the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh. She died in London on 12 September 1990.

Collections at the National Museums of Scotland

In 1980 the National Museums of Scotland acquired Jean Jenkins’s own collection of musical instruments and in 1990 the Museum was bequeathed her entire archive of field recordings, indexes, diaries and 13,000 slides and photographs. Together, they form a unique record of musical traditions which, in some places, have disappeared.

[edit] Publications

Jenkins, Jean Man and Music, Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Museum, 1983
Jenkins, Jean and Olsen, Poul Rovsing Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam, World of Islam Festival, 1976
Jenkins, Jean, Ethiopia Volume 2, "Music of the Nomads"

Ethiopia consists of a great central highland region surrounded, except on the south-west, by deserts. The highlands tend to be inhabited by farmers, the deserts by nomadic pastoralists. Since farming in settled communities permits more leisure, the music of the highlands tends to differ considerably from that of the desert nomads. The former have many musical instruments, while amongst the nomads vocal music is the rule. The highlanders are part of the Ethiopian Christian Orthodox Church, or of the Judaic Falashas, or in the south-west, are animists, while the pastoralists of the deserts are usually Moslems. Economics, rather than religious, linguistic or historical factors, seems to determine the life of the desert peoples. In the perpetual search for water and pastorage for their flocks, they roam across huge arid regions, often fighting other groups in search of the same scarce water and grasslands. Their music tends to concentrate on prayers or thanksgiving for rain, work songs, love songs, tales of heroic deeds and of battles, and dances which celebrate the end of a fast, a wedding, or religious observances. The music on this record has been selected partly for its beauty, and partly because it is representative of what may be heard in the great empty spaces of Ethiopia's deserts.

SIDE ONE

The Somali tribes range with their flocks throughout Somalia, but also in eastern Ethiopia and Kenya. In Ethiopia, they are found in the Ogaden desert of Harar province, a region of plains sparsely covered with coarse grass, broken by occasional streams and rivers. There are several tribes of Somalis; the northernmost, the isa, being influenced by the Afar in many of their customs. These tall, thin herdsmen, with dark skin and fine features, were converted to Islam from the sixteenth century onwards; today all the Somalis are Moslems, although the townsmen are generally more fervent in religious practice than the nomads.

Band 1. The Gadabursi are a Somali tribe living in the northern Ogaden. At the great feast which concludes the month-long fast of Ramadan, many clans gather near Jijiga in Harar province for a three day celebration. One Gadabursi elder led his kinsmen in a very long song which not only gives their genealogy, but tells of their wanderings, and of the heroic deeds each of their leaders has performed.

Band 2. 'Minkiashakha" is a love song, sung by a young Isa girl and her two brothers, near Jijiga. These singers are well known in the district, for not only do they sing well (although in a somewhat modern manner which results in disapproval by the older Somali men) but they often make new songs of this type, many of which have become popular throughout the Ogaden. The poetry is often very beautiful, and the tunes quickly become widely known.

Band 3. The Afar (called Danakil by the Arabs. Ethiopians and foreigners) are an independent and somewhat fierce people, who eke out the barest existence in a most inhospitable area, Unlike the Somalis, who live on a plateau with grass and a few rivers which can support several permanent settlements, the Afar inhabit a lowland area where vegetation is so sparse as to be invisible. Their territory, however, includes a very valuable asset, for in the great salt depression of the north-east, most of the rock salt of Ethiopia is obtained, These long bars of salt were the standard currency of Ethiopia until very recently, and indeed they are still in use in some areas. The Afar have a monopoly on this rock salt, and, since they have absolute control of entry into this land, the monopoly is likewise complete. Most of the salt is taken to be sold in the salt market of Makalle in Tigré province, and despite a fourteen day journey by camel caravan, there is evidently a profit made by the Tigrinya-speaking caravan men and salt traders. The Afar likewise make their profit. In this work song, one salt miner, near Dalol, is singing; the strict rhythm is marked by the chipping of the other Dahimela-Afar miners.

Band 4. The Rashaida are an Arabic-speaking tribe who live in the typical black tents of the Bedouin.

They are strict and conservative Moslems; they pray often and keep the Ramadan fast so devo4tly, that they eat only enough to sustain life during that time. All the men wish to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. They hold aloof from such other tribes as exist in the northern part of the Red Sea Division of Eritrea, and, in the section of the Rashaida I visited, only two marriages outside were known; in both cases, the man was cast out as a result. The women are heavily veiled, and because of this, can participate in all activities. Rashaida music includes love poetry, usually a solo sung by a man, religious music, and a great many dance songs, which accompany sword dances, stick dances and the great festivals where the women dance in the centre of a semi-circle of men (see photograph). Such a dance is on this band. The Rashaida use only one scale; they often sing in octaves or parallel fourths or fifths; a high or low sostenato is also a feature of their music.

Band 5. Although the Afar territory is among the least habitable of all the desert areas of Ethiopia, Afar adaptation to their environment is extraordinarily complete, and they do manage to exist there. They are famous for killing any stranger at sight, but clan also fights clan, as part of the struggle for existence. Indeed, they seem to respect only a man who has killed. Their tents are of matting; they live on sour milk, occasionally they have millet porridge, and they drink a liquor made from the doum palm. They are Moslems, but remnants of earlier religions are easily discernible. The music on this band honours those who have killed.

Band 6. In the south of Ethiopia, in Sidamo and Harar provinces, live the Borana. They are a Galls group, considered by many to speak the purest form of the Galla language. Nomadic pastoralists who are famous for their beautiful white cattle, their territory includes many wells and is less arid than the eastern desert lands of Ethiopia. The Borana have their own religion with several deities, and socially they are organized into a Gada (age-grade) system whereby, every eight years, the males pass into a new grade with different responsibilities. The mainstay of their life is their cattle; they live on its milk; make butter and sour cheese from it also, eat its meat and use its skin for leather water bags, pillows and clothing. Most of their songs concern their cows, and in this band a Borana ba/aba! (local chief) near Yavello is praising his cattle.

Band 7. The Borana wells are remarkable, Excavated long ago by their ancestors, they go deep into ground, twisting and turning for as much as sixty feet. Twice a day, water is drawn and a large group of men descend into the wells. Each has a small giraffe-skin bucket; when the man at the bottom starts passing up his filled bucket, he catches the empty one coming

SIDE TWO

The Gerre are a nomadic tribe owning camels, cattle and goats, and speaking an admixture of Somali and Borana. They are of Somali origin, but have intermarried with the Borana and have largely accepted the Borana religion. They call themselves Moslems, but only a few of the chiefs use the Koran as the basis of their prayers. One of these chiefs, near Wachille, leads the religious singing of his tribe, and this music is sung when a new encampment is made, so that water and grass will be plentiful. The sametype of music is sung on Fridays, after awedding and after fasting. The chief leads and all the other men, arms interlocked, form the chorus, swaying rhythmically from side to side in a long line. Alter some time, they approach a state of trance.

Sierra Leone Traditional Music

Sierra Leone, in the extreme west of Africa, formerly a British possession, which became independent in 1961, has been little known (even to anthropologists !) except for its diamonds, and, to a certain extent, for its masks. Bordered by Guinea and Liberia as well as the Atlantic Ocean, its countryside consists of tropical forest in the south, savannah lands in the north. In the more densely inhabited and agricultural south and centre live the two largest ethnic groups, the Mende and the Themne, which together make up well over half of the population, while many smaller groups such as the Mandingo, Fula, Karanko, Susus, Yalunka and Limba comprise the mainly Muslim population of the savannah of the north. Amongst these widely differing ethnic groups there exists a great wealth of music largely unknown to the outside world.

The pastoralist Fula people of northern Sierra Leone, related to the Fulani and Perth who are found scattered over the wide area from Nigeria to Guinea, move with their cattle in search of fresh grazing lands. Perhaps for this reason their music is predominantly vocal, and their instruments, designed mainly to accompany song, are small and easily portable. Most Fula musicians belong to clans or families who are professionals - griots whose work consisted in the past of composing songs in honour of great men, the political and religious leaders of the tribe, their deeds of heroism, their genealogy, their illustrious history. Today this has broadened, and the griot sings of the liberality of politicians, embroiders the truth to flatter visitors, illustrates a Fula proverb with a wealth of personal detail and complimentary stories if he lives in a town he may earn part of his living from the radio. Face A of this record is devoted to Fula music.

Side A

I. PRAISE SONG, accompanied by the ke,ooaru

The keronaru (popularly called the Fula guitar) is a lute whose small wooden soundbox is covered with skin a stick which forms the neck pierces the body, and the strings are attached to its base over a calabash bridge. Fastened at the other end with thin leather rings, tuning is effected by pulling on the leather thongs which hang from these rin--, This type of lute, with the same meth I 01 iiing the strings and of tuning them, can ii on Egyptian tomb paintings of about 1600 B.C. This song, a Nina,,, is honouring the important people of the area, who build roads and schools and employ many people in this work and pay the singers well. The leader here is Brahima Bale, who plays and sings, as does Debt Singa Marl, while Chernor Mamadou sings and makes a humming accompaniment. The musicians, although belonging to grief families, are also farmers.

recorded at Moussia, December 1976

2. PRAISE SONG FOR INDEPENDENCE

This itinerant group of Fula griots perform at weddings, feasts and political rallies over a wide area, from Guinea, all across northern Sierra Leone and north-eastern Liberia. Their leader plays the Fula guitar while two others play European guitars tuned to the keronaru, and a woman sings. This song is in praise of independence cele

brations not in the political sense but in terms of everyone being so happy that all people pay the musicians extremely well and they can live for months on that money. << Oh that there could be such a celebration every year

recorded at Manjara village, January 1977

3. FLUTE MUSIC ON THE TTJNIRU

Amadou Saw is a young Fula schoolboy who learned to play this end-blown flute with three holes while he was herding cattle for his father. His improvisations and variations, which include singing into his flute, are so extensive and welldeveloped that he is able to give a virtuoso performance for at least an hour on what is, in reality, a somewhat limited instrument.

recorded at Bo, December 1976

Most of the ethnic groups of Sierra Leone, unlike the semi-nomadic Fula pastoralists, are farmers. Their music, consequently, is perhaps more typical of black Africa, with heavy drums as the most important instruments. Amongst the Mende, Themne, Limba and Karanko, the powerful beat and intricate rhythms of the drums are augmented by the beaten iron bells, the wooden or bamboo slit drum, clappers and shakers, hand-clapping and the ankle-bells of the dancers lit short, the complex organisation of great percussion ensembles, to which the xylophones add melody as well as additional percussion. In contrast to the music of the Fula griots, where the text is of primary importance, this is participation music for a whole village or a whole secret society everyone dances and often everyonejoins in the singing.

Side B

I. MASKED DANCE OF THE INSURU SOCIETY The insuru Society is one of the secret societies which control much of Themne life. The masked dancer or aguda (all masked dancers are commonly called devils in the pidgin English spoken thi oughout Sierra Leone) takes on a supernatural identity and powers. Formerly nonmembers of the society were not permitted to see the aguda, who dances on stills and rests by leaning against the roof of a house. This small excerpt gives some idea of the texture of the drum music, which can summon the whole village to dance for an entire week, although the women, children and non-members of the Insuru Society danced apart from the rest.

recorded Masenkra village, December 1976

2. PRAISE SONG accompanied by the Bolurn Bu

tam (three-stringed harp with a large calabash body)

The Mandingo are found in Guinea, the Gambia, Senegal, Mali and the Ivory Coast as well as in Sierra Leone; they are Muslim farmers who keep substantial herds of cattle. The praise singer in this case, who comes from a grief family, is primarily a farmer. He learned from his father the entire repertoire of history, genealogy and the great deeds of the ancestors, but says that nowadays he is called upon mainly to praise political figures, as in this song in honour of a cabinet minister. I is, however, delivered to the traditional manner both as regards the style of music and in the'phraseology.

recorded near Kabala, December 1976

3. MAN DINGO SCHOOLGIRLS SINGING CHRISTIAN HYMNS

This example is typical of the changes in tradition taking place in Sierra Leone today. While in the capital city of Freetown much of the music is high life (West African pop), in the provincial towns with secondary schools, Christian hymns are taught to the schoolchildren. These two young Mandingo girls are Muslims, one attending a Catholic mission school, the other a Protestant one, recorded at Kabala, December 1976

4. XYLOPHONE MUSIC OF THE KARANKO PEOPLE

Most of the ethnic groups in the northern part of Sierra Leone have xylophone ensembles, or use the xylophone with a singer as the leader of a group for village festivities. The Karanko xylophone, which is called balangi, has sixteen bars set on a wooden frame enclosing small round calabash resonators for each bar. Each gourd has a hole cut in its side over which the thin but strong membrane made by spiders to protect their eggs is glued to give extra vibration and resonance. The xylophones are often played, as here, by women who lead the singing at a wedding. The double iron bell, slit drum, and large double membrane drums are all used in this celebration.

recorded in Kabala, December 1976

5. LIMBA DRUM MUSIC

The Limba are the largest ethnic group to the northern province, and their'music, like that of the Themne to the south, is rhythmically intricate

the heavy insistant beat of the drums seems to compel everyone to dance. In this short excerpt from a three day long ceremony, four pairs of double membrane drums are used. They are cylindrical in shape, made of dense wood, and vary in length from over one metre to almost two metres. Only one skin is beaten, with a sharply angled drumstick. The master drummer leads the singing; all the dancers respond. The double-note iron bell and the slit drum add to the rich texture. There is no pause between types of music ; the master drummer sets the new beat immediately after concluding one rhythm and he is joined by all the other drums.

recorded Yagala village, January 1977

6. BUNDU SOCIETY MUSIC OF THE MENDE WOMEN

The Mende are the largest ethnic group in Sierra Leone and are certainly the best known. Both men and women are organised into powerful secret societies. The ceremonies of each are characterised by masked dancing, in which the charismatic leader, or a devil,, in pidgin, changes from his human personality to assume a supernatural one. (This type of disguise is found even amongst the children, for the << small devils,' are frequently seen). In the women's society the masked dancer and also the mask is called the bundu. Its distinctive mask is of dark wood, unpainted, and its voluminous black raffia grass dress covers the entire body of the a devil ~> who dances, usually in a small circle. It is the men who beat the drums for the women; they are stationed a discrete distance away. The bead of the Society uses a calabash shaker called segulay and leads her group of women in the singing, changing the words each time ; the second group, under the leadership of an older woman, reply antiphonally. The use of seconds is extensive, and is invariable at the conclusion of each phrase.

recorded at Sirabu village, December 1976

[edit] Recordings

Jenkins, Jean and Olsen, Poul Rovsing Music in the World of Islam, including The Human Voice, Lutes, Strings, Flutes and Trumpets, Reeds and Bagpipes and Drums and Rhythms (Tangent TGS 131 through 136), 1976
Jenkins, Jean, Ethiopia Volume 1, "Music of the Central Highlands", Tangent TGM Mono, 1970
Jenkins, Jean, Ethiopia Volume 2, "Music of the Nomads", Tangent TGM 102 Mono, 1970