Born in London, but with deep roots in The Gambia, Sona Jobarteh is a virtuoso of the Kora, the traditional instrument of West African Griot families, an instrument traditionally handed down from father to son. She is an amazing musician – carrying forward West African musical traditions and exploring modern adaptations – as well as a humanitarian activist working on educational reform in Africa…
And check out, “Gambia,” a celebration of the 50 year anniversary of Gambia independence.
“Tangos de la Repompa” by Las Migas, performed here with Bravata Dance Group, offers a vivid blend of traditional flamenco with subtle Middle Eastern echoes. The song’s intense tangos rhythm, layered with intricate guitar and passionate vocals, draws on the Phrygian scale and vocal ornamentation rooted in flamenco’s Andalusian and Arabic heritage. Bravata’s choreography heightens this fusion, combining flamenco’s grounded, percussive steps with flowing, almost hypnotic arm movements that call back to Middle Eastern dance forms.
We will not exhaust the musical traditions – and new music currents – of the Middle East any time soon. Let me share a few angles, traversing time and space and genre…
From North Africa, where Amazigh (indigenous) and Arab cultures have mixed for 1500 years, Tinariwen is a collective of Tuareg musicians from the region of Azawad, where southern Algeria meets northern Mali, in the southern Sahara. Considered pioneers of desert blues, the group’s guitar-driven style combines traditional Tuareg and African music with Western rock…
From Egypt, Mahraganat, a fusion of electronic music, rap, and Arab song out of Cairo’s marginalized neighborhoods in the shadow of the Arab Spring…
Fairouz, the iconic vocalist of Lebanon, the “Bird of the East” as she is sometimes called, with a musical career spanning the 1950s to quite recently, is one of the best-selling artists of the Middle East and the world. With an Assyrian father and a Maronite Christian mother, Her background is a measure of the diversity of the region…
For a close look at the Oud, the lute that plays an important role in much of Arabic music, and a mark of the Middle Eastern diaspora, llisten to the music of Rahim AlHaj. He studied music in Baghdad, before fleeing Iraq in the 1990s…
And maybe just one more video – from a benefit concert in Berlin in the aftermath of October 7th, with the Jewish-Israeli singer, Noa, and the Arab-Israelis singer Mira Awad, popular stars and activists who have worked for peaceful coexistence in Israel and Palestine…
There is much more to explore! For contemporary music, see ArabSounds.net. For an introduction to musical traditions of the Middle East, see this short piece from Interlochen public radio or read the helpful introduction to Middle Eastern music at Wikipedia.
Composed by Mohhamed Abdel Wahab, arranged by Ali Ismael, and Ahmad Shafik Kamal, this song was created to celebrate the formation United Arab Republic and in a wider sense is an anthem to pan-Arabism as a whole. I’ve liked the song in the past and thought it would connect nicely with the wider political movement of pan-Arabism which we’ve talked a bit about in class.
Translated lyrics can be found online if you’d like to see them and additionally this same recording can be found on Youtube in translated lyric videos if searched on Youtube.
From Moroccan superstar Saad Lamjarred’s, “Lm3allem” or The Master has been a huge hit since it appeared in 2015. The video is set in Marrakech, Morocco. Lamjarred’s lyrics mix Moroccan Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic, making the song accessible to Arabic speakers around the world. A sign of the diversity of cultures of the Middle East – and of the Arabic language…
A full exploration of the musical traditions of the Middle East is beyond our expertise! But we can start with music of the Ottoman Empire – classical Ottoman and traditional Ottoman music had an influence across the Empire, which controlled much of what we call the Middle East, North Africa, and south east Europe. Note the prominence of the oud, the fretless lute, a music scale distinctive from western music (including quarter tones halfway between notes), complex rhythmic structures, and the prominence (though not in this example) of the solo vocalist…
The music here is a version of the traditional Turkish folk song, “Kâtibim” (“my clerk” or “my secretary”), or “Üsküdar’a Gider İken” (“while going to Üsküdar”) about a woman traveling to Üsküdar with her secretary. I can’t speak for the visuals in the video, which are cobbled together from historical Ottoman sources of the 18th and 19th c. The song has been adapted and revised and performed in thousands of new contexts. Take this version for example, with Turkish zither (qanam), West African kora, and Turkish and Pakistani singers, Sumru Ağıryürüyen and Zoe Vicajji. A beautiful version, well worth a listen…
Or, for a classic – Umm Kulthum. For one of the most famous songs from one of the most famous singers in the Arab world. Umm Kulthum, born of the Nile Delta, daughter of an Imam, rose to prominence in the 1930s. For forty years she was a powerful international presence, spreading classical Arabic music throughout the Middle East and around the world. She was known for her passionate style and improvisation. When she died in 1975, millions of Egyptians turned out to honor her.
This video is from a 1967 performance in Paris. “You Are My Life” (Enta Omri), one of her most famous songs. The English subtitles explain the love story….
Or for something more contemporary… Cheb Khaled & Diana Haddad – Mass Ou Louly -Diamonds & Pearls
Diana Haddad, from Lebanon, is a superstar in the Arab world – and has been for twenty years now. Cheb Khaled – an international star from Algeria who popularized raï music (an Algerian folk style that incorporates European and Arabic influences). With its simple lyrics – Diamonds & Pearls – and performed in a dialect that could be understood across the Arab world, this song was a huge hit on its release in 2006.
From the 2023 Indian Hindi-language film, Dunki…
A catchy tune from the Brit indie band, Cornershop. They took their name from the stereotype of British Asians running corner shops. The 1997 song, “Brimful of Asha,” was a breakthrough hit for them. The version below is a recent remix. “Asha” refers to the Indian film star Asha Bhosle and Bollywood film music, as well as the Hindi word for “hope.” A delightful example of Indian influences in contemporary Brit pop…
Let me try to share a few ideas and notes to help you digest the fascinating and insightful lecture by Praveen Swami on the history of postcolonial India.
On Monday, we surveyed some of the factors that shaped South Asia in antiquity, in the early modern period, in the colonial period, and up to independence and partition in 1947. Swami shared a set of (true) stories to help us understand the challenges of nation-making in contemporary India from 1947 forward.
As an introduction
This is a story of nation making, but under difficult and unpromising circumstances. Modern India is often celebrated as the world’s largest democracy. But… it is a project to create a nation where none existed. The societies of British India were multiple and varied and not easily assimilated as one.
And in the backdrop of the modern story, because it is fundamental to the contemporary history of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh – we have to recognize the violence of the partition in 1947.
The stories that he offered were stories from the periphery, but they shine light on the heart of the project.
1) The example of Jammu and Kashmir, which posed a particular dilemma. It had a Hindu ruler and a Muslim majority. Would it become part of India? Or Pakistan? Or cling to independence. You know the story now. Under pressure from Pakistan, in 1947, the Maharajah would agree to accede to the new state of India, but with guarantees for the respect of a distinct Kashmir identity
And you heard about the story of Sheik Mohammed Abdullah, the Muslim leader of Kashmir who was sympathetic to the social ideals of Jawaharlal Nehru and India
Radio sets of Kashmir that could only tune in to the official news of Radio Kashmir.
And the promise of a modern socialist utopia, that would bring education, land reform, and modern technologies to Kashmir… with a devil’s bargain, that required ignoring democracy and the popular will of Kashmiris. And so Sheikh Abdullah was arrested and ultimately Kashmiri autonomy and special dispensations would be limited.
In the 1980s and 1990s, as Islamist separatist movements have used techniques of terrorism, Indian state has struck back. It has been in stalemate since 2019.
A question of the modern nation. Note that the first maps of British India didn’t identify the borders of Kashmir. Partition created arbitrary borders. But in time, these borders would shape experience and identities.
The point: nationhood is malleable. Territorial sovereignty is a modern idea. But it is one that has produced remarkable violence.
2) Another story – a small village in east of India near the Myanmar border (I need to check the name). Villagers ordered by the Indian military to burn their own village and relocate. And then, when they refused, their village was burned and they were forceably relocated by the Indian military.
After three generations, it is a forgotten example of the use of force in the making of the nation.
3) Hyderabad. Reverse of Kashmir. Muslim ruler and Hindu majority. Also with a peasant insurgency demanding land reform. Remained independent in 1947. What would happen to this state? Indian Army moved against Maharajah and against peasant insurgents to control the region and bring it into modern India. Tactics included torture, ethnic cleansing, and mass violence.
In these actions, the Indian state and Indian military – especially in the 1950s – drew on tactics it had learned from the British anti-colonial campaigns in Malaya and Kenya.
The principle was a simple one – to “win hearts and minds.” In practice this was a euphemism for mass violence and ethnic cleansing. And Indian troops participated. See the Malayan Emergency. Or the attempts to put down the Mau-Mau Rebellion. See, for example, the work of the historian Carol Elkins, who has revealed the hidden story of colonial violence.
The Indian government and army used these same tactics – tactics left behind by the British.
In Conclusion
For Swami, from the point of view of 2024, the choices that the Indian govt made in the 1950s – relocations, bombings, torture, ethnic cleansing – are repugnant. The story of these events is often forgotten and lost – we need to save these stories and understand them.
Need to understand this history of violence that is tied to the modern nation-state.
A song for contemporary India? Listen to this electronica remix of the Indian national song. “Vande Mataram” by MIDIval Punditz. The lyrics come from a 19th c. poem written in “Sanskritised” Bengali, which praises “Mother India.” It had a prominent place in the independence movement and was recognized by the Indian National Congress and later the Indian assembly as the “national song” of India, although India also has a national anthem, “Jana Gana Mana”…
