Sounding the Well of Souls (3)

The BIB editor writes:

Two of the main themes of Well of souls are: (1) the banjo is essentially a 'spiritual device', an expression of the fundamental presence of religion in all aspects of traditional African cultures; (2) however, it would not have come into being without the transatlantic slave trade and the circumstances of slavery in the Americas.

At the risk of over-simplifying, one can say that the banjo functioned as a spiritual device by summoning or evoking spirits through the medium of rhythm. Decoration on some of the earliest instruments suggest that they were marked as 'sacred' objects; but quite apart from external markings, the whole instrument can be seen as a 'cosmogram', the intersection of the earthly and spiritual planes.

On point (2) Gaddy states clearly in her preface: 'The banjo did not exist before it was created by the hands of enslaved people in the New World. [...] "The banjo is African" is often repeated [...] But it is not true: the banjo is a uniquely American instrument, crafted by people of African descent. It is structurally different from any African instrument.' (BIB editor's note: That last sentence does not refer to the many structural changes that have been made since the instrument got into white hands, and which can be said to make the modern banjo thoroughly 'colonised'.)

© Richard Hawkins