Graham's Town

On March 12^th we took a one day excursion to Graham’s Town and the surrounding area. Graham’s Town is best known in South Africa for is cultural music fest during July. We left early in the morning around 8:30 or so and it took us about an hour and half to drive there. When we got there we immediately went to this music factory there. We waited a little bit until our music guide came. When he got there he introduced himself (can’t remember his name) and began presenting instruments that they made. Some we had seen already and some were new to us. He presented a couple of Xhosa (indigenous tribe in the Eastern Cape of South Africa) instruments to us. One of them was the uhadi. This instrument is a bow looking one with a hallowed our gourd attached to it.

Uhadi

 One who plays this plucks the string while moving the gourd to and from the shoulder. Unlike western culture which focuses on single-ton music/singing, African music focuses on split town singing where overtones are present when one sings. The uhadi assists a solo singer in resonating the split tone aspect of African music. He presented us with a few more instruments and proceeded to give us tour of the factory itself. After giving us a tour we thanked him, loaded the bus, and were on to our next destination.

Example Painting

 We then made a quick stop at this African art store where we took a quick tour. The people there described some of the paintings in regards to what the meaning behind them was. Most told stories about the apartheid era and the relationship between the whites and blacks. The stories that these people told us about the paintings were very powerful and meaningful. We each bought some postcards/paintings and were on our way once again.

Our next destination was a Xhosa village in Hamburg about 3 hours east of PE. When we had started the trip we had each gotten a hand drum to bring with us. When we got there, the Xhosa women presented us with dances and songs they normally did. These songs involved a lot of involvement with dancing. Usually there would be singing while each singer would each person would take a turn dancing in front of the group. The songs were very repetitive and the legs were the main focal point of the dancing. It was interesting to say the least. After dancing and singing for us we had the opportunity to try some of the food they ate. We chicken with a special seasoning on it, beans, potatoes with peas, pumpkin, and some bread that they made. It all seemed very similar to what had always had in the states except for the pumpkin which was unexpectedly tasty.

What happened next was the best part of this trip. A Zulu drummer had tagged along with us and asked us to get out our drums. We all got in large circle around him. He was all dressed up in his ‘Zulu drummer’ attire.

Outfit Suits Him Well

He gave us a few beats on which the drumming was based off of. After getting down the beats as a group he added singing into the mix. Singing while beating the drum was a challenge but never the less extremely fun. After playing the drums he then taught our group a Zulu dance. The dance involved a lot of interesting moves of which I would have never taken as a dance move before that day.  It was a very amusing dance and a good end to the day excursion. We then made our 3 hour trek back to PE.