Curricular
Areas: Communications,
Social Studies, Language Arts, Music
Grade
levels: (K-5)
(6-8)
Goal:
To
learn about one use of music in an African community, and how greetings
and names are part of our cultural character.
Objective:
Students will
explore cultural greetings and the significance of names through several
group exercises.
Songs
Used: “Ayi
Mwnwana,” by Gaby
Muzela and Anicet Mundundu
Background
“Ayi
Mwnwana” is a very old
song from the Mbala people who live in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
an African country formerly known as Zaire. It is used as a greeting to welcome people into villages.
This song has continued to be sung in the Zairean community in
Pennsylvania.
It
is a song sung by young and old people in order to test their memory.
The song shows the importance of long extensive greetings in a
culture where it is polite to ask about a person’s spouse, children,
father, mother, health, and many other things.
“Ayi Mwnwana”
has no specific story but features a wonderfully playful dialogue
between the two singers.
The
performers, brothers Gaby Muzela and Anicet Mundundu, learned drumming
and singing in Zaire before they moved to Pittsburgh in the 1980s to
teach at the University of Pittsburgh.
Gaby Muzela died in 1994. The
CD What’s Your Name? is
dedicated to him.
Terms
Used:
Democratic Republic of Congo
(Zaire) - large
country in central Africa, currently facing much political upheaval
Mbala -
An
ethnic group who live in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Kimbala -
the
language spoken by the Mbala people (the song is in Kimbala)
Ngoma - drums
used by the Mbala (similar to conga drums)
Sangu -
musical
wrist rattles
Activities:
A.
Greetings as Cultural Character
-
Listen to “Ayi Mwnwana.”
-
Discuss why you think it is used as a welcome song.
-
What sort of mood do you think the song establishes?
-
Divide the class into three groups.
-
Have each group practice and then demonstrate greeting each
other.
-
Ask one group to demonstrate the different ways they greet each
other, including slang and non-verbal communication (motions,
“high-fives”).
-
Ask another group to demonstrate how adults greet each other in
this country - modeled after their parents, teachers, neighbors, etc.
-
Discuss the differences in greetings created by age, gender,
race, ethnicity, and formal or informal occasions.
-
A third group can demonstrate the extensive greetings of the
Mbala people, as they imagine they would take place.
B.
Names and Identity
-
Discuss the importance of names as part of our identity.
-
Have one student stand in the center of a circle or at the head
of the class, and ask a second student three questions:
a)
“Ayi
mwnwana” - What is your name?’
[student answers]
b)
What would you like to be your name? [student answers]
c)
Why would this be a good name for you? [student answers]
-
The second student would then come to the center and call on a
third student
-
Encourage stories and discussion about names and nicknames
afterwards.
-
Older students can write about either what their name means to
them, or why they would like a new name and what it would mean for them.
C.
Write and Perform a Greeting Song
-
Try the game again, but let the students free associate phrases,
much in the way the words to the song sound to us.
-
Ask students to write a greeting song based on these free
associations.
-
Pick one of the best songs, and have the class memorize it and
perform it as their own greeting song.
-
Alternately, the class could compose a greeting song together.
Suggested
Follow-Up Activities:
Research the
culture and history of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Why did it recently change its name?
What other forms of music and art exist there?
Suggested
Assessment:
Participation
in exercises.
Suggested
Additional Resources:
(Grades
K-3)
Aadema,
Verna. Traveling
to Tondo: A Tale of the
Nkundo of Zaire. Knopf,
1994.
(Grades
4-8)
Jaffe,
Nina. Patakin:
World Tales of Drums and Drummers.
Henry Holt & Co. 1994.
(Grades
K-3)
Rochell,
Belinda and Larry Johnson. When
Jo Louis Won the Title. Houghton
Mifflin, 1994.
Notes:
