Cultural background for Yankadi

[michi]

Here is the info about Yankadi/Makru from Mamady's book:

Yankadi and Makru together are a dance and rhythm for seduction.
The young people of neighboring villages invite one another to Yankadi festivities. Mostly, the young people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five dance, but the adults also like to part of it!
The dance begins slowly with the rhythm Yankadi; girls and boys face each other in two rows and slowly dance towards each other. One boy places a scarf on the chest of a young girl as a symbol of love. Then, a whistle sounds, the signal for the change into the rhythm Makru, which is faster. The rows break up, and the couples dance individually. The man with the whistle directs the dance, which alternates between the slower and faster parts. A Makru break in the fast part signals the end.

At the 2010 Mini-Guinea camp in San Diego, Mamady gave a little speech about Yankadi and Makru. The upshot was that Makru is never played without Yankadi being played first. He also said that quite a lot of men would prefer to go straight to Makru, but that doesn't work because the girls want Yankadi before they are ready to do Makru...

Cheers,

Michi.

[dununbabe]

Michi do you have the audio of him explaining about the original instruments and what patterns they each played?

[bkidd]

Thanks for putting this background out there Michi. That sums up the story Mamady told pretty well, although hearing the long, and much more theatrical version was quite a treat.

Dununbabe, here's what I remember from the workshop. Yankadi was originally played on metal drums that were skinned on one side. According to Mamady, there were no dununs in the traditional ensemble of instruments. Four of these metal drums were played, a low drum goes with the soloist and mark the dance, a middle drum to play what Mamady refers to as the second accompaniment, and the high drum that plays the first accompaniment.

Hope that helps.

-Brian

[michi]

Michi do you have the audio of him explaining about the original instruments and what patterns they each played?

Good suggestion! Yes, here it is, complete with airplane noise

100704_35.MP3

And here is Mamady's little speech about not playing Macru without Yankadi

100704_36.MP3

Cheers,

Michi.

[e2c]

dununbabe and michi - many thanks!!!

[bubudi]

there's a guinean musician who claims that reggae developed from the yankadi. i can definitely see a connection, but would take the claim with a grain of salt, even if he's a kouyate

by the way, some sierra leonean sources attribute the yankadi to the mandinga (maninka) people, rather than the susu. kind of makes sense when the name 'yankadi' means 'things are sweet here' in maninka.