Migrated Rhythm: The Tambú of Curaçao

By Rene V. Rosalia

The slaves that were shipped from Africa to the New World, to serve as workers on plantations, took their (musical) culture with them, if only in their minds. In their new homelands they recreated their secular and religious music and dance, which for them were essential forms of expression to enable them to forget their sorrows, to help create social solidarity, and to make contact with their gods. The tambú of Curaçao (Dutch Antilles) is an example of this cultural continuity. The use of percussion instruments, such as the drum and iron idiophones, antiphony, polyrhythm, the pentatonic scale, and the poly- movement of the dance, are all African in origin.

The Tambú
The tambú was not just a dance for the Afro-Curaçao people, as the colonial authorities, well-to-do whites, and Roman Catholic missionaries concluded. Nor was it merely ’simple public entertainment for relaxation and amusement’, as labelled by the colonial legislator. It was a way of life. Tambú was one expression of the folk belief of the black Curaçao slaves and also of the Afro-Curaçao workers and farm labourers of the lowest social class after the abolition of slavery in 1863. Tambú was an element of the complex of inter-related historical and religious Afro-American cults which grew up everywhere they were taken as a result of the massive forced emigration of Africans in the days of slavery and the slave trade. Comparable folk manifestations include the calinda of Trinidad, the winti of Surinam, the palo monte of Cuba, and the candomblé and macumba of Brazil. The music of the tambú was originally made on only two instruments: a single-skinned drum, the tambú , and an iron idiophone, the heru. Hand clapping (brasa) and stamping the heels are essential elements of tambú music. The drum is the central instrument. For so long as anyone can remember the drummer has been a man, while the singer has been a woman. Singing is regarded as one of the most important aspects of the tambú .

The Origin of the Curaçao Slaves
The origins of the Afro-Curaçao people lie in the slave trade and slavery which came to the colony of Curaçao in the seventeenth century. The Dutch introduced a plantation economy after they took over the island in 1634. This involved small-scale agricultural production – basically the growing of food for the island’s own population, not intended for export. The Dutch colonists, however, built the island into an important slave market and depot.(1) In this sense in analogy to a plantation economy we can speak of a Curaçao slave economy. This consisted of importing and breeding slaves, mainly for export to plantations elsewhere in the Caribbean region. The African origins of the majority of the present-day Curaçao population is somatically recognizable though it is extremely difficult to trace the precise ethnic origins. These were certainly West African, but that term is too general.

Judging by the existing oral traditions and literature, religious customs, habits and language, the origins should be sought in the regions around the former Congo and the Gold Coast (Ghana). It was from these regions that most of the Africans came who were brought to Curaçao. One consequence of Curaçao ’s status as a slave market and slave depot was that a complete hotchpotch was created of mixed cultures. The fact that there was a great deal of contact with neighboring countries and islands from the moment the island was inhabited because of its geographical location is also of importance. Because of this there was undoubtedly some influence from surrounding slave colonies during the period of slavery.

African Elements within the Music
The lack of available information concerning the origins of the Curaçao slaves does not prevent analysis of the African elements within the tambú It is well known that Africa had a great diversity of cultures. A thread which reflected the basis or essence of West African music and song ran, however, within this diversity. Africa is a large continent that, down the centuries, has been repressed by many colonial and imperial powers, which have left their traces and affected that which is African. Despite the rapid rise of Western modernism, however, it is still possible to speak of an authentic African music and dance culture. (The African cultures referred to here are the black peoples of the regions south of the Sahara, in particular those of West Africa.)

The Use of Percussion Instruments
Percussion instruments occupy an important place in African music and many musical genres are based on them. Merriam went so far as to note the ’strong percussive tendency’ of African music, which also expresses itself in the use of the human voice and string instruments.(3) For the sake of clarity it should be said here that although percussion instruments do play a prominent role, Africa nonetheless has a large number of melodic wind and string instruments. When playing a melodic instrument, the African often plays in a way which has much in common with the way percussion instruments are played. The music is frequently played loudly and forcefully. This powerful playing also manifested itself in the heru playing which Van Kol, a member of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament, described in his report To the Antilles and Venezuela as a ’a ribbed piece of iron which someone rubbed with a metal rod in real rage.(4)

Singing and dancing complement each other in tambú music. Bilby considers this to be an important African retention which he has observed in Caribbean folk music.(5)

The most important instrument in tambú performance is a single-skinned membranophone: the drum or the tambú . This is a barrel-shaped wooden sound box with the skin of a sheep or goat stretched and nailed across the top. The sound box was made originally from a tree trunk that was hollowed out by burning or by hand by specia1ist woodworkers. Small boards were cut with an axe or machete and carefully formed into a cylindrical or barrel shape which then had tin or iron hoops fitted around it. Because of the scarcity of suitable tree trunks on Curaçao the board method became the most common and authentic method of making a tambú . More recently sound boxes have been made from barrels that were used to ship nails. This means a lot less work, because all that needs to be done is to knock out both ends and stretch a skin over the top. Sauce containers, imported by Chinese restaurants, were used in the same way. The drum generally has a diameter of about 30 cm and is 40 cm in height.

The tambú is played with the bare hands and both the fingers and the palms are used. High notes are achieved by striking the rim of the drum with the finger-tips or with the palms of the hands in a vertical position. The lower notes are created in the middle part of the skin. When playing, the bottom part of the palm is in contact with the uppermost hoop. The way in which the player holds the drum between his knees can also affect the notes.

The tambú is accompanied by the heru, an iron idiophone, which creates a shrill, piercing sound. The heru is found in various forms and under various names: the only essential is ’any kind of metallic object’. The combination of the sound of the drum and the shrill metallic noise form the characteristic and required sound of the ritual tambú . The agan is a very old iron idiophone. There is also the chapi, a hoe or spade, the triangle, and the wiri, a rasp. Iron instruments play a special role in ritual African music. The main reason they were created was because of the tendency of Africans to combine sharp iron sounds with the sound of wooden idiophones and membranophones in their heavily percussive music. The heru is also important for the ’time-line’ or basic rhythm. Besides the traditional magic motifs, others motifs also play a role. An important element, for example, is that Africans have a tendency to ’thicken’ their music by interweaving many rhythms together. Iron instruments and rattles are played at rituals and ceremonies in order to stimulate intensity of feeling and to increase the participants’ sensitivity. Sometimes though, they are used to summon particular gods and to release energy.(6) Practically all these motifs apply to the tambú.

Like the tambú , the heru is played by a man. Only one iron idiophone was used in the original tambú ensembles in previous centuries. At first this was the agan that was later replaced by the chapi. A wiri or triangle was also used sometimes. In the second half of the twentieth century the number of iron idiophones used together on Curaçao increased from one to two and sometimes three. In the eighties the number rose to five and sometimes more. A combination of chapi and wiri or chapi and triangle is also found. The current ensemble consists of a drum with an accompaniment of three or more chapis, a singer and a ’choir’. The iron idiophones which have been described are never used all together. One reason more iron instruments have been used from the sixties onwards was the introduction of the microphone. The singer’s voice was amplified which made it possible to increase the sound level of the heru. Another phenomenon was the element of participation, or the social element – for the boys of the time playing the heru was also a form of taking part in social life.

So far as the nineteenth century is concerned we can say that the tambú – in at least one of its manifestations – was accompanied by a drum, an iron instrument and hand clapping. In the seventeenth century the hoe was already used as an iron tool on the plantations. The use of iron instruments in tambú music is not accidental.

People make music with all the ingredients they consider necessary and the deeper bass of the tambú requires a shriller iron sound to be incorporated in the music. Of course, the natural environment and other circumstances can limit what is available, but people scour their surroundings and use whatever they can find to achieve their ends. It is therefore perfectly possible that the chapi was already in use in the eighteenth century as an accompanying idiophone, replacing the African beaten metal idiophones. This thesis is strengthened by the following quotation from Brusse’s Curaçao en zijne bewoners (Curaçao and its inhabitants). In his report on the slave rebellion of 1795 he wrote: ’They moved forwards to the rattle of the tamboer (drum) and freed their fellows who, because of bad behavior or at their masters’ whim, were in chains.’ In a footnote on the same page he explained the word tamboer as follows: ’Tamboer is what the Negroes here call a small barrel with a skin stretched over it. Such a small barrel, which is struck with the hand, a piece of iron which is jingled with a nail or other iron object, and hand clapping, accompanied by a song or actually monotonous shouting, form the music of the tamboer dance.(6)

The Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is one of the principal characteristics of African music. Most African music genres are characterised by several rhythms played at the same time. Despite this complicated and potentially confusing similarity in the playing method there is a stable and constant discernible line. African musical culture has many different drums to produce a variety of simultaneous rhythms. What is remarkable about the Curaçao tambú is the fact that the complicated rhythmic structures are played by one person on one drum. In contrast to the Jamaican tambú from Trelawney, the tambúlero (drummer) on Curaçao does not use his heel to create additional notes. The many rhythmic beats which he improvises are made with the palms of both hands. The plurality of simultaneously played rhythms is made still more complicated by the interaction between the drum and the heru. In the second half of the twentieth century the number of iron instruments increased from one to two or more and the polyrhythm has thus been richly embroidered, with the various iron instruments also in dialogue with one another.

Polyrhythm notation.

Chapi, first part

Chapi, variation of first part

Chapi, second part

Chapi, variation of second part

= long sound     = short sound

The Repetitive Element
The motifs which are elaborated in African music are often short and are never played in exactly the same way. Although the basic motif is repeated, the player continually improvises by introducing small variations. These are not discernible to every ear and lead the uninitiated to condemn the music as monotonous. African music must not be seen as an independent activity. It is strongly related to body movement – the dance. Furthermore, it is important to note that the music in these regions of the world is very strongly linked to everyday life. It is either ceremonial in nature or an amusement; in other words, it is functional. The repetitive element must be seen against the totality of what is happening in relation to events and dance. Repetition also promotes a trance-like state. Sometimes in tambú playing the same melody is sung for hours on end. Furthermore, the accompanying refrain of, for example, eight bars is also sung for hours on end. In principle the refrain of a particular song does not change. It is part of one of the continually repetitive elements of African music. But when the tambú is performed for such a long period perhaps four or five singers will come forward to replace each other as soloists.

It is often the case that singers immediately ’talk back’ to each other ’on the spot’. The part-singing is polyphonic and free in character so that the singers can improvise variations within the structure, which to some extent breaks up the repetitive element. Dancing also takes place, but never continuously and never in the same manner. Variations also take place in the movements. The drum playing is characterised by complicated rhythmical structures, alternating with pauses and sections containing crescendo and pianissimo.

Antiphonal Singing
Antiphonal singing (antiphony) comes strongly to the fore in African music.(8) There is a constant dialogue between the singer and the onlookers, or the singer and the music ensemble. The ’statements' (9) of the singer are affirmed and strengthened by the choir. This, in turn, encourages and inspires the singer to improvise further and to make further statements. The sung affirmation is a very important aspect of African music and in ethnomusicology it is called ’response’. It is the encouragement which those present or the ensemble, or in any case most of them, give to the singer. This encouragement is not only felt by the singer, who provides the statement, but also by the musicians and the choir. The distinctive relationship, based on dialogue, within African music is very multi-faceted. Almost all those taking part have a particular interaction with each other – the singer, the drummer, the choir, the onlookers (the encouragement), and the dancers. The Curaçao tambú is strongly antiphonic.

This antiphony is an important condition for the improvisation which is an essential element in the tambú In all singing the affirmation is indicated by the singer during or at the beginning of the song. This usually varies in length from two to eight bars. A characteristic of the tambú is the opportunity for the singer to carry on singing uninterrupted during the affirmation. At a given moment the emotional singer goes his own way, alone and unaccompanied. The choir does not then interrupt. The same thing applies to the choir which, once in an ecstatic state, can continue separately from the singer. It sometimes happens that through the intensity of the experience the affirmation is also improvised.

Tambú song: ”Tela tei bash’abou” (This song is to be found on the accompanying CD)
Response / Affirmation: Tende, tende, tende, tende mi diputado tende mi hezahèbu Tela tei bash’abou.

Pentatonic Structure
The five tone, or pentatonic, structure is characteristic of African music and it is frequently found in old, traditional tambú songs. The old Curaçao working songs also have a strong pentatonality. Another important element within this framework to which attention must be paid is the fact that Papiamento, the language in which tambú is sung, like most Bantu tongues is a tone language.(10) This means that the melody of the songs must correspond with the natural melody of the words. Jones, who wrote a study on the epic poetry of the Swahili, argued that "the singer is trying to put into practice the African custom of making as far as possible the rise and fall of the tune agree with that of the spoken words." He goes on to say that "there is a remarkable tie-up between speech-tone and melody movement.” (11) In other words, there must be no discrepancy between the singing, the language, and the melody of the songs. The meaning of the words in tonal languages is very strongly linked to pitch. Changes in pitch can create changes in meaning. It is, indeed, the sound which gives a word meaning and account must be taken of this in all musical expressions in Papiamento. It is also important to point out that it is the singer who indicates the pitch. Those present must follow him meticulously. The affirmation must begin in the singer’s last note.

Polyphony
In the affirmation the singers are only tied to certain words or sounds and a basic melody. They are free to improvise new variations of the basic melody. The singing is polyphonic and different melodies are sung at the same time, a sort of part-singing. They are even free to exceed the number of bars and to begin the affirmation a few bars before the end of the statement. These elements are frequently found within the tambú.

Improvisation
Improvisation is also an aspect of tambú singing. A good singer must have the ability to ’talk back’, as it were, to the other singers present. This is an important characteristic of tambú singing. Not only the singer but also the tambúlero improvises. In the first part of the tambú the drummer can play whatever he likes. In the second part of the song the dancer is also free to improvise.

African Elements within the Dance
As stated earlier, song, music, and dance form a close-knit trinity in African forms of expression. In Africa people dance not only for pleasure and enjoyment, but also for other more important reasons. They dance to express feelings of pain, anger, despair, to conspire, or to invoke something. The dance has a particular social function. There are men’s dances for special occasions, for example, and dances for children and youths. An important group of dances are the ceremonial dances. There are dances for the initiation of young men, on the occasion of births, deaths and marriages, and when people are sick. Other dance themes are the preparation for hunting and fighting battles and the celebration when the seed has been sown. The special character of African dance and its close links with the people in everyday real-life situations is well expressed in the choice of drums, the way they are played and the use of attributes such as masks, rattles and such like. The symbolic aspect plays a more important role than the aesthetic. The dance is linked to particular actions, places and times. Certain ritual dances can only be performed on a particular day, time, or occasion. The agricultural dances take place in the sowing and harvesting seasons. Battle dances were performed in wartime.

One can speak of ’total dance’ in which the whole body dances. In music we speak of polyrhythm. In an analogy we might speak of ’poly-movement’ in dance. Different parts of the body move in their own way while the totality of movements still form an entity. Some dances concentrate on a particular part of the body. There are dances, for example, in which the movements concentrate exclusively around the hips, others concentrate on the belly region. Leaping dances are those in which the legs play the most important role. In most African dances people dance separately. The man does not usually hold the woman when they dance in pairs. Mixed dancing only takes place in a few ceremonial dances. Despite the fact that people dance apart, the expression is nonetheless a joint one. But within this unity there is still a certain element of individualism, of personal perception. This is the case when the dancers lose themselves in the dance without thought of their fellow-dancers at particular moments of the mutual experience.

The Tambú Dance: a Pelvic Dance
Tambú is danced both in pairs and individually. In the mixed performance the man and woman do not touch each other. Both men and women can dance individually.

The tambú is a pelvic dance, so-called because the most prominent movement begins with the pelvis. This is either a rolling, swaying or jerking motion. The movements of the buttocks, concentrated on the back of the pelvis, are extremely important. They are enhanced by slightly bending the knees and stamping the heels. The powerful, aggressive thumb sound resonates, as it were, in the abdomen and makes that part of the body of eminent importance for contact between the dancer, the thumb and the supernatural. The higher notes of the chapi have more influence on the upper region of the trunk and the head and provide a sort of balance. The slightly bent knees facilitate the rolling or swaying hip movements. At first sight it appears as if the footwork is only a shuffling movement, but there is also a light, continual stamping of the heels as they move from one place to another. Stamping the feet is a universal phenomenon which Africans, however, perform in different ways and with a great deal of rhythmic ingenuity.(12) The arms move freely.

Women sometimes place the hands on the hips and the men sometimes cross them behind their back. When the dancer stretches the arms above the head during the dance, it is a sign of the intensity of the experience, of great joy and happiness, of a trance-like fulfillment and an inner state of harmony.

Rhythmic accompaniment of dance.
= 152

Handclapping

Heel stamping

It is very important to note that the underlying theme is not determined by the part of the body on which the dance is based. White European colonists’ judgements that the tambú is a sexual dance because the movements are mainly around the hips and pelvis were erroneous. The settlers from Western Europe interpreted the pelvic movement as an activity belonging exclusively to mating behavior. In this sense all Afro- Caribbean and African pelvic dances were sexual, voluptuous and obscene. Referring to the final development of the fertility concept, namely the hermaphrodite dance, which was found in primitive Greek cultures, the Nubians of north-east Africa and the Altai-Turks, Sachs said: "The white races are often scandalized by the ’shamelessness’ of such dancing." The words they use to express their reaction – ’indecent’, ’licentious’, ’obscene’, however, are not objective. For the primitives, namely, it is not a question of sensation or enjoyment, but a question of life and oneness with nature.(13) Dancing has a social function and fulfils such an important place and role within African and Caribbean tradition that it is impossible to think of these cultures without it.

Conclusion
Tambú is not just dancing, neither is it limited to singing and music. Tambú is life itself. It is an element of African belief which spread with slavery throughout the entire Caribbean region. African religion is life itself and therefore cannot be regarded as being separate from the economic, the cultural, and the social. Tambú music offers an opportunity for emotional expression, enjoyment, entertainment, communication, physical recreation, social control, preserving of social institutions, and observance of religious rites. The fact that tambú fulfils these functions means that the music makes a contribution to the continuity and stability of culture and the integration of society. Nketia (14) supports this view when he states that ’music thus brings a renewal of tribal solidarity’, while Merriam(15) lays the emphasis on the power of the music to unite people: "Every society has occasions signaled by music which draw its members together and reminds them of their unity."

Notes:

1. Hoetink, 1971, p. 69.
2. Wassing, 1960, p. 1.
3. Merriam, 1959.
4. Van Kol, 1904.
5. Bilby, 1985, p. 12.
6. Nketia, 1989, p. 26.
7. Brusse, 1969, p. 93.
8. Waterman, 1952, p. 207-218.
9. Brathwaite, 1970, p. 21.
10. Wassing, 1960, p. 4.
11. Jones, 1972, p. 118.
12. Ortiz, 1981, p. 218.
13. Sachs, 1969, p. 105.
14. Nketia, 1958, p. 43.
15. Merriam, 1964, p. 227.

Bibliography

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Rosalia, R. V., Labariano di rasa, Sekshon di Kultura di Teritorio Insular di Korsou, 1983.
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