SHEKERE: DANCING GOURD IN BEADED SKIRT

African people have always been identified with very interesting and beautiful culture from ages. Their culture reflects in the way they talk, dress, live in their communities and even in their MUSIC.

African traditional music is made of lovely sounds of many percussion instruments that makes it very unique. Most of the percussion instruments used in African music are made from materials like animal horns, hoofs, shells, wood trunks etc. One of my favorite musical instrument in African traditional music is Shekere (a percussion instrument that is rattled to produce sound).

I always love the sound of Shekere in African music because it’s dinstinct and I am fond of looking for it in Africa musical band because it’s such a beautiful masterpiece of art. It is actually called Shekere among the Yoruba people in Africa while the bigger ones can sometimes be referred to as Agbe.

Shekere is said to have originated from West Africa and it is found mainly in traditional music in countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Liberian, Senegal and some other countries. Histories also has it that it was transported to America during the trans-Atlantic slave trade era and toady it can be seen in countries like Brazil and Cuba. This beautiful percussion instrument has many other names in places where it is found outside the Yoruba States. In Ghana it is called Axatse, in guinea it is called Djabara, in Libearia it is called Ushaka, in Brazil it is called Xequere while in Cuba it is called Chekere.

Shekere is traditionally made from a hollow dried gourd covered on the outside with net of beads though some other variants have seeds, shells, cowries or any other material that can make coordinated rattle sound in place of beads.

As with technology comes new ways of doing things, the gourd is replaced with fiberglass material in modern Shekere and this is far more durable than gourds used in making Shekere traditionally. Aside from durability, many people prefer the traditional Shekere than the modern ones even because of the gourd.

Shekere is sometimes played alone to give melody to folksongs while big musical bands usually use it to form the base sound for their music. The sound is very lovely and the look of Shekere adds so much artistic beauty to musical bands. In some traditional music, dancers would hold colorful Shekeres and dance in a chorographic pattern to the rattling sound that is complemented by the sound of other percussion instruments. The rattling sound most times precede other musical instruments’ sounds and it prepares the listening atmosphere for music and listeners minds come alive for music when the rattling sound starts playing

Shekere is awesomely colorful and the rattling sound is amazingly lovely especially when you have it in your hand and you can feel it while playing. It is always amazing to see how Shekere is rattled to produce such a lovely, coordinated and danceable sound and that is why I call Shekere the DANCING GOURD IN A BEADED SKIRT. And I think that’s kind of interesting too.