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Introduction: A Master Fiddler and a Signifi cant but Little- Known Tradition
- Indiana University Press
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Introduction: A Master Fiddler and a Significant but Little-Known Tradition On Saturday, August 11, 1990, I left Accra, Ghana’s capital city, accompanied by my research associate M. D. Sulley—a native speaker and teacher of Dagbani language at the University of Ghana, Legon—and traveled approximately four hundred miles north to Dagbon, home of the Dagbamba people. The purpose of the journey was to work with Salisu Mahama, my gondze (fiddle) teacher.1 An exceptional performer and an authority on Dagbamba fiddling culture , Salisu had taught at the University of Ghana, Legon, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. I had worked with this acknowledged master since 1972 and had recorded him many times, both alone and with other musicians. This time, however, would be different. Having retired from teaching, Salisu had returned to his hometown of Savelugu. This time I would document the history of Dagbamba fiddling and record Salisu playing the gondze with members of his own family. It was he who had desired and arranged for this. At this point in his life, Salisu wanted to make sure that people throughout the world knew about fiddling in West Africa and, especially, in Dagbon. He felt that this opportunity would never come again, and it held special significance for him. After a twelve-hour bus ride, we arrived in Tamale, the commercial capital of the Dagbamba. Although the third- or fourth-largest city in the country, Tamale was less Westernized than Accra. As the economic and transport hub for northern Ghana, however, it bustled with activity. The developing urban center was dotted with single- and multi-story Western-style buildings—banks, chain stores, restaurants, markets, hotels, etc.—as well as small parks and flower gardens. The many automobiles and tros-tros (vans and lorries used as multipassenger vehicles) traveling the red dirt roads frequently filled the air with a fine dust. Salisu had thought it best that Sulley and I spend the first leg of our journey in Tamale before continuing on to Savelugu. The city offered amenities that wouldn’t be available in his hometown, and Salisu had said that he would commute the approximately fifteen-mile distance to work with us. When Salisu arrived at Tamale’s Alhassan Hotel on the morning of August 12, I saw a man who had aged gracefully and was much thinner than he had been eighteen years before. Typical of northern Ghanaians, most of whom are Muslims, Salisu wore a white Muslim cap and a flowing, long-sleeved white gown that reached his ankles and covered a matching shirt and pants. I remembered him frequently dressing in this manner when he taught at Legon. 2 Fiddling in West Africa Probably due to his illness, his demeanor was not as jovial or lively as it used to be. Although I could tell by his smile that he was pleased to see me, there was also a certain formality about his behavior. He knew that we had come on an important mission, and there was no time to waste. As a result, Sulley and I immediately began interviewing him about the early history and development of gondze in Dagbon. After two days of Salisu recounting the oral traditions of Dagbamba kings and explaining how the lives of rulers were linked and interwoven with those of fiddlers, we decided that it was time to visit Savelugu. Arriving at Savelugu’s transport station in the early morning of August 14, Sulley and I were met by Iddrisu, Salisu’s oldest son, who served as our guide through town en route to the gondze quarters where the fiddlers lived. Savelugu was a small town. Some people rode bicycles, but cars and motor bikes were scarce. The young and middle-aged men and women who walked along the roads and paths (sometimes carrying loads of wood, vegetables, or fruit on their heads) gave the place a relaxed feel. While most commercial buildings were square or rectangular with tin roofs, the homes were arranged in clusters (known as compounds) of round and square structures made from wattle and daub with grass-thatched roofs; the houses making up the compound were encircled or connected by six-foot-high walls also made of wattle and daub. Trees and ample gardens were scattered throughout the town.At different points along the road, vendors sold bananas, ground nuts, cigarettes, and other products at stalls. Sulley, who had been raised in the north and had traveled widely through the...