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2 An Affirmation of Identity: Fulbe Fiddling in Senegambia I learned fiddling because it’s what I met. I found that my relatives and other Gambians are fiddling, so I joined them. These people fiddled to make old men remember the culture. So I find that I also should learn to fiddle so I can make those people remember also. Fiddling makes Gambians happy. —Ngeya Kandeh, 1990 Although several ethnic groups in Senegambia play the fiddle, the instrument is most often associated with the Fulbe. The Fulbe fiddle, or nyanyeru, is a symbol of ethnic identity.1 It not only helps the Fulbe to recall their culture, it is a source of pride. When they participate as performers or observers of fiddling, they are transformed from Senegambians into Fulbe residing in Senegambia. This reassertion of identity is particularly important in the Western Sudan, where ethnic identities are constantly in flux as a result of close interactions, intermarriages, and overlapping social histories. The Nyanyeru in Performance In 1990, after conducting research and writing about fiddling in Hausa and Dagbamba cultures for nearly twenty years, I decided to visit The Gambia. I had read and heard directly from Gambian musicians, especially Mandinka kora player Papa Susso, that several ethnic groups in Senegambia prominently used the fiddle. On this initial trip I wanted to determine if a fiddle tradition existed that warranted further study. I was curious about the instrument’s construction , and I also wanted to know about the musicians who played it, the occasions and places where it was performed, and the nature of its importance to people in Senegambia. I traveled by air from Accra in Ghana to The Gambia’s capital of Banjul on August 18. Papa Susso had arranged for Mohammed Sissoho to meet me, and he spotted me immediately as I got off the plane. Tall and slender, dressed in a brown two-piece Western-style suit, white shirt, and brown tie, he approached me and, in a very serious manner, asked my name. Sissoho was of the Soninke, an ethnic group culturally related to the Mande and Fulbe. Because he worked as a secretservice police officer at the airport, he commanded great respect, and I was able to get through customs and immigration in no time. Sissoho had arranged for me to work with Tamba Kandeh,2 a Fulbe fiddler 44 Fiddling in West Africa who lived in Lamin, a small town about ten miles from Banjul. I therefore decided to stay in a small motel that was within walking distance of Kandeh’s residence. Located along the main highway from Banjul to Basse (the largest city in the upcountry), Lamin served as a stopping-off point for local travelers, and all forms of transportation served the town, making it easy to visit nearby cities. Lamin, however, retained a friendly, rural atmosphere. When I sat on the front porch of the motel, I could see people pushing carts or wheelbarrows filled with wood or bags of rice. Women and children regularly trod alongside the main highway with small loads on their heads, and men rode bicycles and motorbikes. Local vendors could be seen as well, selling fruit and peanuts. Realizing that there was much I wanted to accomplish on my first visit to his country, Sissoho arrived at my motel on his motorbike the next day. This time, however, he wore a multicolored, tight-fitting, Muslim-style cap and a lightturquoise , long-sleeved flowing gown over matching pants and shirt. He told me that he had already made an appointment for me to meet Tamba Kandeh. When we reached Kandeh’s compound,he had just returned home from working on his farm, and he requested that we wait in the courtyard while he bathed and put on clean clothes. Like homes in northern Ghana, the compound where Kandeh lived consisted of several structures made from wattle and daub, and a large, open yard where a few large trees provided shade. Unlike Ghana, however, the three buildings in Kandeh’s compound were rectangular and featured tin roofs. Instead of being encircled by high wattle-and-daub walls, Kandeh’s compound was enclosed with a rectangular grass-thatched fence six to eight feet in height. Similar compounds lined the rest of the block. While we waited, Sissoho explained to me that the three families living in the compound were all Fulbe, although not members of the same family. Rather, two families, one of which was Kandeh’s, paid...

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