African Musical Symbolism In Contemporary Perspective - Saoas.org

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“African Signature Tune”. He studied East and West African
music in the 1940’s and 50’s and in one form or another
discovered it is found all over the continent.
The Akan Children’s Akoko Funu Rhythmic Game
In this Akan game children pinch the backs of each other’s
hands until one of them gives up. They do this whilst singing a
song that uses the metal bell or gong pattern of the
polyrhythmic kete and adowa music of the court of the Asante
(or Ashanti) king of Kumasi, in Southern Ghana.
Figure 2: Akan children’s song
The Ye-Ye Clapping Game of Ewe
Ye-Ye is an Ewe game in which children clap, dance and sing
to a bell pattern. The bell’s rhythm goes as follows.
Figure 3: The ye-ye game
It is the first two beats of the above rhythm (underlined) that are
clapped out whilst the children cry out “ye-ye.”
The ye-ye beat is based on the gahu or agahu music that the
Ewe people borrowed from Egun speaking people of the Benin
Republic in the 1950’s. As the gahu drum-dance will be
mentioned again it is worth noting here its complex origins.