La musica tradizionale Makhuwa (Nord del Mozambico) fra contaminazioni e resistenze. Uno sguardo decoloniale

Abstract

The emakhuwa language is spoken in a part of the centre and especially in the north of Mozambique. It is the expression of an original bantu culture, matrilineal and entangled with traditional values and cults. Music – together with dance – is one of the basic manifestations of the emakhuwa culture. This culture has been exposed to frequent external influences, as that of the Arabs – especially along the coast – and the Christian-Lusophone one. This research assumed as its main theoretical references post-colonial authors, as Gilroy and yet still more Ismaiel-Wendt. Its perspective is historical and anthropological, accentuating the contaminations as well as the local musical characteristics. Furthermore, the research here presented proposes a distinction inside the mmakhuwa world between rhythms and songs of the coast and of the interior. The methodology to interpret the collected empirical material has been based on the analysis of the rhythms and the instruments that are typical of the emakhuwa music, as well as on a brief discourse analysis of the selected texts. This study has given a particular emphasis to Tufo and its epistemological features, in order to show the current evolution of this style of music in the work of artists such as Mommad Aly Faque and Zena Bacar.