From Africa to India. Sidi music in the Indian Ocean diaspora
Description
Sidis descend from Africans who sailed across the Indian Ocean to the west coast of India over many centuries. This documentary project explores the expressions of their Indian and African cultural heritage. The video begins in the Sidi Fort at Janjira Island, built during the heyday of Sidi powers in the Mughal period. It then surveys the music and dances of African-Indian men, women, and children in Karnataka, Hyderabad, Bombay, and Gujarat. Exciting footage of ritual events shows the stages of music during ecstatic trance, exorcism, and celebratory rites, when both male and female Sidi Sufi saints are invoked through euphoric rhythms, voices, and communal dances. Musical instruments such as footed drums, coconut rattles, armpit-held drums, and braced musical bows show the retention of African musical practices. In excerpts from a conference for Sidis and scholars, Sidis present their own views on their history, contemporary issues, and future prospects. The film concludes with exciting concert footage from the first international Sidi tour of England and Wales in 2002. Narrated by UCLA ethnomusicologists Amy and Nazir Jairazbhoy.
Runtime
75 minutes
Subjects
Geography
Genre
Database
Alexander Street
Direct Link
Similar Films
All our children. Episode 9
Arnold Schoenberg. My Evolution
Later with Jools Holland. Series 038, Episode 5
Tabom in Bahia
Venice and Vivaldi
Passacaglia
Grunge (Rock Legends, Season 11)
Joseph-Maurice Ravel. A Concise Biography
Dizzy Gillespie. Jivin' in Be-Bop
Colombia. The New Medellin
Morocco. Talam
The Motown Sound (Rock Legends, Season 10)
Birth of Metal (Rock Legends, Season 10)
Music Is My Passion. Part One
BBC Proms 1997. A Night in the Country