Somali musical instruments and dances: the kaban, drums, dhaanto and niiko

The sound of Somali song

Somali songs are pentatonic: they use five notes to the octave rather than the seven of a major scale. A song is usually the work of three people, the lyricist (lahamiste), the songwriter (abwaan) and the singer (odka, "voice"). The Somali word for dance is ciyaar (Music of Somalia, Wikipedia).

The kaban (oud)

The main instrument of modern Somali music is the oud, known in Somali as the kaban, often with small drums and a reed flute. Heavy percussion and metal sounds are rare. Abdullahi Qarshe is credited with bringing the kaban into Somali song in the 1950s, and the qaraami love songs of that time were played mostly on it. Leading kaban players of the 1950s included Ali Feiruz and Mohamed Nahari (Wikipedia; Music In Africa).

Instruments of the river and coast

The riverine and coastal areas of southern Somalia use many more instruments. Wikipedia, drawing on the Ministry of Information's 1974 Somali Culture and Folklore, lists (Wikipedia):

• Drums: nasaro, mokhoddon and masoondhe (high and heavy drums); reeme, jabbu and yoome (small drums).
• Wind: malkad and siinbaar (flutes), sumaari (double clarinet), fuugwo (trumpet), and the horns buun, muufe and gees-goodir.
• Percussion: shagal (metal clappers), shanbaal (wooden clappers), shunuuf (rattles worn on the ankle, made from plants) and tenegyo (xylophone).
• Strings: shareero (lyre), kinaandha (lute), madhuube (thumb piano) and seese (one-string fiddle).

The shareero belongs to a family of bowl lyres found across East Africa and the Red Sea, called tanbūra in Sudan. The ethnomusicologist Christian Poché recorded the Sudanese-style lyre in Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti, Yemen, southern Iraq and the Gulf (Tanbūra, Wikipedia).

Dhaanto

Dhaanto, roughly "the best of dances", is a traditional chant and folk dance, most common in the Somali region of Ethiopia. Wikipedia says the Dervish movement revived it in the late 19th century to raise the spirits of fighters, who often sang it on horseback, and that it was used again in the Ogaden war of 1977–78. It spread to other Somali areas and is also used in Islamic poetry. Every year Somali groups perform versions of it at the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Day in Jigjiga (Dhaanto, Wikipedia; John William Johnson, Heelloy). Before radio, Somali song was largely work song and dance, including dhaanto (Somali literature, Wikipedia, citing Ismaaciil Galaal 1970).

Niiko

Niiko is a dance associated with the Somali Bantu, a minority whose ancestors include people brought to Somalia as slaves. Wikipedia describes it as sensual and, for that reason, avoided by many religiously observant Somalis, and quotes a source that calls it a dance taken from minority cultures rather than an original Somali one (Niiko, Wikipedia; Vermont Folklife, Somali Bantu music).

Where to hear it

Music recorded in the 1970s was buried underground in Hargeisa during the war and is now kept by the Red Sea Foundation at the Hargeisa Cultural Centre and at Radio Hargeisa. Wikipedia names Hiddo Dhawr in Hargeisa as a live music venue (Wikipedia).

Read more

• Somali music
• Balwo
• Somali bands
• Minority communities