Dunun Kura

The ‘dance of the strong men’ is a true rite of regulation of their society’s  traditions; it affirms the hierarchy of the various generations and allows those who take part to display their skills and progress to the levels held by the older men.  The the twelve Dununba rhythms recorder on the Hamanah cd, Mamady has added this Dunun Kura or New Dunun.

Dununba
Dununba is the name of a family of rhythms consisting of approximately twenty of thirty traditional Malinke rhythms.
They all have in common the meaning of the dance, which was originally only danced by the men.  With this dance, the men settled a tough, and sometimes even violent and bloody, fight to determine the superiority between different age groups in the village.
Even today, the social life of adolescents and young adults is mostly determined by belonging to defferent age groups.  Each group has a leader, takes over specific tasks and duties, and enjoys certain rights.
The group of the older ones, called baratigi (approximately 20 to 25 years old), enjoys in comparison to the younger ones, called baramakono (approximately 15 to 20 years old), more rights and more freedom to make decisions.  Sooner or later, the younger people want to escape the patronizing of the older ones and take their place.  This is communicated to the leader of the baratigi though the symbolic gift of 10 cola nuts.
For this dispute between the different age groups, a Dununba celebration is organized.  In the past, these were major fesitivities , with the whole village taking part.
The dancers wore headbands and large trousers.  In one hand, each held an axe (gende), and, in the other hand, a whip made from the leather of a hipppotamus (manimfosson).
At the beginning of the festival, either the rhythms Dunungbe of Gbada were played, then the two groups passed by one another and formed two circles.
Finally, the men faced each other in two rows, and the fight would begin.
The rows of men beat each other, in turn, with the whips until one of the groups surrendered.  In the past, these fights were fought until the bloody end.  Today it is limited to a playful version, without a real fight, of just to a suggestion of a fight.
The Dununba fhythms have the following musical elements in common: the tempo is andante; and the kenkeni always plays the same pattern.
Musically speaking, the dununba and sangban play the most important parts, and the phrase of the dununba can be rather long.  There are many variations and different forms of ‘heating up the rhythm’ for each of the individual fhythms.  Not all Dununba fhythms are fight dances.  Today, Dununba is a popular rhythm and very much favored all over Guinea.  IN a modified versions, Dununba is also played in other West-African countries.  The dunun are played very diversely in these rhythms. (source: Mamady Keïta-A life for the djembé)