Culture : sights and sounds
Last edited: 27 August 2000

click to hear a trumpet used as precussion instrument
Song and Dance are a big part of almost all cultural events. These are pictures from when we were invited to a village wedding. Click on the picture to hear the beat.

Rhythm is everything, and we just don't have it!

pounding yams, click for sound clip
Rhythm is even used in pounding yams to make their food, click picture to hear the sound.

this was just before the wrestling startedCan you hear the harmonica?
When we were up in Kara we had a chance to see the yearly wrestling matches among the Kabiye young men. Again song and dance was a big part of the event, click to hear the songs.

At first it was just one on one, opponent's back to the ground means victory.then there were 3 or 4 pairs at a time
Every 5 years Kabiye men graduate into the next age set. The young men who participated in this wrestling competition are completing a right of passage into manhood and will be considered the same age as all others who wrestle with them.

Learning to use your headtraditional huts are round with grass roofs but now some people can afford tin roofs.
They say it is easier to carry on your head!  Several huts together are usually owned by one family unit.

Click to see more pictures from our normal life.

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Please ask for permission before making a link to this page. (c) 2000 A. Weathers