It Is Time To Reclaim the Banjo

Sule Heitner: musician, music scholar and adventurous mind.

 

For the black community, history, culture, and tradition has always been accompanied by roadblocks and barriers. So much went unrecorded, so many artifacts misidentified, misattributed and unacknowledged, lending credence to the idea that the black community has little to no history, culture, and few traditions to uphold. This attitude can be observed from both within the black community and without, and encompasses unintentional misinformation as well as malign, deliberate disinformation. Whether deliberate or unintended, the obfuscation of history has greatly shaped the narrative surrounding one of the oldest instruments created in the Americas. The banjo has been so misunderstood and misrepresented it is almost completely disassociated with the people credited with introducing it to the world. Too often people are genuinely surprized to discover that the banjo’s origins are 100% African American.

 

Born on the Caribbean plantation, the banjo is a creolization of West Africa’s vast traditions of plucked, spiked lutes. The banjo was again hybridized with new world features making it unique among its progenitors. It consisted of a neck with a flat fingerboard and tuning pegs. Its resonator comprised of a large gourd or calabash, cut horizontally, and covered with a stretched-out animal skin. It was configured with three long strings and one short chanterelle on top and it was fretless. From the first mention of the banjo on the islands of Martinique and Jamaica in the late 1670s the instrument was the exclusive domain of the African American diaspora, and remained so until more than 130 years later when the first Caucasian is documented to have played.

Joel Sweeny began to play the banjo around age 10, learning from enslaved Africans close to his father’s farm in Virginia. It’s been reported that he replaced to gourd resonator with a drum shell. Also, to increase the instrument’s sonic range, added the banjo’s lowest pitched string. From this point on the instrument resembles its modern counterpart with its drum shell resonator and standard five strings. Once the banjo began to cross over to the white community it became wildly popular, first as the main instrument of black face minstrelsy and then through the popularization of parlour music among affluent Victorian families. The banjo’s popularity brought more innovation, including frets, modern tuning apparatuses, tension rods and metal strings.  

 

From the time the banjo began to cross over to mainstream white American culture it had begun a slow, gradual decline within the black community. While the 19^th and 20^th centuries record many notable black players, we notice a gradual decrease in participation from the community over time. Discovering why requires more research, however, one cannot underestimate the negative effects of black face minstrelsy on the image of the banjo. The minstrel show, characterized by its denigration and mockery of African Americans, used the banjo as a prop. It would only be natural for most black folk to distance themselves from being associated with such a spectacle. By the late 20^th century, the overwhelming impression of the banjo is that of white American culture, associated with Appalachia, bluegrass, and country music. It seems completely divorced from its African roots. 

 

What occurred with the banjo appears to have initiated a cyclical pattern. It would seem whenever black culture is mainstreamed; the community seeks out new forms of expression.  The banjo, however, remains one of the most tangible links to African heritage and culture ever created in the Americas.  Its construction, its downstroke playing technique, and many other defining characteristics draw directly from the traditions of West Africa. Its very existence is owed to the collective experience of enslaved Africans in the Americas. At times dubbed the “well of souls,” the banjo stands tall among the many traditions brought by Africans to the Americas.

 

The Traditional Afro American String Band: Carolina Chocolate Drops

 

The fact that most African Americans today wouldn’t recognize the sound of the banjo or the music it’s been associated with as the sound of their own ancestors has led some to work towards its reclamation. Among the traditions lost to the annuls of time is the African American string band. String bands proliferated across the continent and across cultures ultimately becoming the sound of the Americas. However, it’s evident that the music at its beginning was mainly derived from African American musical traditions and folk traditions from Northern Europe, in particular the British Isles. 

 

In the African American community, the fiddle and the banjo were both widely played with the former taking top spot in popularity. The original musical instrumentation for black face minstrelsy, the fiddle and the banjo was accompanied by Tambourine and clappers made of bone. Minstrelsy even codified this instrumentation with the characters Tambo and Bones, effectively naming them after the instrument they play. Later, the guitar and the string bass would round out the sound and the ensemble would become the standard string band configuration. Other string instruments make regular appearances in this ensemble, such as the mandolin, cello and the dulcimer and non-string instruments such as the harmonica, washboard and a variety of hand percussion.

 

From North Carolina, the group Carolina Chocolate Drops have been dedicated to reviving African American traditional string music. With an emphasis on education and performance, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are at the forefront of a bourgeoning movement to rediscover this history. It’s a daunting task to recreate a sound dating from before the technology to record sound existed. But this group of musicians have done their homework, and it’s as entertaining to hear them speak about the music as it is to hear them play. With a repertoire ranging from traditional music to more contemporary songs presented in traditional style, and musicians capable of playing multiple instruments, the band covers a lot of ground. You can listen to their official YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrHRc8lX1BzaDjUJXo1uGmA

 

Reclaiming History: Black Banjo Reclamation Project

 

            Out of Oakland California, the Black Banjo Reclamation Project is an organisation aptly named for its purpose. Its activities range from holding traditional banjo building workshops, organising events to raise awareness and putting banjos into the hands of more African American players. By seeing the reclaiming of the banjo as a form of reparation, the organization promotes and fosters healing through cultural revival by returning instruments of African origin to the descendants of their original makers. More information is available from the official site: http://blackbanjoreclamationproject.org

 

            The Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Black Banjo Reclamation Project represent but two efforts to rehabilitate the banjo’s image. Scratching the surface reveals a vibrant community of musicians, luthiers, activists, scholars and academics from all walks of life. And yet, the banjo suffers from an image problem. Outside this community of banjo afficionados and academics the instrument is still seen through the lens of Hollywood and well-meaning ethnomusicologists’ misinterpreted data. Through that lens the banjo is associated with the “Beverly Hillbillies” (CBS 1962-1971), or the mountain folk depicted in the film “Deliverance” (Warner Bros. 1972), many of its artifacts and developments attributed to the wrong sources. This image problem has a history and underscores a 19^th and 20^th century effort to distance the banjo from its African roots. This concerted effort by banjo manufacturers and music publishers to sell more product to affluent whites, has a lasting effect felt up to the present day. The dedicated community of banjo fans and academics certainly have their work cut out for them. Fortunately for them it’s a labor of love.

 

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