The Cyclical Nature of Afrobeat

The cyclical nature of Afrobeat. Exploring how Kaiso, a West African culture originating in 1700s Nigeria, journeyed worldwide and returned to shape the birth of Afrobeat by Fela Kuti in 1970s Nigeria

Kaiso has its origins in West Africa, specifically present-day Nigeria and was in parts a game, a dance and a political commentary.

As a result of the transatlantic slave trade, many West Africans were brought to Trinidad and Tobago as slaves and brought their musical traditions and language with them. 

Enslaved Africans in the Caribbean used kaiso as a way to offer social or political commentary as well as communicate amongst themselves when they were not allowed to speak to each other.

The people would gather in "kaiso" tents where a griot or lead singer would lead them in song. 

They would also play a game in which they planted two poles or individuals on opposite ends, and placed a bar across. Individuals would then take turns dancing and moving their bodies to go underneath the bar and exit on the opposite end without upsetting it. Accompanying chants were used to egg on and lead the dancer to a successful exit. 

This form of dancing would later be named limbo and Kaiso would evolve into Calypso music which started to develop in Trinidad in the 17th century.

Initially heavily influenced by African rhythms, the style would evolve in the 19th century to incorporate elements of jazz, R&B, and other popular music styles. Calypso continues to be an important part of Caribbean culture today. 

It’s early rise was closely connected with the adoption of Carnival, especially after the abolition of slavery in 1834. Calypso competitions at Carnival grew in fame and so did the music. 

The first identifiably calypso genre song was recorded in 1912, but due to the constraints of the wartime economy, no recordings of note were produced until the late 1920s and early 1930s, which is known as the "golden era" of calypso.

During this “golden era”, the genre would spread to and gain popularity in Western African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia, as it was brought back to the region by sailors and traders who had visited the Caribbean islands. 

These sailors also brought Portuguese guitars which the people - specifically the Kru people of Liberia and Sierra Leone - combined with local melodies and rhythms to create a light, easy, and lifting style of music. 

Local and foreign sailors, dock workers, and local working-class people would go to palm-wine bars to drink and listen to this new music. 

Palm wine is a fermented alcoholic beverage made from the naturally fermented sap of the oil palm, which was drunk at gatherings where early African guitarists played.

This form of music would eventually come to be called palm-wine music and is characterized by its relaxed, laid-back tempo, and its use of simple, repetitive rhythms. 

The traditional two-finger plucking of a guitar originated from palm-wine music when musicians played it similarly to how they played the local lute or harp.

Although the first recorded palm wine music was made by West African musicians in the 1920s and 1930s, the genre started gaining popularity after Sierra Leone musician Ebenezer Calendar recorded songs in the 1950s and 1960s.

As palm-wine music gained fame in the 50s, it influenced a new form of music, Highlife, in what is now present-day Ghana. 

Highlife music incorporated many elements of Palm-Wine music, such as the use of the acoustic guitar and percussive rhythms as well as elements of Western jazz, swing, and brass band music, creating a unique genre that is a fusion of African and Western styles. 

Both styles have similarities in the use of guitar and percussion, with highlife being more influenced by western music.

Highlife music was popular among the educated urban elite in the colonies and was played at parties and other social events. It's a genre that showcases the rich cultural heritage of West Africa.

With time it spread to other West African countries such as Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia, and it's still popular in these countries today.

In the late 1960s, Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti, along with drummer, Tony Allen began experimenting with different contemporary music of the time. 

Fela was heavily influenced by Highlife music as well as other African and Western styles, such as jazz, funk, and traditional Yoruba music. He combined these elements to create a new sound that reflected the political and social issues of his time.

Like Highlife, Afrobeat incorporates elements of Western jazz, swing and brass band music, but is characterized by its use of complex rhythms, heavy percussion, and most importantly, politically-charged lyrics. 

Highlife and Afrobeat share many similarities in terms of instrumentation and rhythms, but Afrobeat is typically more politically and socially conscious, and it's more focused on the rhythms rather than the melody.

Kaiso initially began as a form of music used for political commentary and defiance. As it evolved into Calypso and then later Palm-Wine Music & Highlife, the subject matter of the music would evolve as well to touch on themes of love, heartbreak, and daily life. 

Afrobeat and its political themes not only brought the music full circle but its subject matter as well.

This is the cyclical nature of Afrobeat

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