The ATTAN is a dance that originated in the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The dance is done in a circle; dancers spin and often swirl scarves in the air. Attan songs are long and sometimes dancing continue hours and hours in the night. Dancers compete for endurance and he last dancer standing wins . . . but, then again, don’t all the dancers win?
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[wpspoiler name=”Rebab üstadından muhteşem taksim…” open=”true” style=”aatw-video”][/wpspoiler]
[Information about the rebab coming soon.]
Maybe Afghan music used to be all rabab all the time, but since the ousted Taliban can no longer formally ban popular music, the international Afghan exile community has had a chance to reconnect with musicians still in the country. This has allowed all to rediscover old Afghan pop and create pop anew. The recent documentary “Afghan Star” even takes us inside Afghanistan’s wildly popular version of “American Idol”; eleven million Afghans, a third of the population of the country, watched the finale.
Afghanistan may still not have a thriving hip hop scene, but that hasn’t stopped rappers like DJ Besho from trying to make his mark. Not all Afghanis are fans (Abdul Raouf, an Islamic cleric from Kabul, says “I don’t like music at all but this, in my opinion, is the worst,”) but DJ Besho sees his mission to rise above all the war in his land and rap about love.
The All Around This World: South and Central Asia CD includes two Afghan kids’ songs — “Daweedam” (“the Bread Song) and “Boody Boody” (“Grandmother Swings Me”) — from the amazing “Children’s Songs from Afghanistan” by the Afghan Songbook Project, a clear labor of love by former Peace Corps volunteer Louise Pascale.
In class we also celebrate Afghan musicians such as:
— Ahmad Zahir:
Zahir, widely known as “ the Afghan Elvis,” is still a controversial character in Afghanistan more than thirty years after his death. The adored Zahir is reported to have died in a car crash, though many Afghans believe there’s much more to it. There is also a raging dispute over his ethnicity; both the Tajiks and Pashtuns claim him as their own. [the link includes unpleasant Tajik/Pashtun racial vitriol so it’s not an appropriate for kids, but seeing the interplay between the Tajiks and Pashtuns is fascinating.]
You have to check out Zahir’s official, and officially awesome, website. This site is should be appropriate for kids, especially if they, like Zahir’s sister (seriously!), love great hair.
— Jawid Sharif:
A true Afghan pop star, Sharif resides in Germany but is popular with Afghans everywhere. For example, see Sharif perform live in Viriginia where apparently everyone knows the “Attan” dance.
The two main languages of Afghanistan are Pashto, the official national language, and Dari, which is very similar to Iranian Farsi and is the accepted language of government and business. Both are written in Arabic characters, though Pashto adds a few extra letters for sport. If you’re a fan of languages, especially if you find the above link about the possible Pasthtun/Jewish connection intriguing, you’ll surely note the many similarities between Pashto, Arabic and Hebrew.
Afghanistan is a mountainous, land-locked Central Asian land with a proud, several-thousand- year history of struggle for independence from foreign influence.
Afghanistan is 99% a Muslim nation (approximately 80% Sunni, 19% Shi’a), but within that there are several major ethnic groups. Learning a bit about them can shed some light on Afghan’s intricate internal politics:
— the Pashtuns:
the most populous and powerful ethnic group, they are primarily Pashto-speakers and have historically been most prominent in central government. The Pashtun traditionally live by “Pashtunwali,” an intricate code of ethics. Most Taliban are Pashtun, though certainly not all Pashtun are Taliban.
— the Tajiks:
primarily Dari-speakers, some Afghan-Tajiks are farmers and herders from the north, others of whom live in Kabul and are part of the upper-middle class. Tajiks were most prominent in Afghanistan’s anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, which received international support against the Taliban before and, especially, after the U.S.-led war began in 2001, gaining more clout than ever in Afghanistan’s national politics. Now that the Taliban rule the country…we’ll see.
— the Hazaras: most speak a dialect of Dari, legendarily the descendants of the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan, the Hazaras live mainly in central Afghanistan. They have a rocky historical relationship with the Pashtun, especially the Taliban-Pashtun, under whose rule they faced much violence.
— the Uzbeks:
Uzbek-speakers, most of whom live rurally and semi-autonomously in Afghanistan’s north.
This week in music class All Around This World goes on a swing-out to Afghanistan. We’re not going to dwell on the nation’s tumultuous history, or the Taliban, or anything else troubling in the region that understandably dominates the front page news. instead we’re going to celebrate Afghan music and culture and enjoy both as much as we can.
START HERE:
— OVERVIEW: Afghanistan is a mountainous, land-locked Central Asian land with a proud, severl-thousand-year yistory of struggle for independence from foreign influence.
— MUSIC: Maybe Afghan music used to be all rabab all the time, but since the ousted Taliban can no longer formally ban popular music, the international Afghan exile community has had a chance to reconnect with musicians still in the the country . . .
— LANGUAGE: The two main languagesof Afghanistan are Pashto, the official national language, and Dria, which is very similar to Iranian Farsi and is the accepted language of government and business . . .
— WHEN YOU GO THERE: Chances are you’re not going to Afghanistan with your kids this summer. Still, some day when all the “world events” there become less eventful, Afghanistan is going to be a fascinating place to explore . . .
COUNTRY: Afghanistan
LANGUAGE: Dari
“Daweedam” is a chant from Afghanistan that tells the tell of a little boy who values his Mullah (religious teacher) so much he honors him by baking him a loaf of bread. This is a Dari-language song from the wonderful Qu Qu Qu Barg-e-Chinaar: Childrens Songs from Afghanistan, by the Afghan Children’s Songbook Project. In the book the song is listed as “Bread Story.” It starts with the boy meeting two women on a mountaintop. One gives him bread, which he eats, the other gives him water, which he uses to grow wheat. He takes the wheat to the mill to make it into flour, the flour becomes dough, and the dough becomes bread, which he gives to his Mullah as a sign of gratitude.
All Around This World’s lyrics:
Daweedam, daweedam, saray kohay raseedam
I run and run and to the field to plant the wheat to make my bread
I dig and dig and dig and dig to plant the wheat to make my bread
I mill and mill and mill and mill and mill the wheat to make my bread
I knead and knead and knead and knead and knead the dough to make my bread
I eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat my bread.
COUNTRY: Afghanistan
LANGUAGE: Pashto
“Boody Boody” takes us to a playground in Afghanistan where we remember that when faced with a swing, kids everywhere around the world will swing. This is a Pastho-language song from the wonderful Qu Qu Qu Barg-e-Chinaar: Childrens Songs from Afghanistan, by the Afghan Children’s Songbook Project. In the book the song is listed as “Grandmother Swings”: “Grandmother, grandmother, push my swing, Push my swing high in the air, If I get cold on the swing I know the warmth of my mother’s arms will keep me warm.”
All Around This World’s lyrics:
Boody boody taal raa ka
Boody boody taal raa ka
Grandma push the swing so high
She’ll push me on the swing and then
She’ll push me on the swing again
