Salegy is a popular genre of Malagasy music that starts with traditional acoustic folk from the northwestern coastal areas of the island and steps it up with electric instruments. Salegy is fast and funky, full of intertwining rhtyhms, melodic accordion lines and lilting high-life guitar. It almost always features aninstrumental middle section called the folaka (“broken”) during which the band leads the audience in an energetic burst of intricate and engaging polyrhtyhmic hand-claps.
b
[wpspoiler name=”Fafa (Famantanantsoa Andriamihaingo Rajaonarison) of the Malagasy tsentsigat band Mahaleo performs Rafahafahana (Freedom)” open=”true” style=”aatw-video”][/wpspoiler]
As we’ve learned in our travels around Africa with All Around This World, there are almost 2000 languages spoken around the continent; some African countries, like Nigeria, are home to over 500. In Madagascar there is one — Malagasy — which originated in Indonesia and has much more in common with Polynesian languages than any language spoken in Africa.
[wpspoiler name=”Rajery plays the valiha and performs Moliere” open=”true” style=”aatw-video”][/wpspoiler]
Flickr.com’s Madagascar slideshow is gorgeous. There are birds and butterflies and dancing monkeys. There are rolling green hills, bright-eyed children on brilliant white beaches and an inordinate number of birthday cakes. If Flickr’s images are to be believed, Madagascar is jam-packed with friendly people and multi-colored lizards. That doesn’t sound half bad. [As always, look through the slideshow before sharing this with the kids.]
All Around This World’s exploration of Africa includes sing-along, dance-along classroom and homeschool lessons about Madagascar for kids . . . Meet the world through music –“come to class” with Jay.
Madagascar, located over 200 miles off the southeastern African coast, is home to a uniquely diverse population that blends Indian, Southeast Asian and African culture, as well as thousands of plant and animal species that only exist on the island — bottle-shaped baobabs, bat-eared aye ayes and ninety-nine varieties of lemur. Wow.
In music class we listen to Salegy music, dance the Kilalaky, sing just a little in Malagasy and encourage kids to “wake up” to the problem of Madagascar’s deforestation.
START HERE:
— LANGUAGE: As we’ve learned in our travels around Africa with All Around This World, there are almost 2000 languages spoken around the continent; some African countries, like Nigeria, are home to over 500. In Madagascar there is one, . . .
— IMAGES: Flickr.com’s Madagascar slideshow is gorgeous. There are birds and butterflies and dancing monkeys. There are rolling green hills, bright-eyed children on brilliant white beaches and an inordinate number of birthday cakes . . .
