the sounds of silence: cross‐world communication and the auditory arts in African societies

Abstract

The prominence of the auditory world for African peoples requires attuning our study of their cultures more directly to the phenomena of sound. Cross‐world communication, which establishes and validates the basis for human action, occurs when the normally inaudible otherworld beings reveal themselves in distinct acoustic fashion. This study reviews those otherworld voices, heard through divine kings and divination, and in the auditory arts of musical instruments, masquerades and narratives. Careful listening to African peoples' auditory arts reveals previously unheard dimensions of their cultures, how they acoustically manifest and validate the spirit world. [Africa, masquerades, music, performance, sound and silence, spirit beings, verbal arts.]

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