I've just signed on to Banjo Hangout and was really psyched to find this particular group. I'm extremely interested in the history of the banjo, especially its African heritage. Is this group still active?
9 Comments |
 | Roosterick says:
6/23/2015 3:26:50 PM
Semi active. I agree the multicultural aspect of the banjo is fascinating.
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 | Gordy Ohliger says:
6/24/2015 9:58:33 AM
Hell Yes, I'm active! I'm Up on this subject and especially finding it here.
. Today, another guy from Ghana signed up following me on my facebook page. I've been fortunate enough to have jammed and gigged with a Kora player from Mali, and an ngoni player...and we fit like a glove. Sparks fly.
. I just wish I could share photos here, but it's a mystery beyond me.
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 | rash says:
6/24/2015 12:28:20 PM
Thanks for the response all. True: not being able to post photos is a shame. In terms of the topic, there seems to be a lot of information about the banjo's African roots, but it's bits and pieces. Is there one big work? A magnum opus on the topic?
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| Roosterick says:
6/24/2015 1:56:39 PM
Gary, you can easily post photos to this group. Any photo that you have uploaded to the photos section of your Banjo Hangout home page can be linked to any group you are a member of. Click on the image then click the green "Link to Group" box next to the title of the photo and the image will appear in the "linked content" column on the left.
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| Gordy Ohliger says:
6/24/2015 2:28:39 PM
Thanks Rooster. Looks like my photo came through.
Now I'll grab one that fits the subject a little more actuately.
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| rash says:
6/28/2015 1:52:43 AM
I found this interesting report written by a gentleman completing a fellowship at Berea College, Jim Carrier. It delves into his research about "the extinction of the Black Banjo" during 1900-1930. Really interesting. community.berea.edu/hutchinsli...Final.pdf
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| Gordy Ohliger says:
7/14/2015 12:53:57 PM
This is a great read. Yes, that is a curious transitional time. I am quite embarrassed of the American culture at that time. What a buncha Jerks.
. In the 1970's I found it SO refreshing when Taj Mahal played his banjo tunes.
. There are so few recordings available of the old stuff, the real material. *sigh
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 | danl says:
1/31/2016 1:27:21 PM
Regarding the statement "I am quite embarrassed of the American culture at that time"
No one group, American white men included, represented the whole of American culture at the time, so I think your embarrassment is quite misplaced.* The small minority of Southern slaveowners and Northern capitalists are the ones who should be embarrassed, but they're all dead.
In context of the banjo, I feel that the commonly misappropriated embarrassment for slavery has resulted in over-playing Africa as the primary source of the banjo, a sort of subconscious or politically-correct attempt to mea culpa, absolution expected.
All banjo researchers of note agree the instrument was at it's start an amalgamation of African, European and Mediterranean trade route influences. None of those old-world areas had a banjo before American colonization, even the first banjo in Africa was imported there. The primary source for the banjo was English- and Hispanic-speaking African Americans, not decades removed tribal ancestors that were but one source.
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*(a) very few of the slavers that captured, transported and sold slaves were American, and slavers were non-white as well as white; (b) Native Americans held slaves for decades before white Europeans arrived; (c) French traders held slaves before the Southern slaveocracy was even established; and (d) Some African-Americans themselves owned slaves.
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 | neilends says:
10/28/2018 3:13:38 AM
I cringed at reading the above comment from 2016, after newly joining this group. Native Americans held slaves? Some blacks also held slaves? Who exactly asked for these excuses for the transatlantic slave trade that consisted of 10 million human beings shipped to North America as property chattel? Pitiful and atrocious. Someone please persuade me that there are others in this group who are more sincerely interested in the listed topic, or I’ll just quit it as quickly as I joined it.
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