Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds

Season 7 Episode #5 Beat by Beat: Bringing African Music Into Your Classroom Without Missing a Note

• Jebeh Edmunds • Season 7 • Episode 5

Share episode

Send us a text

Music isn't merely entertainment—it's living history, powerful social commentary, and vital cultural preservation. For African and African-American communities especially, musical traditions have served as a lifeline connecting generations, preserving identities, and speaking essential truths when voices were systematically silenced.

The rich tapestry of traditional African music reveals profound philosophical concepts through its structure. Unlike Western traditions that often separate performers from audiences, African musical traditions emphasize community participation where every person has a role. The polyrhythmic nature—multiple rhythms occurring simultaneously—reflects concepts of balance and community, with each contributing element creating something greater than any individual could achieve alone. These traditions served as oral history, spiritual expression, social commentary, celebration of life transitions, and coordination for collective work.

When enslaved Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas, their musical traditions became both a connection to heritage and a survival mechanism. Elements like call-and-response patterns, polyrhythms, improvisation, body percussion, and emotionally expressive blue notes persisted despite brutal attempts at cultural suppression. From these roots emerged distinctly African-American forms that continue to shape global music: spirituals, work songs, blues, jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, and hip-hop. Each generation has responded to changing social conditions while maintaining connections to ancestral traditions.

Ready-to-use resources are available to support this important work of connecting students with the profound musical legacies of African and African-American cultures.

Have you considered how music might transform your approach to teaching cultural perspectives? Share your experiences incorporating diverse musical traditions in your classroom!


Lesson Plans Featured in This Episode:

1) African Musical Icons Lesson Plan: https://jebehedmunds.com/shop/reading/african-musical-icons-lesson-plan-grades-9-12/

2) Music Of Africa Unit Plan: https://jebehedmunds.com/shop/lesson-plans/music-of-africa-unit-plan/

COME SAY Hey!!

Instagram: @cultrallyjebeh_

Facebook: @JebehCulturalConsulting

Pinterest: @Jebeh Cultural Consulting

LinkedIn: @Jebeh Cultural Consulting

Leave a Review on our Podcast! We value your feedback!

Buy My eBook: Empowering Your BIPOC Students

Enroll In My Digital Course: How To Be A Culturally Competent Leader

Buy My K-12 Lesson Plans

Sign Up For Our Newsletter


Enjoy the Cultural Curriculum Chat podcast? Share the love! Refer a friend to Buzzsprout and both you and your friend will enjoy exclusive benefits. Click the link to get started and support our mission of promoting inclusivity! #SpreadTheWord #CulturalCurriculumChat



Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Cultural Curriculum Chat podcast, where we explore innovative approaches to teaching diverse cultural perspectives. I'm your host, jeba Edmonds, and today we're diving into the transformative power of music as a gateway to understanding African and African American culture. We'll be examining practical ways educators can integrate these musical traditions into their lesson plans and highlighting some exceptional resources to support this journey. Music isn't just entertainment. It's living history, social commentary and cultural preservation all in one. For African and African-American communities, music has been a lifeline, connecting generations, preserving identities and speaking truths when voices were silenced. By the end of today's episode, you will have concrete strategies and resources to help your students connect with these rich traditions in meaningful ways. The historical significance of music in African cultures is about understanding the foundation. In traditional African societies, music was never separate from daily life. It was woven into the fabric of existence. Unlike Western traditions that often separate the performer from the audience, african musical traditions emphasize community participation. Music has served on multiple purposes as oral history, preserving our stories and genealogies through generations. As a spiritual expression, connecting communities to ancestors and deities. As social commentary, offering critique and guidance. And as celebrations of life transitions, births and coming-of-age ceremonies, marriages, deaths. As work songs, creating rhythm for coordinated labor. The polyrhythmic nature of African music has multiple rhythms occurring simultaneously. It reflects philosophical concepts of balance and community. Each drum, each voice has its place, creating something greater than any individual could achieve alone. When teaching about traditional African music, it is crucial to emphasize that African music isn't monolithic. The continent encompasses thousands of distinct cultures and musical traditions, from the complex talking drums of West Africa to vocal harmonies of South Africa. Each tradition carries its own significance. With the evolution of African-American musical traditions, when the enslaved Africans were forcibly brought to the Americas, they brought their musical traditions with them. These traditions became both a lifeline to their heritage and a means of survival in brutal circumstances. Some African musical elements that persisted despite attempts to suppress our cultural expression were call and response patterns, where a leader sings a line and the group responds. There's one example that I can remember. There's an old Liberian play song and it starts out with the caller saying churren, churren, I call y'all, and the children in the yard would say mama, mama, we don't care. That was the response. It'd be a forward and back, and I remember doing this call and response game to line up my students to get ready for lunch, you know, trying to make transition time easy. And it goes like this It'd be like the mom, which would be kind of me as a play mom, and then the children would be my students and we would do this back and forth, back and forth, just to get them ready to line up for lunch. And I have to just apologize right now to my Liberian relatives. My Liberian English is not as crisp because I grew up in the United States, so we usually say that, siri, like, oh, it's watered down Liberian English, so bear with me. But this call and response pattern goes like this Chirin, chirin, I call y'all. And the kids would say mama, mama, we don't care. Chirin, chirin, I call y'all. Mama, mama, we don't care, I'll send my dog behind y'all. Mama, mama, we don't care, I'll send my goat behind y'all. You send it, we will cook it. I'll send my chicken behind y'all. You send it, we will eat it, I'll send my.

Speaker 1:

Then we would say switch. But I wouldn't say switch in the classroom, I don't want to get fired. But they would say I send my switch behind you, the traditional way, and the kids say you send it, we will break it. And then she'll say I'll send myself behind you. Mama, mama, we're sorry. So I do that. I'd skip the switch part and then I would say I'll send myself behind you and then the students would go mama, mama, we're sorry. And that showed me that we were all set, lined up, with our lunch bins, ready to go for recess and lunch. So that is just an example of a call and response pattern.

Speaker 1:

We also have in traditional African music polyrhythms pattern. We also have in traditional African music polyrhythms, that is, multiple rhythmic patterns happening simultaneously with drums and different instruments. There is a African instrument called well in our traditional instrument, called the sasa, which is a hardened calabash with beads on the end, and my grandmother, the late Mahaja Sesemetsker, used to make these. And in traditional Liberian settings with the polyrhythms the men would play the drums, the women would beat the sasa. And I'm going to just kind of play the sasa just to describe it for you listeners the calabash, it kind of looks like a gourd. It is a gourd and they would dry it out in the sun to get it nice and hardened. They'd bore a hole to make it hollow and then they would bead and weave some beads on the outer shell and then it is tied down kind of in like a net type of a pattern and it is tied at the end with knots. This instrument is so near and dear to my heart because my grandmother gifted me this sasa that she made and gifted it to me when I was in the eighth grade. So it's got these beautiful yellow beads. That yellow is one of my favorite colors. But I'm just going to play it a little bit so you can kind of hear it. But you kind of pull at the strings or you could even pat the top. Countries, like in Ghana and Nigeria, they call the same instrument a shekere, but in Liberia we call it the sasa and it goes really loud and the women pull it and tug it to those poly rhythms together simultaneously and that also helps lead. The dancers dance their dance.

Speaker 1:

Improvisation is another form of musical elements in the African music. Improvisation with, you know, spontaneous musical creation within a structure. You know. That's kind of where jazz can be derived from. When you hear people scatting and doing those types of things With African music, you would see different songs and chants and different ways of spontaneously improvving drum solos or improvving sasa rhythms.

Speaker 1:

So those are the types of things you would see. Body percussion is a way of using your body as an instrument when drums were forbidden, you know, still beating on your body and still keeping the beat, you know, because that's important. And then blue notes, which I want to explore more, but it's flattened notes that create emotional expressiveness. So songs of despair, I would say, would be from that. So from these roots, we see the development of distinctly African-American musical forms. So you're going to see spirituals, religious songs that often contain coded messages, work songs, rhythmic songs that coordinated labor and pass the time. Blues expressing personal struggles and resilience.

Speaker 1:

Jazz, complex improvisational music emphasizing individual expression within collective structures. Gospel music ecstatic religious expression music, r&b, rhythm and blues if you're not aware of what R&B stands for soul and funk music and that continued this tradition throughout the 20th century. And then hip-hop, you know. Oral storytelling giving social commentary and rhythmic innovation. Giving social commentary and rhythmic innovation. These musical traditions don't exist in isolation. They represent a continuous conversation across generations, each responding to changing social conditions while maintaining and connecting to ancestral roots.

Speaker 1:

Now we're going to explore how educators can bring these rich traditions into their classrooms in respectful and engaging ways. I also have some wonderful African musical lesson plans for you, educator, in mind that you can download and get to it to help your students learn more about Starting with the African Musical Icons lesson plan. It is derived for grades 6 through 8 and also grades 9 through 12. And this lesson plan includes a biography booklet of 10 famous African musicians, from Angelique Kijo to Tiwa Savage Tijo to Tiwa Savage and your students will explore these famous musicians in the past and present, as well as getting some ideas to find these musicians and play their music in the classroom. It's really fun and uplifting and upbeat. You're also going to have another Music of Africa plan, another Music of Africa plan, and this one is for grade four and it's a five-day unit plan that will have your students learn how to make their own djembe drum, they'll learn how to African dance and they'll learn about the kente klop from Ghana and the geography of Ghana. So all of these you can find in our website website, jebedmondscom forward slash shop, and you can also see the direct links in the description below. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Now I cannot wait to give you some quick advice, educators, when it comes to how do we incorporate African music and African-American music into our curriculum. Well, I have some lesson plans on my website you can definitely download and use. Also see about asking your students who is their favorite African-American artist or their favorite African musical artist. Maybe you could incorporate the sounds of Fila Kuti during snack break or the sounds of Harry Belafonte while you're getting ready to do a writing project. There's so many ideas and musicians that can help introduce the vibrancy of African music and African American music into your classroom. I am so excited for you to explore and I'm so excited for you to understand the rhythms and the dancing that comes with African music.

Speaker 1:

There also is a wonderful Read in Rainbow episode with LeVar Burton. I believe it was around. I used to show this in my classroom so for my primary teachers. There is the episode that talks about the book Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain with LeVar Burton. Look it up on your Reading Rainbow archives. That's a wonderful way of showing you even the African instruments and how they make a drum from goat hide, and it's really eye-opening and so relevant to show your students. So that's another favorite episode of mine on Reading Rainbow. But the title of the book that they featured was Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain and I believe it was James Earl Jones that was the narrator of that book. May he Rest.

Speaker 1:

So I hope this episode is impactful for you, to give you some ideas of the origins of African music, as well as the artists that are there. My favorite artists that I love dancing to is Techno and Thames oh, love me, jeje. It sounds close to my name, so that always gets me in a good vibe. So there's always lots of artists that you can listen to for fun and enjoy, and also listen to the melodies, the you know, like I said, the improvisation, the multi rhythms, and see if you can pick up some instruments of what you hear in these songs. So enjoy, explore and share this episode with an educator who might be stuck in trying to incorporate African music and global music in their classroom setting. So you don't have to wait for your music specialist, but you can also incorporate African music in your daily practice. That's all that I have for you today and I cannot wait to see you back here again same time next week. Bye-bye.