Traditional music and dance
Given the country's geographical location and history, Djibouti's music is unsurprisingly steeped in African, Arab and European influences. Although unique, traditional Afar and Somali music, for example, share a family resemblance with that of Ethiopia and the Arabian Peninsula. Beyond this game of mirrors, Djibouti's musical tradition has one major characteristic: the predominant role given to the text. Made up of numerous poems and nomadic tales that have been set to song, the country's traditional music has always revolved around poetry. Thus, to listen to a Djiboutian song is first to hear a text, to pay attention to its writing, to admire its turns of phrase. Perhaps this is linked to the country's oral tradition, with songs, poems and tales being vectors of nomadic knowledge. As a result, everyone here knows dozens of songs and poems, some of which have a very ancient origin.
One genre that is particularly representative of this Djiboutian poetic essence is guux. A kind of traditional local blues, it is recognizable by its guttural singing expressing the melancholy of the nomad. Otherwise, among the most common traditional songs is the malaabo from the city of Tadjourah. Reserved for women, who sing it in a group, it is used during major family ceremonies: births, circumcisions, weddings, etc. The lyrics are praises and compliments, addressed to the person being celebrated and his family. People sing, while dancing to the rhythm of a drum. The drum also accompanies the dabal dance. On the occasion of certain ceremonies, dagger dances are performed by men and women (the nacna for example). Other dances and songs evoke or celebrate the arrival of rain or the departure for battle, such as the horra
, a song of Afar warriors.On the whole, the accompanying music is often simple: drums, hand clapping, and a chorus of the main voice. Simple, but very effective and communicative. The drum has always played an important role. The Afar dinkara, consisting of a small and a large drum, has long been used as a messenger. Its coded rhythms announced events: the beginning and end of Ramadan, the death of the Sultan, the New Year, etc. The rest of the traditional Djiboutian instrumentation includes the tanbura
, which here refers to a lyre (and not a lute as in many countries) and sometimes the oud. It should be noted that in Djibouti, the use of instruments is rather recent. The introduction of the use of Arab or European instruments is attributed to the Somali poet and composer Cabdilaahi Qarshe (1924-1997), who initiated the modern song in the Horn of Africa.Among the great names in traditional Djiboutian music, Abayazid Ali Dahabli gained national recognition for his nomadic blues and simple Afar melodies accompanied by the guitar, while Houssein Haylé became a star thanks to his unique style of traditional music such as the dinkara, laale (traditional Afar dance) and saxag
(seduction dance) mixed with zouk, reggae and soul. While major festivities like the <a href="etbspf_id:690948" title="INDEPENDENCE DAY">Independence Day</a> reserve their share of traditional music, a few establishments in the country regularly host it. This is the case of the Étoile de Kokeb, in Djibouti-Ville, a restaurant renowned as much for its varied (and excellent) specialties as for the <i>Lewat</i>, a dinner show with folkloric dances.Popular music
One of the most popular genres in the country is balwo, a very sentimental and poetic Somali style created in the mid-20th century by the famous artist Abdi Sinimo (1920-1967). Another popular genre (and of Somali origin) is qaraami
, which emerged in the 1940s, fusing regional music with jazz, then soul and funk in the 1970s. Once forgotten, it regained a fair amount of popularity in the 1990s thanks to Sarah Halgan, an excellent artist from Somaliland who was exiled in France for a long time.With the exception of a few music legends such as Abdi Nour Allaleh, it is safe to say that popular song is a predominantly female genre here. Many Djibouti women have made their mark on the public, such as Nima Djama, who was also involved in politics, Xabiiba Balbalaaf (1961-2020), a singer who was particularly renowned for the quality of her lyrics, and Fatouma Mansour. Born in 1968, Fatouma Mansour is one of the few Djiboutian artists to have had an international career. In addition to her solo successes, she is also famous for having founded Dinkara, with the composer Moyalé, one of the country's leading groups. Moyalé, long considered to be the spearhead of Djiboutian pop, has imposed his unique style, somewhere between Afro-rock and Afar groove.
From the 1970s onwards, Djibouti's popular music began to be infused with foreign styles such as reggae, funk and zouk, a heterogeneous trend embodied by artists such as Roda Maash, a Somali singer born in 1963 who took part in several of the country's leading groups such as Dinkara, and Aïdarous, a composer and singer famous for his fusion of Afar music, jazz and world music. Two excellent albums that document this mixed episode of Djiboutian music very well were recently released on the New York label Ostinato Records. In 2019, the latter had access to the archives of the Radiodiffusion-Télévision de Djibouti (RTD), a real treasure trove which enabled it to release an anthology of the group 4 Mars, a 40-member ensemble whose music reflected the richness of the country's influences at the time - Somali, Egyptian and Yemeni rhythms, Sudanese musical structures, Turkish or Jamaican inspirations, jazz.. - as well as a compilation of the great titles of the RTD Group, the big band of the national channel, whose music was also a confluence of flavours: reggae, Bollywood voices and ethiojazz brass. Today, Djibouti's new guard shines through its diaspora like Shay Lia - whose real name is Shanice Dileita Mohamed -, a Montreal-based R&B and soul artist considered a Canadian-Jiboutian Beyoncé. Apart from the Ambassadeur and Casanova, the best place for a concert in the country is the Menelik, a trendy nightclub frequented by Djibouti's golden youth and expatriates alike.
