Guest blog: Sabar and Mbalax in Senegal

By Sophie ‘Sabar’ Schouwenaar, dancing anthropologist

Sabar is the generic term for the dance, the drums and the events where sabar is performed. When speaking of sabar therefore, we refer to a complex cultural phenomenon, and not mere dance steps, rhythms or a party. Sabar is an intensely codified arena where those who set foot perform consciously. Sabar plays an essential part in life cycle rituals among the Wolof and plays a prominent role in many lives, especially women solidarity networks, where women’s support is accompanied by the sound of sabar drums and the joys of sabar dance.

The magic of the Guew-bi, the sabar circle

Many dancers acknowledge that the circle is a magical place. A frightening, titillating, powerful place. A place to dream of. A notorious place. A place where your reputation can be made and broken, only by yourself. A place where new dances arise, others perish, until suddenly they come to life again in a dancing body that in the corners and holes of his soul and body brought back what seemed to be forgotten.

Photo credit: Heike Tjepkema

Sabar circles in Senegal are packed with static energy, charged, jerky, the kind of energy that makes lights burn. The rhythms sometimes seem to take the bit in one’s hands, like a galloping horse, until they are again stipulated by the masters of sabar, and in particular the leader of the orchestra, who never loses control.

The energy is circular and hypnotic. The person who enters the circle loses himself or finds himself back, everything is enlarged and at the same time in the experience of the actor often rather slowed down. Ask a dancer right after they step out of the circle what he or she has just danced, which steps, in which order and chances are that the person looks at you with a blurry yet blissful look as if she or he has just touched heaven. There is no physical pain in the circle, however afterwards you usually find out that your clothes are torn and that you have blood on your feet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SzS88amI-o

However uncomfortable this all may seem, once they have faced their fears and successfully entered the sabar arena to express themselves through the sabar vocabulary, sabar dancers are the happiest persons on the planet.

Quite to the contrary to the many others who are terrified by the sabar circle, this is pre-eminently the comfort zone of the Guewel, lord and master of the Guew-bi, the sabar circle. The group of Guewel is one of the named status groups with occupational specializations that is part of Wolof hierarchical society. The main responsibility of Guewel is to entertain the sabar event, to stir up the women in their dance, as they are the entertainers of any sabar event. Traditionally they are held responsible for the genealogies of the Wolof people, therefore their praise singing is part of their entertainment repertoire. Often referred to as the guardians of tradition, they act as referees at the sabar event, judging and commenting on dancer’s skills but also protecting and preserving tradition by interfering at times.

Mbalax - the traditional modern music of Senegal

Traditional because the sabar drums of the Wolof constitute the rhythmic ensemble into which sabar rhythms are played, modern because electric guitar, synthesizer, and saxophone are part

of the ensemble. Mbalax is named after the accompaniment rhythm of the mbëng mbëng, which is prominently featured and has become the trade-mark of this rich musical pulsing blend. Mbalax has become an umbrella term for the entire genre of Senegalese popular music.

Mbalax came up after Senegal gained independence, and became very popular because Youssou Ndour, who kind of invented it, promoted it both in Senegal and abroad.

However, for foreign markets, Senegalese mbalax artist tend to record adapted version of their albums, where the sabar drums are put in the back and the other ‘western’ instruments are put in the front. The foreign audience is deemed unable to handle the rhythmical mbalax pulse.

In Senegal, mbalax is what urban youth dances to. It's the club and clip dance, it's humorous, vibrant, dense and rich: it is stuffed with all the latest bakks (musical compositions or phrases that are always very up to date and in fashion in Senegal). Besides the melody lines being beautiful, mbalax is the arena where new dances are created on the spot. Through the many multimedia channels, they are spread throughout the country and diaspora, and as a result EVERYBODY in Senegal (and beyond) dances the latest fecc boubess, the new dance.

Sabar and mbalax therefore unite people, in many wonderful ways.

https://youtu.be/LjrqWgRtWBU

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About the author

Sophie’s heart beats for sabar and mbalax. She was initially trained into mbalax dance with the king of mbalax, Youssou Ndour's former dancer, Pape Ndiaye Thiou and his group. “We danced everywhere, from Pikine to Rufisque, in videoclips, nightclubs, in the streets, in schools, on dirty rehearsal grounds, night and day, although particularly at night time”.

At the same time she developed in sabar dance, because to her sabar is the root of mbalax: “I believe that there is no development in a dancer’s life if basics are skipped.”

Back in her hometown Amsterdam, desperately missing what she left behind in Senegal, she launched a mbalax class, transmitting her love for Senegalese mbalax to other people: “The idea behind dancing mbalax was that I had seen lots of non-Senegalese dancing to sabar drums, but mbalax seemed to remain an all-Senegalese party, where only the ones who understood the codes had access. And no one other than the Senegalese seemed to understand mbalax. My aim was and still is to decode and demystify and give access to all who wish to dive into the miraculous world of sabar and mbalax music and dance”.

As an anthropologist who dances, Sophie always aims for a link between both disciplines, which reflects in her approach on sabar as a cultural phenomenon. Follow Sophie on Facebook and Instagram or get in touch via email to info@sophie-sabar.nl.

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