History
Banjo
of the
Rhiannon Giddens and other players rewind the banjo’s controversial history, from African origins and white US usurpation to the present. Profile by Henry Yates
The banjo is a master of reinvention. To the casual music fan in modern times, it might be chiefly the weapon of choice for the bluegrass scene and indie-folk stadium-fillers Mumford & Sons. But scratch the surface, stick a pin in the history books, and few instruments have shed more skins or existed in such a state of flux.
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Depending on when you enter the timeline, the banjo is either a sociopolitical icon or a laughingstock. It’s been embraced – and rejected – by genres as eclectic as Celtic folk and Caribbean mento. “It’s a huge topic that, unfortunately, we reduce to just saying, ‘the banjo is a bluegrass instrument’,” says Rhiannon Giddens, frontwoman of acclaimed old-time act the Carolina Chocolate Drops and an authority on the instrument’s evolution. “But if you’ll pardon the pun, it’s never as black and white as we want it to be.” Heart of Africa In this tangled narrative, there is at least one point we know to be a cast-iron certainty: the banjo was created in white America. But as Giddens reminds us, this is perhaps the greatest falsehood of all. In reality, the banjo evolved from various West African gourd instruments that accompanied the first black slaves to America in the 17th century. “You have the akonting from Senegambia and the n’goni from Mali. All the lute instruments that existed in West Africa would have gone into this melting pot that created what we know as the banjo in the new world. The Haitian banza is the earliest instrument that has The Musician • Autumn 2019
all the characteristics of a banjo: the short string, the flat fingerboard. For me, the banjo exemplifies everything about America – y’know, African creation with European innovation.” “The banjo has a politically complicated history,” adds Ed Hicks, one of the UK’s leading banjo players and music educators. “It’s now increasingly seen as an African instrument again, which is kind of how it was seen in the 19th century too. The battle for cultural ownership of the instrument goes on.” That cultural tug-of-war is one of the most fascinating – and troubling – aspects of the banjo’s history. In the early years, explains Giddens, the instrument was a mainstay of black musicians on Southern plantations. “The majority of string bands for a long time were black, because that was seen as a servant’s function. So that meant enslaved musicians were often creating the music for the square dances. Then, at the turn of the century, you have 50/50 between white and black string bands. Thirty years later, it’s like people have already forgotten that black people can play this music. And then you had minstrelsy, where you have black innovation being homogenised for white culture. Minstrelsy really starts that, and you have this idea of whites performing what becomes known as ‘black music’ on the banjo. “To me, it shows how quickly the narrative can completely flip,” adds Giddens. “It only takes
