Bata and YouTube

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Bata and YouTube

Postby KentWindress » Tue Jun 12, 2012 1:02 pm

Hi everybody out there in virtual bata land. I'm pretty new to the forum, so I want to let everybody know up front that as well as playing drum set and percussion, I'm also a researcher. I'm doing my master's at the moment. The project I'm doing is looking at how YouTube is being affected by/affecting world wide bata performance. I've found a few key areas that YouTube vids explore - 1) Religious performance, 2)Cultural performances referencing religious performance (think CFNC), 3)Pedagogy 4)Commercially-motivated vids (people trying to sell bata, vids, CDs, etc), 5)Bata in 'other' music not referencing religion, as well as a few other things.

I want to ask the forum some questions. I'm hoping to generate some good discussions based on the areas I listed above. Now, please remember that I hope to use some of this data for my thesis. I'm very aware of people's privacy, and I don't want to disrespect or misrepresent anyone. Using the discussions as data doesn't mean I'll use people's posts or tags. If I was to quote anything I'd send a PM and ask that person specifically for permission. Otherwise it's more like a barometer to get a feel for what people think. If you don't want to participate I guess it's easy enough not to reply to the post. One of the benefits of the internet. First and foremost I'm a musician, and I'm studying because I love bata and have a thirst for knowledge. I'm not really in it for academic kudos. I'm actually in it because I live in Australia and I thought it might be nice if a university paid for my trips to Cuba from now on, 'cause it's really expensive from down here!

So the first thing I want to ask is - What do you think of YouTube videos featuring religious toques? Personally, I love watching the drumming and the energy of a toque, especially as there are none in Australia. And there are a few on YouTube these days. But whether this is a good thing or not... I don't think that's a simple question to answer. I have footage of the day I was presented to aña in Havana. I thought about uploading it, but knew I would have to ask my padrino first, and possibly the dueño of the tambor (I'm sworn to the same drums I was presented to, so they are particularly precious to me). I rang my padrino, who asked Orula while I was on the phone. The answer was no. So as far as I'm concerned, that's that. So that's my experience so far.

In a couple of weeks I'll have an annotated YouTube-ography that I'll post on a blog so everyone here can read it. I've spent many, many hours tracking them down, and even then I'm sure it won't be totally complete. When I finish my thesis I'll also post it to allow everyone in the forum to read it. Here's a link to an article I published in Australia. I'll also post a free copy if you're interested/concerned about my background and motivations.

http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=033920249894934;res=IELHSS

Anyway, let me know what you think.

With much respect,

Kent
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Re: Bata and YouTube

Postby ABAKUA » Wed Jun 13, 2012 3:16 am

Hello Kent,
my apologies for not getting back to you soon in PM. I have been extremely busy and not had the time I would need to reply in the detail and respect the topic/your questions deserve.
Firstly welcome to the boards.
Secondly, great to have another Aus percussionist on board here. I am also living in Australia. Sydney to be exact, from your PM i had gathered you are living in another state as I am not familiar with you. I have been in the Afro Cuban/Latino percussion/band scene in Syd for close to 20 years.
Thirdly, I am also Omo Aña, sworn on my first trip to Cuba on Aña Ade Orun in barrio Jesus Maria in old Havana.
Times are changing, and some mentalities along with them. In my most recent trip to Cuba, (where I stayed for 6 months) I had many at length discussions with several elders and observed many changes, even since my previous trip one year before.

I must admire your decision to take this on as your project. You certainly seem to have the passion and respect to see it through in accuracy.

I can put you in touch with a good friend of mine who has been there, done that so to speak, and is currently a Dr. as well as part of the faculty at Sydney University.
He is your best point of contact in relation to this, he is published, has received countless grants, fellowships and awards relating directly to his works and welcomes further academic interest in this field. He is also OmoAlaña. He spent over 3 years in Cuba during his research.
I will send you the information in PM if you like, so let me know if this is of interest.

I will hopefully be freed up soon and look forward to replying to your actual points in detail.

Kind regards & best of luck.
From a congaplace admin point of view, please remember to keep privacy where requested and all permissions from authors prior to any reproduction or quoting of any materials, posts or discussions.

PS - While I am not directly aware of any actual Aña set here, (mainly due to Australian Quarantine being the strictest in the world) there are still toques. In fact 5 of my close friends are also OmoAlaña and there are a few others floating about which are non active.
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Re: Bata and YouTube

Postby KentWindress » Wed Jun 13, 2012 5:09 am

Hi Abakua,

Cheers for the response. I got excited when you said you live in Sydney! I'm in Brisbane now, but for the last 6 years I was in Melbourne. As far as I know there weren't any toques there. Is your friend you mentioned Adrian? If so, I've already met him through mates in Melbs. Cool guy and very helpful.

Hopefully I can get down down to Sydney in a few months to check out the scene. I'm iyawo for another 3 months, so I'm pretty limited in my ability to travel until that's over. But it would be great to meet some aburres.

I look forward to reading your response to my question. Hopefully a few others are also able to participate.

Regards,

Kent
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Re: Bata and YouTube

Postby Thomas Altmann » Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:18 pm

Santo Iyawó!

Living in Hamburg, Germany, I am in a similar – if not worse – situation as you. And although I know that fundamento drums must not be filmed according to the rule of Añá, I do not miss a single opportunity to stay in touch with the universe of ceremonial batá drumming until my next journey to Cuba.

Going by the traditional religious dogma, Añá must never be photographed, nor filmed or recorded. This is what Regino Jiménez (ibae) said in the video “Añá – la magía del tambor”, produced by Mundo Latino in 1994. The complete video is uploaded on YouTube.

I was taught basically the same, however with one allowance: While the photo of my juramento was still taken in the absence of the drums themselves, but rather in front of its banner instead, I later learned that, while visual photos and films were prohibited, recordings were indeed permissible.

Some five years later, I found that photos as well as film clips of Añá, complete with sound track, had not only been taken, but worldwide published on the internet – to be watched not only by initiates, but by any living being that can execute a mouseclick.

I my religious experience with elders I have noticed that, in a general sense, duplications of the visual as well as the auditive appearance of any orisha, including Orúnmila, were perceived at least as questionable, if not outright forbidden. This extends to the prohibition of photos and mirrors for iyawó. Hence, for those of us who truly regard Añá as orisha, the verdict as outspoken by Regino had to be followed. The only escape from this rule would be the notion that the drum itself is nothing but the container of the orisha Añá, comparable to the soperas of other orisha. However, considering the fact that the bodies of the drums are born from Osain, too, and the treatment that they receive, clearly indicate that the entire drum in its physicality is more than a mere container. I have heard the statement that the batá de fundamento is an orisha expressed verbally by Cuban omóañá.

In consequence, the overt publication of video and audio recordings of consecrated batá drums just has to be disapproved of by anyone who has ever decided to obey to the traditional precepts of our religion. (I don’t want to discuss the special case of a film taken by an initiate for an abure at this point.) The gradual watering-down of the religious doctrine against taking photos, filming and recording of orisha including Añá is but a symptom of the so often lamented profanation and vulgarization of this religion.

One aspect of the matter in dispute is secrecy. A certain amount of secrecy has always been a feature of Yoruba religion, and I dare to state that it has not only begun with slavery and the persecution of non-Christian rites: According to the findings of Anthony Buckley (as explained in his book “Yorùbá Medicine”), a body that turns outward too much of what belongs to the inside is traditionally regarded ill in Yoruba worldview. Secrecy is to be found in every sector of the religion, especially Ifá and Añá, and generally concerning ritual practice. In this respect, beyond any question it would be absolutely inadmissible to make filmed footage of Añá ritual free accessible to the public, and the consultation of Ifá in the matter is equal to “preguntar lo que se sabe”. It is typical, however, that this is even considered an option by some elders of the guild today.

Concluding, we may observe that the actual real-life practice is overtaking religious doctrine in a way that makes any opposition look ridiculous, as this process is unstoppable. One might only think of the plethora of cameras incorporated and hidden in cellphones and all kinds of portable electronic devices all around us. (It would probably be impossible to count the number of photos that exist of myself as iyawó, especially while I was performing on stage.) And what can be the point of a German batá drummer complaining about the changes in Añá protocol, propelled by the actual practitioners in Cuba, who are handling the tambor and its fundamento on a daily basis? All I can say is that, while I concede free fashioning of ritual behaviour to anyone at their own responsibility, I feel most comfortable just sticking to what I have been taught, and what I believe is theologically coherent – at least as far as I am the one to “run the show.”

In this context I also want to remark that I noticed that in many of the YouTube clips of toques de fundamento, participants would put their heads on naked drums. To me, the banté is an integral element in Añá ritual practice, and its omission feels even more disturbing to me than filming the ceremony.

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Re: Bata and YouTube

Postby Quinto Governor II » Sun Jul 15, 2012 8:14 pm

Issues like this are always tough. I'm not a practitioner of the belief, but I'm becoming more associated with it as the years go by. For me change and evolution has its place in most things - even spiritually. If strict orthodoxy had been observed there would be know Lucumi today. We are often slow to except change, but change does take place whether we initially embrace it or not. Many times the reason for taboos are no longer known, and my not be relevant anymore. I guess only time can say for sure if the change was for the better or worst.
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Re: Bata and YouTube

Postby Psych1 » Sun Jul 15, 2012 11:09 pm

Hundreds of different religions and cults. Most believe that what others believe is wrong, or worse. Good luck trying to keep your secrets.
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Re: Bata and YouTube

Postby Thomas Altmann » Mon Jul 16, 2012 12:36 pm

Adaptability to changing environments has indeed always been a constituent feature of Yoruba religion, even in Africa, when deities and their respective veneration cults crossed bounds to other peoples with related religious systems, or with growing urbanization (in which the Yoruba were a leading nation). Then Islam gained its influence, and finally Christianity and European Colonialism crashed into the African cosmos. All that left marks in Orisha ritual and Ifá literature (or rather "orature"). I would even go as far as to say that change and evolution form an integral part of Yoruba orthodoxy.

Yoruba religion is very much a practical religion, in which ritual activity, its cult, is often attributed more significance than its cosmology or its theology. Yoruba ritual encircles what could be called an alchemy of power, in which particular objects and actions of perceived potency are taken and combined, concentrated, purified, vitalized and cultivated. As the human perception seems to be equally important in the game as the religious composition and its performance, ritual efficacy can be disturbed or ruined by reducing the divine to its recordable and duplicable image in the eyes and ears of the religious person. The same ist true for breaking secrecy; a de-mystification of a sacred and potent composition is reduced to meaningless matter, the empty form of what once had been a source of spiritual power.
In this respect, a carefree loosening of religious principles can amount to a serious loss to the entire concept of this religion, and the respective change would be to the worse, no matter whether one decided to oppose or were able to prevent it. Any fundamento drum would just be like any other drum; a wooden sound chamber covered with membranes and some funny stuff inside, useful for making a great party. The drum would cease to be an entity that has to be treated and manipulated with skill and respect in order to call the orishas. Oh, and playing instruments is silly anyway, because today we have machines to create those sound waves. (We could not stop this evolution, either.)

Being a white man from northern Germany raised as a Christian, I could hardly have come any farther from outside to Santería, but was welcomed and received kindly, initiated and taught like anyone else. In result, I do neither feel like being in a position to pass on what was given to me as a secret, nor to reform the religion in any substantial way. However, as a priest I have to be ready to conduct rituals on my own, and very often I have to face the necessity to modify those rituals according to my local environment. Now, these modifications must be planned carefully in order to stay aligned with the principles of the religion, to remain theologically coherent. These are the things that nobody can and will ever evaluate from the outside. You have to get into the religion and work from the inside to know what to preserve and what to change, and how. Otherwise we obtain a random and indifferent New-Age type of spiritual hodgepodge, with some drum circles happening. To this, I must say, I prefer any generalized superficial condemnation of all religions. That's simple, easy, and reasonable at least. It's the lowest common denominator, it doesn't kill anybody, and at the same time it is a good foundation for future self-development.

Thomas
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