Music and rock art: a Saharan note

Rock Art Research, May, 2006 by Ahmed Achrati

Beyond musical performance, the pre-Historic Saharan rock artist also seems to have had a keen interest in the personal life of the musician and its social context. In a scene at the Eberer Shelter in the Algerian Tassili, for example, no music is being played, but the 'musician', carrying a lute, is seen trekking along with a herd of 'ovines', preceded by a 'woman' and accompanied by a 'dog' (Gauthier and Gauthier 1996: Fig. 66).

A. The drums of Niola Doa ...

But there is another, far more fascinating way that testifies to the presence of music in the Saharan rock art. This is found at the Niola Doa, in the Ennedi plateau, Chad, where monumental petroglyphs occur, depicting four large female figures, measuring each more than two metres. Posing naked and slightly turned to the right, the four steatopygous women show intricate labyrinthine patterns all over their bodies, from head to toes. These voluptuous females, whom the local Tubu call Niola Doa, or 'Beautiful Ladies', wear bands across their waists, bracelets on their arms and feet and necklaces tied in the shape of a 'papillon' to the side of their necks. Each of the four figures holds in her right hand a 'stick' that rests on her shoulder in a manner similar to how herders often carry their batons. Facing the four ladies is a much smaller steatopygous woman, who, unlike them, is apparently clothed in a long dress. Present among the four main figures are also two other, even smaller women, one standing between the two ladies of the middle, and the other between the third and fourth to the right. Behind this lady on the right stand two very tiny persons, each playing a 'two-sided drum' held horizontally in front of him (her?) (cf. Le Quellec 1994).

Interestingly, this composition is repeated four times within an area of six square miles, with slight variations, especially in the distribution of the smaller figures. The 'drummers' also appear only in one scene (Simonis et al. 1998, especially the line drawings in Fig 5). A fifth panel has only two ladies.

B.... and the sounds of Africa

Rhythm is the basis of all African art, as Leopold Senghor said, and, according to the master drummer Babatunde Olatunji, it is also the 'soul of life' (Thomas 2005). In music, rhythm is to the Africans what harmony is to the Europeans (Chernoff 1978: 40). What is striking about the Niola Doa petroglyphs is the powerful rhythm they exude, especially the first two panels recorded by Courtet in 1954, and the one recorded by Simonis et al. in 1993 (Simonis et al. 1998: Figs 5a, 5b). In these panels, the alternation of the large and minor figures seems to echo the beat that emanates from the drummers portrayed in one of the scenes. Just as in the African drumming traditions, there is in the Niola Doa panel a constant dialogue between drums and bodies, those of the drummers and those of dancers, who 'provide a crucial source of inspiration for the improvising musician[s]' (Locke 1987: 9). The alternation of figures also suggests that, like the dondons of the African dances, these drummers are engaged in a beautiful conversation of drums, playing independent but interlocked rhythms. The clashes of these rhythms can be seen in the complex intertwining of the labyrinthine designs on the bodies of the naked ladies. These intriguing labyrinthine patterns could also very well be the graphic expression of the visceral response of the steatopygous women as their bodies absorb the cross-rhythms of these instruments.