Salegy: The Music of Madagascar

A physical map of Madagascar

What is the most popular dance music and dominates Madagascar today? Salegy, which may be the most popular dance music in Madagascar, is a music focuses on the tempo and the rhythm (Collinet).  The dance music is usually in 6/8 time (Fuhr, Collinet). There are many instruments involved that ranges from the traditional drums to accordions to trumpets and other wind instruments. There is also a method called rumbo that involves clapping and singing that is commonly used in Salegy, along with jeejee, which is a method to speak over the beats, like rapping (Collinet). Even though the rhythm and tempo of Salegy is very important, the lyrics and the message told in the lyrics are also very important, even though it was said that the lyrics mean everything yet nothing (Collinet). The most traditional message in Salegy usually don’t have big ideas, and one of the most common topic is love. Modern artists, such as Jaojoby, Jacs, Ali Mourad, and Hajazz, don’t only make songs of love, but also about very serious topics (Collinet). Not is the dance music popular, salegy is a music that shows a lot of the geography and history of Madagascar due to its outside influences through its name, lyrics, and the music itself.

A CD from a famous Salegy musician, Jaojoby.

Where does the word ‘salegy’ come from? Madagascar is divided into six climate regions, the north, the east, the western dry forest, the high plateau in the middle, the southern rain forest, and the southern dry forest below the rainforest (“About Madagascar: Regions of Madagascar”). There are many claims of where the name of the dance music came from, some from the east claim that the name had no actual meaning while others from the north claim that there is a meaning, and yet the word came from the east of Madagascar (Collinet). The dance music’s name only came to be in the mid 20th century while its roots expands to ancient times (Fuhr). An old salegy musician named Bawaka said that the word ‘salegy’ came from the Kreal language, ‘how is it beautiful!’ after seeing the people of Madagascar sing and dance after a war (Collinet). From what Bawaka said, the name of the dance music holds a lot of Madagascar’s history (Collinet). It all started when the northern port of Madagascar was the land of pirates due to it’s location (Collinet). The location of Madagascar at the time was a good place for trading, since it connects shipping trails of Sub Saharan Africa to other parts of the world (Collinet). Due to it’s location, many colonizers wanted to own Madagascar, so in the 20th century, it became a French base (Collinet). That’s when the slave trade to Madagascar became a big thing, and the slaves that were moved there also influenced Salegy. Aftward, many European countries fought for Madagascar, which is the cause of the war. All the outside influence influenced Salegy greatly. When the war was done and Madagascar gained independence, that’s when ‘Salegy’ first got its name (Collinet).

A map showing the climate regions of Madagascar.

The lyrics of Salegy tells a lot about Madagascar as well. As stated before in the introduction, the traditional lyrics of Salegy don’t have big ideas most of the time, But modern Salegy artists have bigger and serious messages in their lyrics, which are commonly about poverty, war, sexualy transmitted diseases, and the destruction of the forests (Collinet). Many musicians, such as Congella, are using the popularity of Salegy to encourage the people of Madagascar to do something about the problems Madagascar has today (Collinet). Congella is a young artist who is trying to encourage others to help protect the environment and Jacs, another musician, is trying to make the public aware of the destruction of the forests and that it is a problem (Collinet). Those lyrics plainly tell how the geography of Madagascar is like, of how the rainforest is decreasing by the day and of all the problems there are that needs to be solved.

Music is part of the culture, which is part of the geography of a place. Salegy tells a lot of the geography of Madagascar. There are different types of Salegy, the kind in the north of the country is faster and much more hyped while the kind in the east is slower and more traditional (Collinet). That shows the difference between the north and east of Madagascar, eastern Madagascar follows the traditional ways while the north, due to all the outer influences, goes to a more modern perspective (Collinet). It can be seen that due to all the pirates and Europeans coming to Madagascar’s north coast that that area would receive the most influence. The music in the north not only includes the traditional instruments of Madagascar, but also has a mix of other instruments such as the saxophone, trumpet, etc. Many artists have used European instruments along with traditional (Collinet). While there may be still some traditional roots, there is still evidence of outer influence.

A group of people playing Salegy with a mix of traditional and European instruments.

The music of a country tells a lot of the geography and history of the place. While people can enjoy the music, they can also learn a lot about where it came from. The radio host of Afropop Worldwide, Georges Collinet, chose to talk about Salegy because it is a significant part of Madagascar culture. It is also the most popular dance music on the island. With all the history and importance to the people, Salegy is an important part of Malagasy culture.

Here is an example of Salegy music from Hit Deep Afropop Worldwide, a podcast.

Works Cited:

Collinet, Georges.“Hit Deep in Madagascar: Songs of the North.” Hit Deep Afropop Worldwide. http://www.afropop.org/21370/hip-deep-in-madagascar-songs-of-the-north/ 30 May, 2015.

Eyre, Banning. “Go inside Salegy, the Music that Dominates Madagascar.” Afropop Worldwide. 21 Dec, 2014. http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-12-18/go-inside-salegy-music-dominates-madagascar 4 June, 2015

Fuhr, Jenny. “Experiencing Rhythm: Contemporary Malagasy Music and Identity.” 18 Jul 2014. https://books.google.com.tw/books?id=ftQxBwAAQBAJ&dq=salegy+music+madagascar&source=gbs_navlinks_s 5 Jun, 2015.

“About Madagascar: Regions of Madagascar.” http://www.air-mad.com/about_regions.html. 21 Jun 2015