COMPETING BODIES AND SUBVERSIVE SONGS: NEGOTIATING A CHANGING TRADITION IN SENEGAL’S NATIONAL WRESTLING MUSIC

This dissertation asks how musical practices are entangled in processes of social change, examining how griot performers and wrestlers employ music to comment on recent transformations and shifting gender norms in Senegal. Since the early twentieth century, internal and external influences have reshaped traditional wrestling in Senegal into a commercialized, professional sport (termed Lámb). Lámb brings together Senegal’s numerous ethnic groups, creating a public display of ethnic and gendered identities through a range of musical practices. To examine this phenomenon, three performative genres have been explored, that form the core of wrestling music: drum rhythms and dance (termed bàkk and tuus); wrestling songs (woyu Làmb); and self-praise poetry (termed bàkku). This dissertation integrates methodologies from linguistic and cultural anthropology, ethnomusicology, performance studies, and gender studies. It traces the historical roots and recent re-adaptation of these three genres, asking how they have shaped contemporary attitudes toward the sport.Fieldwork among musicians, journalists, wrestlers, and audiences, has uncovered many transformations in performance strategies and musical styles in recent years. Among them are significant processes of erosion in the traditional surrogate speech system and lyrical genres. At the same time, new creative practices are emerging, as part of the ongoing commercialization and professionalization of the sport. Analysis of songs, poetry, and drum rhythms, as well as dance choreographies, has shed light on how global influences and changing local values have shaped these transformations. This research demonstrates how musical practices rooted in imaginaries of the past can be utilized to make cultural claims in the present. It shows how Senegalese griots reinvent traditional practices as part of an attempt to balance ethnic and national identities in the modern state. Furthermore, it shows how performative strategies of griots and wrestlers are enmeshed in ideological shifts in Senegal, and how they help navigate changing perspectives on gender. In conclusion, it argues that the playful discourse of national sporting events can be a productive site for exploring economic, religious, and ideological shifts in modern nation-states.