Dan Maraya

Dan Maraya Jos, whose name means "The Orphan of Jos", was born in 1946 in Bukuru, near Jos in Plateau State, Nigeria. he made a kuntigi, with which he has accompanied himself ever since. Maraya was a vocalist, singing while accompanying himself on a small Nigerian lute called a kontigi. He also was skilled with the Kotsu drum and Kalungu drum (Hausa talking drum), the garaya 2-stringed lute or guitar, the molo 3-stringed lute or guitar, and the goge Nigerian violin, having learned them in training for his profession as a griot. The kuntigi is a small, single-stringed lute which Maraya plucked, and also drummed the skin soundboard with his fingers. The body of his instrument was made from an oval-shaped sardine can covered with goatskin. Dan Maraya and other kuntigi players are solo performers who accompany themselves with a rapid ostinato (a continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm) on the kuntigi. During instrumental interludes they repeat a fixed pattern for the song they are playing, but while singing, they will often change the notes of the pattern to parallel the melody they are singing. ==Griot profession==

Dan Maraya chose the griot profession when he was seven-years old, having been told that his decreased father was a royal drummer. Like most griot professional musicians, the mainstay of Dan Maraya's repertoire was praise singing, but Dan Maraya singled out his personal heroes rather than the rich and famous. His first, and perhaps still his most famous song was "Wak'ar Karen Mota" ["Song of the Driver's Mate"] in praise of the young men who get passengers in and out of minivan buses and do the dirty work of changing tires, pushing broken-down vans, and the like. His repertoire also included "songs about natural phenomena such as death, luck, wealth etc" as well as socially critical songs about "anti-societal acts." When the civil war ended with the victory of the federal government, Dan Maraya sang "Munafukan Yaki..." ("The Hypocrites of War") lampooning governments and international figures that sided with Biafra. Many of his songs incorporate social commentary. decries the practice of families arranging marriages for their daughters rather than letting them decide on their own mates. "Gulma-Wuya" ["The Busybody"] describes a neighborhood gossip who works in collusion with a boka (a practitioner in casting spells, removing evil spirits, etc.) to disrupt marriages by sowing dissension between women and their husbands. The latter song is amusing in that Dan Maraya performs it as a drama, imitating the voices of the different characters as they speak, a technique that he has used in other songs as well. ==Recordings==

Individual songs • Auren Dole [Forced Marriage] • Munafukan Yaki (Wallahi Kun Tabe) [translation: War Hypocrites (By God You Are Gone)] • ''Wakar Shari'a'' [Song of Sharia] • Alhaji Shaaibu Jagaf • Wakar Hankali [Song of the Mind] • Alhaji Bako Doma • Wakar PolyGram [Polygram song] ==References==