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Chad is an ethnically diverseCentral African country. Each of its regions has its own unique varieties of music and dance. TheFulani people, for example, usesingle-reeded flutes, while the ancientgriot tradition uses five-stringkinde and various kinds ofhorns, and the Tibesti region useslutes andfiddles. Musical ensembles playing horns and trumpets such as the long royal trumpets known as "waza" or "kakaki" are used incoronations and other upper-class ceremonies throughout both Chad andSudan.
Thenational anthem of Chad is "La Tchadienne," written in 1960 byPaul Villard andLouis Gidrol with help from Gidrol's student group.
Following independence, Chad, like most other African countries, quickly began producing some popular music, primarily in a style similar to thesoukousmusic of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[1] Styles of Chadian popular music includesai, which used rhythms from the southern part of Chad—this style was popularized by a group calledTibesti. Other bands include theSahel'sInternational Challal andAfrican Melody, while musicians include theSudanese-music-influencedguitaristAhmed Pecos and Chadian-French musicianClément Masdongar.[2]
TheTeda live in the area around theTibesti Mountains. Their folk music revolves around men'sstring instruments and women's vocal music. String instruments like thekeleli are used to "speak for" male performers, since it is considered inappropriate for a man to sing in front of an adult woman.[3]
Traditional Chadian instruments include thehu hu (string instrument withcalabash loudspeakers),kakaki (a tinhorn),maracas,lute,kinde (abow harp) and various kinds of horns.[4] Other instruments include the flute and drums music of theKanembu and thebalaphone, whistle, harp andkodjo drums of theSara people, while theBaguirmians are known for drum andzither music, as well as a folk dance in which a mock battle is conducted between dancers wielding largepestles.[2]