UCLA

The cornerstone of this dissertation is guayla, a remarkable popular music of the small northeast African nation of Eritrea, its diaspora and northern Ethiopia. Indigenous to Eritrea’s largest ethnic group, the Tigrinya, who make up 50% of the country’s total population of roughly 3-4 million, guayla arose out of traditional music-making and local customs, many of which are still performed today. Guayla has a highly distinctive sound that features soaring vocals, call-and-response singing, and a signature cyclical “five-beat” rhythmic structure that sets everyone dancing at social and political events. Ravinder Rena states that guayla “is [a] powerful and meticulous form of art that brings the emotional integration among the masses. The song is a driving force of an Eritrean society” (Rena 2009). Guayla is particularly present on Eritrean social media and YouTube channels and is a powerful marker of Tigrinya ethnic identity and Eritrean nationhood among the substantial diasporic communities located in North America, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. Lastly, secular guayla music contrasts with both the prevalence of ancient liturgical music of the Orthodox Tewahedo church which occupies an important place in the cultural history of the country, and the richness of the music of the other eight nationally recognized ethnic groups: Afar, B’dawiyet, Bilen, Kunama, Nara, Rashaida, Saho, and Tigre. The doctoral dissertation “Guayla Nation: Unyielding Tigrinya Music, Dance and Identity in Eritrea” draws from observations, interviews, videos, writings, ephemera, archives, and online testimonials to provide a preliminary ethnographic and historical exploration of Eritrea’s most popular and ubiquitous music legacy.