CABBIES

(This post was written on September 6th)

Not surprisingly, cab drivers have been some of my best resources here in Suva. I have met countless cabbies that have given me some great advice on how and where to conduct my research. Jiten, my first taxi driver in Fiji, has been a tremendous resource; because of him, I was able to attend that Hindu wedding.

After I left USP, I hailed a teal-colored Victoria Cutless; a truly vintage cab. The driver, named Rohit Ali, was a Muslim Indo-Fijian; for the record, he is a Sunni. After explaining the essence of my research, Ali told me that he plays tabla for qawwali, the religious music of Islam. (It should be noted that the Indian tabla is used for both the music of Hinduism and Islam). At this point, we had just arrived at my apartment, and I told him that I would like to interview him. He said he was working, so I made the suggestion that we just drive around, with the meter running, so I could continue to ask him questions. We drove for about half-an-hour, and I got see totally new part of Suva – around the neighborhood where the White House, the Parliament (now defunct, as the military retains total control of the government), and some religious seminaries all are located. It was a beautiful drive, but the interview itself was really informative.

Ali has no formal tabla training; but, he is able to play qawwali, the musical accompaniment to readings from the Qu’ran or other Islamic texts. I asked him if anyone in his family were tabla players, or musicians at the least, and he said was the first musician in his family. This is very intriguing and supports my hypothesis that Indian religious music (qawwali or Hindustani music) in Fiji is dissimilar to the equivalent in India. Unlike India, musicians in Fiji often do not have a familial connection to the music they are playing; that is, music is not taught generation to generation.

When I asked Ali what incited his interest in learning how to play the tabla, he said one day when he was eighteen, he, “was watching the [qawwali] singers, and became interested. Then one day, there was no tabla player, so I filled in.” Apparently, there is not a strict set of guidelines (of having to have formalized training) to perform qawwali in Fiji. To compare that to India, typically the tabla player must study the instrument for years before he is able to perform! It seems that there is not a rigid musical system here in Fiji.

When I asked how he learned to play qawwali – as it is a difficult genre of music that requires specific rhythms for specific holy passages –, he said he simply watched the hand and finger motions of other players, and learned that way. He did assert that, “You either have the qawwali in you or you do not.” That quotation can be interpreted as playing qawwali is a spiritual matter: it is something that you are born with, and it is not necessarily “learned,” but tapped into. (This idea is the inverse of Mims’ “You ain’t cause you not” theory).

Ali told me that he performs for various religious services, ranging from Islamic holidays to birth ceremonies. When I asked if there were any upcoming events he would be performing at, he informed that because Ramadan is approaching (the month of fast for Muslims), music is not being performed.

Towards the end of our conversation, I asked him several questions about the tabla itself. Ali does not own his own tablas; and uses the mosque’s set when he performs. When I told him that I have had difficulty in locating a tabla crafter, he confirmed what I already knew, that all tablas in Fiji are imported from India. When I asked him why he thought that was, he said that Fiji does not have all the proper materials to construct tablas. I explained me theory – that there probably was an absence of crafters to come to Fiji under as indentured servants, because they would already have had respectable jobs back in India –, he said that was a definite possibility. He then asserted that, “Under the old girmit (indentured servant) system, they would just bring over the instruments,” if they needed them. So it seems that there never have been tabla crafters in Fiji, or that there ever will be!

The truth is that I have actively been ignoring the Muslim Indo-Fijian population here; as I have felt that between the Hindu and indigenous populations would provide a sufficient amount of research. While that may be so, I now realize it is silly to disregard an important religious group, and I should use every potential resource.

This picture is from the Hindu wedding I attended.