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Afro-cuban Music
Music of African heritage in Cuba derives from the musical traditions of the many ethnic groups from different parts of West and Central Africa that were brought to Cuba as slaves between the 16th and 19th centuries. Members of some of these groups formed their own ethnic associations or '' cabildos'', in which cultural traditions were conserved, including musical ones. Music of African heritage, along with considerable Iberian (Spanish) musical elements, forms the fulcrum of Cuban music. Much of this music is associated with traditional African religion Lucumi, Palo, and othersand preserves the languages formerly used in the African homelands. The music is passed on by oral tradition and is often performed in private gatherings difficult for outsiders to access. Lacking melodic instruments, the music instead features polyrhythmic percussion, voice (call-and-response), and dance. As with other musically renowned New World nations such as the United States, Brazil and Jamaica, C ...
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West Africa
West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo, as well as Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom Overseas Territories, United Kingdom Overseas Territory).Paul R. Masson, Catherine Anne Pattillo, "Monetary union in West Africa (ECOWAS): is it desirable and how could it be achieved?" (Introduction). International Monetary Fund, 2001. The population of West Africa is estimated at around million people as of , and at 381,981,000 as of 2017, of which 189,672,000 were female and 192,309,000 male.United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, custom data acquired via webs ...
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Lucumi People
Afro-Cubans () or Black Cubans are Cubans of full or partial sub-Saharan African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba associated with this community, and the combining of native African and other cultural elements found in Cuban society, such as race, religion, music, language, the arts and class culture. Demographics According to the 2002 national census that surveyed 11.2 million Cubans, 1 million or 11% of Cubans identified as Afro-Cuban or Black. Some 3 million identified as "mulatto" or "mestizo", meaning of mixed race, primarily a combination of African and European. Thus more than 40% of the population on the island affirm some African ancestry. The Cuban Revolution brought to power Fidel Castro, who promised a communist society without racism. His government promised equal opportunities for education, health care and work. There has been much scholarly discussion about the demographic composition of the island ...
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Human Sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease deity, gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/priestly figure, spirits of veneration of the dead, dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein a monarch's servants are killed in order for them to continue to serve their master in the next life. Closely related practices found in some tribe, tribal societies are human cannibalism, cannibalism and headhunting. Human sacrifice is also known as ritual murder. Human sacrifice was practiced in many human societies beginning in prehistoric times. By the Iron Age with the associated developments in religion (the Axial Age), human sacrifice was becoming less common throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia, and came to be looked down upon as barbarian, barbaric during classical antiquity. In the New World, Americas, however, human sacrifice cont ...
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Fon People
The Fon people, also called Dahomeans, Fon nu, Agadja and historically called Jeji (Djedji) by the Yoruba in the South American diaspora and in colonial French literature are a Gbe ethnic group.Fon people
Encyclopædia Britannica, undated, 1.7 million population, Retrieved June 29, 2019
They are the largest ethnic group in Benin, found particularly in its south region; they are also found in southwest and Togo. Their total population is estimated to be about 3,500,000 people, and they speak the
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Benin
Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its population lives on the southern coastline of the Bight of Benin, part of the Gulf of Guinea in the northernmost tropical portion of the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Porto-Novo, and the seat of government is in Cotonou, the most populous city and economic capital. Benin covers an area of , and its population in was estimated to be approximately million. It is a tropical country with an economy heavily dependent on agriculture and is an exporter of palm oil and cotton. From the 17th to the 19th century, political entities in the area included the Kingdom of Dahomey, the city-state of Porto-Novo#History, Porto Novo, and other states to the north. This region was referred to as the Slave Coast of West Africa from the early 17th century due ...
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Dahomey
The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African List of kingdoms in Africa throughout history, kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by expanding south to conquer key cities like Ouidah, Whydah belonging to the Kingdom of Whydah on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast which granted it unhindered access to the tricontinental Atlantic slave trade, Atlantic Slave Trade. For much of the middle 19th century, the Kingdom of Dahomey became a key regional state, after eventually ending tributary status to the Oyo Empire. European visitors extensively documented the kingdom, and it became one of the most familiar African nations known to Ethnic groups in Europe, Europeans. The Kingdom of Dahomey was an important regional power that had an organized domestic economy built on conquest and Slavery, slave labor, si ...
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Abakuá
Abakuá, also sometimes known as Ñañiguismo, is a Cuban initiatory religious fraternity founded in 1836. The society is open only to men and those initiated take oaths to not reveal the secret teachings and practices of the order. Members are typically known as Abanékues and are divided amongst lodges or chapters called ''juegos''. Abakuá derives largely from the Ekpe, Ékpè society of West Africa, but displays adaptations like the inclusion of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic symbolism. The society teaches the existence of a supreme divinity named Abasí who supplied humanity with a form of power which holds a central place in Abakuá's origin myth. Rituals are called ''plantes'' and typically take place in a secluded room, the ''fambá''. Many of the details of these ceremonies are kept secret although they usually involve drumming. Some of the Abakuá society's ceremonies take place in public. Most notable are the public parades on the Epiphany (holiday), Day of the Three ...
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Ijaw People
The Ijaw people, also known as the Izon people, are an ethnic group found in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria, with primary Population, population clusters in Bayelsa State, Bayelsa, Delta State, Delta, and Rivers State, Rivers. They also have significant population clusters in Edo State, Edo, Lagos State, Lagos, Ondo State, Ondo. and small parts of Akwa Ibom State, Akwa Ibom. The Ijaw people are located in about 29 of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas, primarily across six Nigerian states. Many are found as Migrant worker, migrant Fisherman, fishermen in fishing camps and settlements in Benue State, Benue, and Kogi State, Kogi states and as far west as Sierra Leone, Ghana and as far east as Gabon. Census data from Nigeria’s National Population Commission recorded the Ijaw population at 5.3 million in 1991, making up 5.9% of the country’s 88.9 million people at the time. By 2006, their population had grown to 8.42 million, representing around 6% of Nigeria’s 140.4 mi ...
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Igbo People
The Igbo people ( , ; also spelled Ibo" and historically also ''Iboe'', ''Ebo'', ''Eboe'', / / ''Eboans'', ''Heebo''; natively ) are an ethnic group found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. Their primary origin is found in modern-day Abia State, Abia, Anambra State, Anambra, Ebonyi State, Ebonyi, Enugu State, Enugu, and Imo States, while others can be found in the Niger Delta and along the Cross River. The Igbo people are one of the largest List of ethnic groups of Africa, ethnic groups in Africa. The Igbo language is part of the Niger–Congo languages, Niger-Congo language family. Its regional dialects are mutually intelligible amidst the larger "Igboid languages, Igboid" cluster. The Igbo homeland straddles the lower Niger River, east and south of the Edoid languages, Edoid and Idomoid languages, Idomoid groups, and west of the Lower Cross River languages, Ibibioid (Cross River) cluster. Before the period of Colonial Nigeria, British colonial rul ...
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Bight Of Biafra
The Bight of Biafra, also known as the Bight of Bonny, is a bight off the west- central African coast, in the easternmost part of the Gulf of Guinea. This "bight" has also sometimes been erroneously referred to as the "Bight of Africa" because it is at this point where the direction of the Western coastline of the African continent most prominently changes from a North/ South orientation to an East/ West orientation. Geography The Bight of Biafra, between Cape Formosa and Cape Lopez, is the most eastern part of the Gulf of Guinea; it contains the islands Bioko (part of Equatorial Guinea), São Tomé and Príncipe. The name Biafra – as indicating the country – fell into disuse in the later part of the 19th century A 1710 map indicates that the region known as "Biafar" was located in present-day Cameroon. The Bight of Biafra extends east from the River Delta of the Niger in the north until it reaches Cape Lopez in Gabon.
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Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea, and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West Africa and Central Africa, it has been categorized as being in both camps. Cameroon's population of nearly 31 million people speak 250 native languages, in addition to the national tongues of English and French, or both. Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad and the Baka people (Cameroon and Gabon), Baka hunter-gatherers in the southeastern rainforest. Portuguese discoveries, Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area ''Rio dos Camarões'' (''Shrimp River''), which became ''C ...
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