Sub-Saharan African Music Traditions

In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the use of music is not limited to entertainment: it serves a purpose to the local community and helps in the conduct of daily routines. Traditional African music supplies appropriate music and dance for work and for religious ceremonies of birth, naming, rites of passage, marriage and funerals. The beats and sounds of the drum are used in communication as well as in cultural expression.

African dances are largely participatory: there are traditionally no barriers between dancers and onlookers except with regard to spiritual, religious and initiation dances. Even ritual dances often have a time when spectators participate. Dances help people work, mature, praise or criticize members of the community, celebrate festivals and funerals, compete, recite history, proverbs and poetry and encounter gods. They inculcate social patterns and values. Many dances are performed by only males or females. Dances are often segregated by gender, reinforcing gender roles in children. Community structures such as kinship, age, and status are also often reinforced. To share rhythm is to form a group consciousness, to entrain with one another, to be part of the collective rhythm of life to which all are invited to contribute.Sebastian Bakare, ''The Drumbeat of Life'', WCC Publications, Geneva, Switzerland. 1997.

Yoruba dancers and drummers, for instance, express communal desires, values, and collective creativity. The drumming represents an underlying linguistic text that guides the dancing performance, allowing linguistic meaning to be expressed non-verbally. The spontaneity of these performances should not be confused with an improvisation that emphasizes the individual ego. The drummer's primary duty is to preserve the community. Master dancers and drummers are particular about the learning of the dance exactly as taught. Children must learn the dance exactly as taught without variation. Improvisation or a new variation comes only after mastering the dance, performing, and receiving the appreciation of spectators and the sanction of village elders.

The music of the Luo, for another example, is functional, used for ceremonial, religious, political or incidental purposes, during funerals (Tero buru) to praise the departed, to console the bereaved, to keep people awake at night, to express pain and agony and during cleansing and chasing away of spirits, during beer parties (Dudu, ohangla dance), welcoming back the warriors from a war, during a wrestling match (Ramogi), during courtship, in rain making and during divination and healing. Work songs are performed both during communal work like building, weeding, etc. and individual work like pounding of cereals, winnowing.

Regions

Alan P. Merriam divided Africa into seven regions for ethnomusicological purposes, observing current political frontiers ''(see map)'', and this article follows this division as far as possible in surveying the music of ethnic groups in Africa.

* Music of the northern region of Africa'' (red on the map)'', including that of the Horn of Africa ''(dark green on the map)'', is mostly treated separately under Middle Eastern and North African music traditions.
* West African music ''(yellow on the map)'' includes the music of Senegal and the Gambia, of Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia, of the inland plains of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso and also the coastal nations of Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo as well as the islands of Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe.
* Central African Music ''(dark blue on the map)'' includes the music of Chad, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia.
* The Eastern region ''(light green on the map)'' includes the music of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe as well as the islands of Madagascar, the Seychelles, Réunion, Mauritius and Comoros. The eastern region has received south Asian and even Austronesian influences via the Indian Ocean.
* The Southern region ''(brown on the map)'' includes the music of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Namibia and Angola.

Sahel and Sudan

* The music of Sudan ''(turquoise on the map)'' indicates the difficulty of dividing music traditions according to state frontiers. The musicology of Sudan involves some 133 language communities.Gordon, Raymond G. Jr. (ed.)
''Languages of Sudan''
, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed., Dallas: SIL International, 2005 that speak over 400 dialects, Afro-Asian, Nilotic and Niger–Congo.

In contrast to traditional Arabic music, most Sudanese music styles are pentatonic, and the simultaneous beats of percussion or singing in polyrhythms are further prominent characteristics of Sudanese music.

Sudan takes its name from that of the sub-Saharan savanna which makes, with the Nile, a great cross-roads of the region. South of the Sahara the ''Sahel'' forms a bio-geographic zone of transition between the desert and the Sudanian savannas, stretching between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. The Nilotic peoples prominent in southern Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and northern Tanzania, include the Luo, Dinka, Nuer and Maasai."Nilotic", The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.
Many of these have been included in the Eastern region.

* The Dinka are a mainly agro-pastoral people inhabiting the Bahr el Ghazal region of the Nile basin, Jonglei and parts of southern Kordufan and Upper Nile regions. They number around 1.5 million, about 10% of the population. of Sudan.
* The Arabian ''rebab'' has found a home among the Nuba peoples.

The Senegambian Fula have migrated as far as Sudan at various times, often speaking Arabic as well as their own language. The Hausa people, who speak a language related to Ancient Egyptian and Biblical Hebrew, have moved in the opposite direction. Further west the Berber music of the Tuareg has penetrated to Sub-Saharan countries. These are included in the Western region, but the music of Sub-Saharan herders and nomads is heard from west to east.

Western, central, eastern and southern territories

These remaining four regions are most associated with Sub-Saharan African music: familiar African musical elements such as the use of cross-beat and vocal harmony may be found all over all four regions, as may be some instruments such as the iron bell. This is largely due to the expansion of the Niger–Congo-speaking people that began around 1500 BC: the last phases of expansion were 0–1000 AD. Only a few scattered languages in this great area cannot readily be associated with the Niger–Congo language family. However two significant non-Bantu musical traditions, the Pygmy music of the Congo jungle and that of the bushmen of the Kalahari, do much to define the music of the central region and of the southern region respectively.

As a result of the migrations of Niger-Congo peoples (e.g., Bantu expansion), polyrhythmic culture (e.g., dance, music), which is generally associated with being a common trait among modern cultures of Africa, spread throughout Africa. Due to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, music of the African diaspora, many of whom descend from Niger-Congo peoples, has had considerable influence upon modern Western forms of popular culture (e.g., dance, music).

West Africa

The music of West Africa must be considered under two main headings: in its northernmost and westernmost parts, many of the above-mentioned transnational sub-Saharan ethnic influences are found among the Hausa, the Fulani, the Wolof people, the Mande speakers of Mali, Senegal and Mauritania, the Gur-speaking peoples of Mali, Burkina Faso and the northern halves of Ghana, Togo and Côte d'Ivoire, the Fula found throughout West Africa, and the Senufo speakers of Côte d'Ivoire and Mali.

The coastal regions are home to the Niger-Congo speakers; Kwa, Akan, the Gbe languages, spoken in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria, the Yoruba and Igbo languages, spoken in Nigeria and the Benue–Congo languages of the east.

Inland and coastal languages are only distantly related. While the north, with its ''griot'' traditions, makes great use of stringed instruments and xylophones, the south relies much more upon drum sets and communal singing.

Northern

Complex societies existed in the region from about 1500 BCE. The Ghana Empire existed from before c. 830 until c. 1235 in what is now south-east Mauritania and western Mali. The Sosso people had their capital at Koumbi Saleh until Sundiata Keita defeated them at the Battle of Kirina (c. 1240) and began the Mali Empire, which spread its influence along the Niger River through numerous vassal kingdoms and provinces. The Gao Empire at the eastern Niger bend was powerful in the ninth century CE but later subordinated to Mali until its decline. In 1340 the Songhai people made Gao the capital of a new Songhai Empire.

* The Hausa people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, Niger, Sudan and many West and Central African countries. They speak a Chadic language. There are two broad categories of traditional Hausa music; rural folk music and urban court music developed in the Hausa Kingdoms before the Fulani War. Their folk music has played an important part in Nigerian music, contributing elements such as the goje, a one-stringed fiddle.
* The originally nomadic/pastoral Senegambian Fula people or Tukulor represent 40% of the population of Guinea and have spread to surrounding states and as far as Sudan in the east. In the 19th century they overthrew the Hausa and established the Sokoto Caliphate. The Fula play a variety of traditional instruments including drums, the ''hoddu'' ('' xalam''), a plucked skin-covered lute similar to a banjo, and ''riti'' or ''riiti'' (a one-string bowed instrument similar to a violin), in addition to their vocal music. They also use end-blown bamboo flutes. Their griots are known as ''gawlo''.
* Mande music: the music of Mali is dominated by forms derived from the Mande Empire Their musicians, professional performers called jeliw (sing. ''jeli'', French ''griot''), have produced popular alongside traditional music. Mande languages include Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Bissa, Dioula, Kagoro, Bozo, Mende, Susu, Vai and Ligbi: there are populations in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia and, mainly in the northern inland regions, in the south coast states of Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
* Wolof music: the Wolof people, the largest ethnic group in Senegal, kin to the Fula, have contributed greatly to popular Senegalese music. The related Serer people are notable for polyphonic song.

* In Senegal, The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau the Jola are notable for their stringed instrument the '' akonting'', a precursor of the banjo while the Balanta people, the largest ethnic group of Guinea-Bissau, play a similar gourd lute instrument called a ''kusunde'' or ''kussundé'', with a short A/B drone string at the bottom, a top F string of middle length and a middle C string, the longest. Top string stopped gives G, middle string stopped is D.
* Songhai music, as interpreted by Ali Farka Toure, has gathered international interest for a minor pentatonic lute-and-voice style that is markedly similar to American blues.
* The Senufo or Senoufo, living in southern Mali and the extreme western corner of Burkina Faso to Katiola in Côte d'Ivoire with one group, the Nafana, in north-western Ghana. The Senufo are notable for funeral and poro music.Bensignor, François and Brooke Wentz, "Heart of the African Music Industry" in the ''Rough Guide to World Music'', pp. 472–476

* Among Gur-speaking peoples the Dagomba use the ''lunga'' talking drum and a bass drum with snares called a ''gungon'', as well as the flute, ''gonje'' (''goje'') and bell. as well as ''molo'' ('' xalam'') lute music, also played by Gurunsi peoples such as the Frafra. Similar styles are practised by local Fulani, Hausa, Djerma, Busanga and Ligbi speaking people. Drummers in Dagbon are storytellers, historians, bards of family ancestry who perform at events called ''sambanlunga''.
* The Gurunsi, the Lobi, the Wala and the related Dagaaba people of Ghana and Burkina Faso and are known for complex interlocking (double meter) patterns on the xylophone (''gyil'').
* The Mossi people, whose Mossi Kingdoms in present-day Burkina Faso, withstood their Songhai and Mende neighbours before falling to the French, have a griot tradition. Also djambadon. ''also brosca''.

The Gulf of Guinea

* The Akan people include the Akwamu, Bono, Akyem, Fante, Ashanti, who originated the Adowa and ''kete'' styles, the Baoulé whose polyphonic music introduced the ''gbébé'' rhythm to Ivory Coast, the Nzema people who play the ''edengole''. Akan peoples have complex court music including the ''atumpan'' and Ga kpanlogo style, a modernized traditional dance and music form, developed around 1960. Yacub Addy, Obo Addy, and Mustapha Tettey Addy are Ga drummers who have achieved international fame. A huge log xylophone is used in ''asonko'' music. The 10–14 string Ghanaian ''seprewa'', midway between the kora and the African harp, is still played but often replaced by guitar. Other styles include; ''adaha, agbadza, akwete, ashiko'' and ''gombe'' as well as ''konkomba'', mainline, ''osibisaba'' and ''sikyi''. Instrumentation includes the ''aburukawa, apentemma, dawuro'' and ''torowa''.

* Ewe music, the music of the Ewe people of Ghana, Togo and Benin, is primarily percussive with great metrical complexity. Ewe drumming ensembles produce dance music and have contributed popular styles such as ''agbadza'' and '' borborbor'', a ''konkomba''/highlife fusion of the 1950s.
*The related Aja people are native to south-western Benin and south-eastern Togo. Aja living in Abomey mingled with the local tribe, thus creating the Fon or Dahomey ethnic group, now the largest in Benin. Tchinkoumé.Bensignor, François with Eric Audra, "Afro-Funksters" in the ''Rough Guide to World Music'', pp. 432–436
* Yoruba music is prominent in the music of Nigeria and in Afro-Latin and Caribbean musical styles. Ensembles using the talking drum play a type of music that is called ''dundun'' after the drum,Turino, pp. 181–182; Bensignor, François with Eric Audra, and Ronnie Graham, "Afro-Funksters" and "From Hausa Music to Highlife" in the ''Rough Guide to World Music'', pp. 432–436,588–600; Karolyi, p. 43 using various sizes of tension drum along with special band drums (''ogido''). The leader or ''oniyalu'' uses the drum to "talk" by imitating the tonality of Yoruba language. Yoruba music traditionally centred on folklore and spiritual/deity worship, utilising basic and natural instruments such as handclaps. Professional musicians were referred to by the derogatory term of Alagbe.

* Igbo music informs Highlife and Waka. The drum is the most important musical instrument for the Igbo people, used during celebrations, rites of passage, funerals, war, town meetings and other events, and the pot-drum or ''udu'' (means "pot") is their most common and popular drum:Echezona, Wilberforce W. Music Educators Journal. Ibo Musical Instruments. Vol. 50, No. 5. (April – May 1964), pp. 23–27,130–131. a smaller variant is called the ''kim-kim''."Ames, David. African Arts. Kimkim: A Women's Musical Pot Vol. 11, No. 2. (January 1978), pp. 56–64,95–96." Igbo Styles include ''egwu ota''. Other instruments: obo – ufie – ogene, a flat metal pan used as a bell.
* Bassa people (Cameroon) originated assiko, a popular dance from the South of Cameroon.Nkolo, Jean-Victor and Graeme Ewens, "Music of a Small Continent" in the ''Rough Guide to World Music'', pp. 440–447
* The Kasena use a hocket vocal style. Other styles are; ''jongo, len yoro''. Instruments include; ''gullu, gungonga, korbala, kornia, sinyegule, wua'' and ''yong wui''.
* A Bamileke style is ''mangambe''; Bamileke people use the gong.
* The Beti-Pahuin of Cameroon Style = bikutsi; Dance = bikutsi; Instrumentation = njang – rattle include Fang people chorus and drum group; Instrumentation = mvet; Other = bebom-mvet. Music of São Tomé and PrincipeLima, Conceução and Caroline Shaw, "Island Music of Central Africa" in the ''Rough Guide to World Music'', pp. 613–616 Styles: danço-Congo – dêxa – socopé – ússua – xtléva; Instruments: cowbell – flute – rattle; Other: Tchiloli

The music of Cape Verde has long been influenced by Europe,Manuel, ''Popular Musics'', p. 96; Máximo, Susana and David Peterson, "Music of Sweet Sorrow" in the ''Rough Guide to World Music'', pp. 448–457 Instrumentation includes the accordion (''gaita''), the bowed ''rabeca'', the ''violão'' guitar and the ''viola'' twelve string guitar as well as '' cavaquinho'', '' cimboa'' and '' ferrinho''. Styles include '' batuque, coladera, funaná, morna'' and ''tabanca''.

Central Africa

The central region of African music is defined by the tropical rain-forests at the heart of the continent. However Chad, the northernmost state, has a considerable subtropical and desert northern region.

Northern traditions

Early kingdoms were founded near Lake Chad: the Kanem Empire, ca. 600 BCE – 1380 CE encompassed much of Chad, Fezzan, east Niger and north-east Nigeria, perhaps founded by the nomadic Zaghawa, then ruled by the Sayfawa dynasty. The Bornu Empire

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