The Historical Musical Traditions of Africa
Several factors accounts for this diversity of musical traditions. The environmental conditions under which African societies evolved have by no means been uniform, nor have their histories followed the same course. The cultures of those who occupy the Savannah and grassland areas have tended to differ from those whose country side is predominantly of the tropical forest type. These are likewise the riverine people as opposed to highland dwellers, as in the past there were predominantly agricultural people, pastoralists, and others who combined both of these occupations. Small pockets of hunters and gatherers-notably the pygmies of central Africa and the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert-also appears to have sustained this mode of life.
Most of these societies also engaged in other pursuits-in trade, light industries such as weaving and pottery, and making of wooden, gold, iron, and bronze artifacts, with the choice of medium generally related to environmental factors. Variations in the cultural patterns of societies placed in such circumstances were inevitable, and these were reflected not only in their social and religious institutions and material cultures, but also in their arts, which now constitute the heritage of modern Africa.
The cultural differences tended to be perpetuated by the kinds of political units into which African people traditionally grouped themselves. Until recently, most African societies lived as distinct political units-some as societies without centralized political institutions, and others as societies with state systems. Many of the latter had flourished in ancient times, and some emerged as Kingdoms and empires of considerable magnitude in different historical epochs. In west Africa, for example, the Kingdoms in Ghana, Mali,Songhai, and Kanem-Bornu flourished one after the other, in the Sudanic belt, to be followed by the growth of forest states such as those of the Yoruba, Benin, Dahomey, and Ashanti.
Over forty of such indigenous states existed up to the end of the colonial era. Some of them underwent drastic changes under colonial regimes, but many of them have continued to flourish-generally in a modified form-within the framework of modern African states. In colonial times there were, as there are now, societies like those of the Nuer of Southern Sudan or the Akan of Ghana, who shared common cultures but who traditionally grouped themselves into different political units. On the other hand, there were also single states that embraced people of different ethnic groups.
Population movement that followed territorial expansion, wars, famine, and other crisis drove wedges into homogeneous groups and gave rise to mixed populations. Sometimes branches of one group migrated to another location, thus splintering the group for example, the Sandawe, an offshoot of the click-speaking people of South Africa, now in Tanzania.
The establishment of territorial boundaries during the nineteenth century ignored the complications. For example, in eastern Africa, the Luo are found in both Kenya and Tanzania, while members of the cattle-culture complex are scattered throughout Uganda, Sudan, and Somalia.
Most of these societies also engaged in other pursuits-in trade, light industries such as weaving and pottery, and making of wooden, gold, iron, and bronze artifacts, with the choice of medium generally related to environmental factors. Variations in the cultural patterns of societies placed in such circumstances were inevitable, and these were reflected not only in their social and religious institutions and material cultures, but also in their arts, which now constitute the heritage of modern Africa.
The cultural differences tended to be perpetuated by the kinds of political units into which African people traditionally grouped themselves. Until recently, most African societies lived as distinct political units-some as societies without centralized political institutions, and others as societies with state systems. Many of the latter had flourished in ancient times, and some emerged as Kingdoms and empires of considerable magnitude in different historical epochs. In west Africa, for example, the Kingdoms in Ghana, Mali,Songhai, and Kanem-Bornu flourished one after the other, in the Sudanic belt, to be followed by the growth of forest states such as those of the Yoruba, Benin, Dahomey, and Ashanti.
Population movement that followed territorial expansion, wars, famine, and other crisis drove wedges into homogeneous groups and gave rise to mixed populations. Sometimes branches of one group migrated to another location, thus splintering the group for example, the Sandawe, an offshoot of the click-speaking people of South Africa, now in Tanzania.
The establishment of territorial boundaries during the nineteenth century ignored the complications. For example, in eastern Africa, the Luo are found in both Kenya and Tanzania, while members of the cattle-culture complex are scattered throughout Uganda, Sudan, and Somalia.
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