The Beautiful History of African Music

Music happens to be an integral part of the Africans, it shows both the spiritual and cultural values of Africans. Music is so significant to the African race, it can be seen in our use of music in religious functions, rituals, social ceremonies, storytelling, and politics.

The African continent is peculiar and very large, which makes the African music diverse, with different regions and nations having many unique musical traditions.
African music is pure art that incorporates dance, gesture, and dramatization into its rhythms.

Let’s go down the history lane of African Music together.
Background History of African Music

African music dates as far back as before the colonial regime in the African continents, the African music we know today is different from what used to be in ancient Africa, it keeps evolving with time and as people interact with other races.
Then African male musicians made music surrounding agriculture, King’s coronations, war, hunting, boating adventures, hunting, and many more, while the women musicians made music about childbirth, children, funerals, and young girls.

The African Music literature that we have today is based on a Western theoretical framework that was formed and passed down to us through colonialism. Starting from the 15th century to the present, African music history has been studied based on archaeological sources, pictorial sources, drawings, paintings as well as written sources from tourists.

The migration of Africans to different regions of the world through slavery contributed hugely to the dispersing of African musical instruments to other parts of the world.

What are the different African Music Instruments that we have?

African music has a wide range of instruments that are used to produce beautiful music, these instruments are largely categorized into four(4) which are;

•  Idiophones
• Chordophones
• Aerophones
• Membranophones

Idiophones

The word “Idiophone” is formed from two words “idio” and “phone” which mean “self” and “sound” respectively. Idiophones, therefore, mean self-sounding instruments; they produce sound by the vibration of their body without the use of any strings.
Examples of this include:
⦁ Resonant solids: mbira, xylophone, and lamellophone rattles
⦁ Shakers: gourds, woven, wooden, sticks
⦁ Bells: ankle, cluster, double, single, pod, tubular, clappers, etc.

Chordophones

These instruments produce sound when the strings are stretched between two fixed positions. It uses vibrating strings to make a sound.
Examples are: harps (koras), musical bows, fiddles, lyres, zithers, lutes

Aerophone (Fulani Flute)

African Aerophone includes 

Flutes which were made from bamboo
Trumpets were made from elephant tusk animals’ horns.

Sound is produced by filling a large amount of air into the instruments.

Membranophone

These include all types of African drums, examples are Djembe, cylindrical, semi-cylindrical, barrel, pressure, goblet, kettle, clay-pot,

What are the different African Musical Styles?

There are various musical styles and genres which cut across the different ethnic groups and countries on African continents. Below are a few of these African music styles;

⦁ Afrobeat:  Afrobeat was created by the legend ⦁ Fela Kuti by fusing traditional
⦁ Nigerian music,  jazz, and highlife.
⦁ Assiko:  Assiko is a rhythmic and harmonious dance from Cameroon.
⦁ Tcha tcho:  is a sensual subform of Soukous which is Congolese dance music created by ⦁ Koffi Olomide.
⦁ Fuji:  is originated from Nigeria and is based on traditional Muslim music.
⦁ Highlife from Ghana.
⦁ Coupé-Decalé: is pop music that originated from Ivory Coast/France with danceable percussion and deep bass.
⦁ Benga music from Kenya.
⦁ Juju from Nigeria.
⦁ Zilin:  this has its origin in Benin. ⦁ Angelique Kidjo is a popular singer of this genre.
⦁ Gnawa: this is also known as Ethno-Pop or Gnawi Blues, it comes from the Sahara Desert.

Conclusion

African music has a long ancient history that archaeological sources from Western literature can not fully explain. African music is as old as the African continent itself, this music has been passed down from generation to generation though it is undeniable that there are changes that have occurred through this generational transition as a result of colonialism and social interaction among people of different continents.

African music will always be beautiful, rich in culture, very informative, and entertaining because it represents the everyday life of an African.