Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
*AFRO-AMERICAN MUSIC AND THE AFRICAN IDENTITY: A
HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY ANALYSIS
BY
EMIELU AUSTIN
Department Of The Performing Arts,
University of Ilorin, Ilorin,Nigeria.
e-mail:austinmaro@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
The use of the term ‘Afro American music’ to describe Black musical traditions
implies that Negro music making in the United States of America has an essentially
African core. Though stripped naked and forcibly taken away to a new world, African
slaves took with them memories of a rich African culture and tradition including
music. Today, several centuries after the abolition of slavery, most of American
popular music is deeply rooted in Black musical traditions. This paper takes a look at
the origin of Black American music, the search for identity in the Diaspora, survival
and retention of black musical traditions and the cross-fertilization of musical ideas
between the homeland and the Diaspora in contemporary times, with a view to
highlighting the African identity.
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
THE AFRO-AMERICAN IN RETROSPECT.
By the mid 1970’s, Afro-Americans in the U.S.A were estimated to be about 24
million people, making them the largest single ethnic group in America, second largest in
the Western Hemisphere (second only to Afro-Brazilians) and larger than any single
ethnic group in Africa (Holt, 1980:5). Several historians are of the opinion that African
presence in the western hemisphere predates the slave trade era. Because Africa is
surrounded by water, it is possible that some highly adventurous Africans, may have
wandered away on the high seas and found themselves in new lands, far removed from
their ancestral homes. It is on record that Africans were among Christopher Columbus’s
men who sailed to Hispaniola in 1492. In 1513, thirty Africans were said to have
accompanied Balboa to the Pacific and built the first ships on the Pacific coast of the
Americas. (Ofonagoro, 1978:56). Three hundred African soldiers were said also to have
joined forces with Cortez in the attack and defeat of the Aztecs of Mexico in 1519. All
these go to buttress the fact that there must have been several interactions and
collaborations between Africans and non-Africans in pre-slavery period, which may have
been facilitated by navigable waterways in and out of Africa.
By and large, the greatest influx of Africans to America was through the
obnoxious slave trade, which saw millions of able-bodied African men and women as
well as children, being carted away by force in merchant ships, brutalized and
dehumanized as slave workers in the New World. The history of Black presence in
America dates back to 1619, when a Dutch Frigate exchanged twenty Africans for food
and provisions at Jamestown in the English colony of Virginia. An estimated 10 million
blacks were transported to the western Hemisphere in a period of about three hundred
years. This number is a mere estimation, as many slaves lost their lives in the so-called
‘middle passage’.
With the emerging agrarian economy of the south, plantation owners needed a
steady and dependable work force that the Indian settlers of America could not provide.
They were said to have died in droves through various afflictions of European diseases
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
and the strain of tropical agriculture. The next available option was to turn to Africa,
black Africa, which had an established legacy of tropical agriculture and which had
developed much stoicism against environmental hazards. But rather than seek legitimate
ways to recruit African labour force, the whites, with the collaboration of African chiefs ,
sought to capture Africans and take them by force to work on American plantations. With
this singular gesture, the journey of black Africans into slavery in America had begun. To
justify this atrocious act, various myths and theories were propounded. One such myth
was that the African was inferior biologically and environmentally. For instance, Dr
Samuel Cartwright of Louisiana argued that blacks were biologically different and
genetically inferior to the white (Ofonagoro, 1978: 57). Another myth credited to
Bartholme de las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa, Mexico alleged that the labour of one African
was equal to that of four American Indians. For this reason, as well as the need to
preserve the Aboriginal Ameridians from extinction, he went before Charles V, King of
Spain to argue for the substitution of Africans for Ameridian slave labour. King Charles
was said to have granted his request by issuing him the monopoly of importing four
thousand African slaves annually into Spanish possession of the New World (Ofonagoro ,
1978: 57). These myths and theories, though they were later proved wrong through the
exploits of Afro-Americans in virtually all spheres of American life, yet they did much to
poison the environment of white and black relationship in North America by fanning the
embers of white prejudice.
THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY IN THE DIASPORA.
African slaves were forcibly taken from their homelands, stripped naked,
brutalized and taken to a new world where they were forced to knuckle under an alien
culture. This forceful transplantation had important consequences for the sustenance of
the African personality in the Diaspora. Having found himself in a strange land, where
he had to learn a foreign language, practice a strange religion as well as music and dance,
the African was caught up in a duality of existence: an African on the one hand and an
American on the other. How was he to forge a distinct personality? What aspect of his
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
African self can he retain or be allowed to retain and what aspects of the master’s culture
can he adopt? There was thus, a crisis of identity, a situation which W.E.B. Du Bois (in
Holt, 1980:6) summarizes as follows:
It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness; this
sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others
…one ever feels his twosomeness, an American, a Negro, two
souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring
ideals in one dark body, whose doggedness alone, keeps it
from being turn asunder.
He continues further by saying that “the history of the American Negro is the history of
this strife, the longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a
truer and better self”. This dual identity is a dominant theme in the Afro-American
experience, which is reflected in his politics, religion and his music.
It is this dual identity and the striving to merge this duality into a truer self that
led to compromises in the cultural practices of the African in America, giving rise to the
term Afro-American, which represents a compromise of African and American cultures
which like we know, includes music, dance, religion, language and other cultural
attributes. It is the African resistance to total acculturation that produced this hybrid of a
culture known as Afro-American. By accepting certain attributes of the master’s culture
which were either essential to their survival or congenial to their past learning, and
clinging to those aspects of the African culture to which they found no satisfactory
substitute, the Africans cut a niche for themselves in a predominantly white society.
The search for identity in the Diaspora must also be seen against the backdrop of
an African society, which was by no means homogeneous. Africa comprises of hundreds
of ethnic groups with different languages, local traditions and customs which were not
homogenous, though they shared a common world view. This diversity of the African
people is important in understanding the nature of African music in the Diaspora. Since
each ethnic group has its distinct ethnic music, there was plausibly a plethora of stylistic
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
resources of African music in the Diaspora which constituted an endless well of musical
possibilities for the Afro-American musician. The framework for African music in the
Diaspora was therefore based on these premises.
DEVELOPMENT OF AFRO-AMERICAN MUSICAL STYLES
Having laid the foundation of an ‘African nation’ in the Diaspora, musical styles
peculiar to the African slaves began to emerge. The African slaves came from a rich
background of music and dance where these formed an integral part of life and
punctuated major milestones in the life of the individual and community as a whole. The
Black American therefore came bearing the gift of story and song, and a spirit that
celebrates life even in the face of death. Music plays a dominant role in community life in
Africa, which cuts across all spheres of communal life including ritual ceremonies and
festivals, a variety of domestic and group activities such as grinding, pounding , bush
clearing and so on. Akpabot (1986: 95) identifies fourteen categories of song texts in
African music: (1) Historical (2) Social control (3) Insult (4) Obscene (5) Praise (6)
Children’s (7) Funeral (8) Work (9) War (10) Humorous (11) Communication (12)
Women’s (13) Philosophical and (14) Ritual songs. Such is the diversity of African music
in content and context which was available to the Afro-American in the Diaspora,
providing them endless stylistic resources upon which their cultural expressions were
based.
It is not definitely known when blacks began to mix European and African
musical practices, however Seeger (1980: 448) has observed that Afro-American musical
style had emerged by the beginning of nineteenth century. This was basically African in
concept, a social, communal and functional music with a repertory of religious songs,
work songs, satirical songs, insult and ridicule songs, street cries, ballads and many more
which were suited to their context. These categories of songs identified by Charles
Seeger are in consonance with those already highlighted by Akpabot, thus confirming, as
it were, a historical connection between African and Afro-American music. The earliest
manifestation of African music in America must have been in the work songs of
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
plantation slave workers in the rural South. Such songs were used to enhance group
activity requiring specific work rhythms and also to ease the stress of the work. Other
domestic servants sang as they did
chores at home. Later The Blues, a slow
melancholous song developed.
The Blues represents the true and authentic feeling of Afro-American music. It
echoed the pains and travails of the African slave worker, his hopes, fears and
expectations. The Blues was sung with such emotional intensity that was peculiar to only
the African who shared the slave experience. Like one writer has said: “you’ve got to be
black to feel the Blues”. In other words, there is no Blues without the slave experience.
“To be blue is to sing the Blues”1. Perhaps, the Blues as Harold Courlander 2 observes, is
not so much a musical form in which one would find stylistic uniformities, but rather a
verbalization of deeply felt personal expression. The Blues as a means of expressing
life’s experiences suggest that it is the blues in life that gave birth to the Blues in music.
Randy Weston
3
has attempted to explain the origin of the Blues in Africa. He is of the
opinion that Blues music is synonymous with the African music which traveled to
America during the slave trade era from a particular part of West Africa often referred to
as the Sene-Gambia. While this submission is open to intellectual debate, the Blues must
be seen not necessarily as an African stylistic resource, but more of a musical expression
of deeply-felt emotions peculiar to the African slaves in America, as has been rightly
asserted above.
Another Afro-American musical typology is Jazz. Jazz in America combines
elements of traditional ballads, brought to America from different cultures, popular
music, church music, including Black gospel music, blues and ragtime. Although Jazz
developed among both Europeans and Blacks, African involvement re-creating Jazz as a
peculiar Afro- American musical phenomenon. Other writers like Boardman and Landis
(1966:173) agree that, although Jazz is a blend of musical ideas from Africa and Europe,
Jazz as a musical form is essentially American. Dale (1998:34) goes further to articulate
that the Blues is the singular African strand in the rope of Jazz. Considering the fact that
Jazz in America began in New Orleans, which is a commercial port town that played host
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
to various peoples from various cultures, acculturation and intermingling of musical ideas
must have provided an endless well of musical resources from where Jazz drew from.
If the assertion by Mike Hobart
4
that “Jazz absorbs influences from musical
cultures it comes in contact with and in turn influences them”, then Black contact with
Jazz must have redefined Jazz in Black terms, giving it a distinctive African identity. Ita
(1984:10) has rightly asserted that “Jazz at its root may have been black and white but at
the center of it stalks the Black Americans who have also remained the driving force
behind its development”. He stresses further that “throughout the history of Jazz, the
Negro’s was reputed as the authentic Jazz”. The popularity and acceptance of AfroAmerican Jazz and Jazz players like Louis Armstrong and others in Africa and the Black
World generally, goes to confirm that Afro-American Jazz has an African identity. Such
great Afro-American Jazz men like Duke Ellington, Count Bassie and others took Jazz to
an impressive height in American mainstream music. By introducing syncopated and
complex rhythms peculiar to African music and the ‘bluesy’ feeling of blues music, Jazz
stands out as an authentic Afro-American musical idiom.
There was also a wide variety of dance music brought into the Diaspora by
African slaves. As Southern (1997:99) has rightly noted “ slave musicians established the
tradition of providing dance music for white Americans, and it was to be sometime
before they were challenged in that field”. Afro-American dance music types include
Soul, Disco, Funk, Boogie Woogie, Rapp and contemporary Hip Pop. It is important to
recall here that one of the major figures of Soul music in the United States of America
was Rufus Thomas who had a string of hits in the 1960s. However, its greatest exponent
was however James Brown, often regarded as the ‘God father’ of Soul. His stylistic dance
steps, yells, groans, moans and stuttering gave Soul a distinctive African identity;
unequalled by any other musical art form in America.
Negro religious songs include a wide range of styles, idioms and substance. There
are songs that reflected white hymns of earlier days, songs with shouts that call for
percussive effects by clapping and foot stamping. There are also songs in which popular
musical instruments like the guitar, drums, tambourine and harmonicas provide
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
instrumental accompaniment, songs of faith, songs that call for sinners to repent, anthems
and the so-called ‘Negro spirituals’. The African was not familiar with the nature of
white religious worship. He found church singing very boring and unimaginative. Drums
were neither allowed nor clapping. In search of self-expression characteristic of African
religious worship, a compromise had to be made between Black and White modes of
religious worship. Black congregations were later formed where essentially African
music with Christian texts, dancing and other attributes of self-expression featured
prominently. Songs were woven around major stories and events in the Old Testament
and religions worship, were ecstatic and jubilant. The first truly African congregation was
the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was formed in 1816. Commenting on the
importance of the Black church in sustaining the African personality, Southern (1997:82)
submits that the Black church was the first institution to be solely controlled by Blacks
and remains their most powerful institution up till the present. She asserts further that “
the church undertook the responsibility for providing Black communities with all the
opportunities and activities denied them by the racist populace”. The Black church must
have therefore been one of earliest centers that promoted and sustained African musical
practices in Christian worship.
. It is must be pointed out here that the list of Afro-American musical typologies
discussed above is not all exhaustive. Over the years, some of these idioms, while still
retaining the essential African traits, have been re-created several times. Improvisational
techniques and creative ingenuity of Black musicians coupled with
technological
advancement has led to the evolution of new musical idioms and contemporary modes of
expression.
SURVIVAL OF BLACK MUSIC TRADITIONS
Right from the onset of Black presence in America and the various myths
propounded to back up African inferiority, the basis of a dual society was laid: inferior
black African slaves on the one hand and superior white slave masters on the other. This
polarization along racial lines had important consequences for the survival of African
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
traditions in America. Hoare (1970:120) has noted that racial hostility was an obstacle to
the intermingling of musical ideas between blacks and whites. Consequently black and
white musical traditions took different roads as well. The plantation life in the rural south
with predominantly black slave workers in a warm tropical climate was congenial to the
communal life of Africans in the homeland. This was important for the survival and
growth of African music in the plantation environment. By being excluded from the
mainstream of American social life, African music must have had ample time to grow
and take roots. Because of the rural environment and various restrictions placed on them,
African slaves hadn’t much outlet for their enjoyment save to sing their songs during and
after work in their shanks and cabins. This communal recreation was important to the
survival of African musical traditions. Another important factor in the survival of AfroAmerican music was the various uses to which music was put. There were songs for each
activity and event. This functionality and contextual relevance of African music, an
essential heritage of the Afro American, ensured the continuity of a rich African musical
tradition in the Diaspora.
With the emergence of the civil rights movements and such associations as the
Pan-Africanist Movement(PAM) and the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP), black songs took on new relevance. They came to represent
the soul of the African in the fight for equal rights and self-assertion of the blacks. Black
protest songs both secular and religious filled the air. At each rally freedom songs rented
the air; at the funeral of slain activists Black songs reawakened the African spirit and the
desire to carry on the African course. On the importance of songs to the civil right
movement, Dr Martin Luther King Jnr said “The freedom songs are playing a strong and
vital role in our struggle. They give the people new courage and a sense of unity, they
keep alive a faith, a radiant hope in the feature, particular in our most trying hour”
(Hudson, 1995: 44). Such was the importance of songs in the civil rights and Pan
Africanism which lasted several years and had important consequences for the
propagation and survival of Black music in the USA. Songs like “we shall over come
someday” and “I am black and proud” by James Brown, became classics in this period.
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
The use of songs to articulate protest is an African heritage embedded in Afro-American
music.
THE AFRICAN IDENTITY.
Having examined the nature and content of Afro-American music in the preceding
sections, it is relevant to identify the essential African elements in Afro-American music;
elements that justify the prefix ‘Afro’ in the term ‘Afro American’ music.
Rhythm.
The most obvious aspect of pure black music is the primacy of rhythm. African
music rests on rich and complex polyrhythm. These ‘Hot’ rhythms, as they are sometimes
refered to by non-Africans, give African music its vitality, which is essentially African.
Without any equivocation, one can safely say that the essential criteria of Negro musical
rhythms are a carry over of African compelling rhythms. From the Blues to soul, ragtime,
Jazz spiritual and modern gospel, the influence of African rhythms can be felt. Its
complex polyrhythm, syncopation and other rhythmic devices of African music is a
legacy that Africa bequeathed to western music which is devoid of rhythmic vitality. This
view is shared by Hoare. (1970:118) when he opined that “throughout this century, Afro
American developments have been the primary source of rhythmic energy amid the
general rhythmic sterility of Western music”. Randy Weston 5 further echoes this view by
stating that “The music of no other civilization can rival that of Africa in the complexity
and subtlety of its rhythms” .According to him, all modern music like Jazz, Gospel,
Latin, Rock, Bossa Nova and R & B are indebted to African rhythms. Seeger (1980:145)
has also observed that early black music generally had duple meter overlaid with
syncopations, where triplets often support the basic pulse as in pure African music. Foot
stamping and handclap also provided cross-rhythms.
Improvisation/Extemporization
An African musician improvises freely on his instrument and vocals as well. In an
African drum ensemble, for example, the master drummer improvises freely over a stable
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
rhythmic section. Improvisation is a major feature of Jazz. In a Jazz combo for instance,
members may decide of a general arrangement with some sections memorized and others
read from notes. The performer is now free to improvise on a melody or add a new one as
well as making up new songs when they had exhausted their repertory or as the occasion
demands. He may also create a new solo over the basic tune each time he plays. Since the
African musician is not bound to follow printed music as in Western Art music, at each
occasion where songs and music are performed, the players or singers are at liberty to recreate the music or adapt it to suit the context of performance or his personal feelings.
These African elements can be heard in songs of the Blues and Soul singer, who may
choose to sometimes lengthen or shorten, a vocal phrase, substitute words, repeat them or
sing several notes to a syllable, in a bid to re-create the music. Most of early Negro
spirituals were partly improvised and partly composed by stringing together scraps of
prayers, pledges as well as verses from the scripture from situation to situation..
Use Of The ‘Blue’ Note
One unique musical resource of the blues man is the use of some ‘awkward’ notes
from an ‘awkward’ scale so to speak. These ‘dubious’ notes do not fit into the Western
tempered scale, suggesting that their presence in Afro-American music is essentially
African. The blues made use of flattened 3rd and 7th notes which violated the Western
diatonic scale. Sometimes, the flattened 3rd was played together with the ‘true’ natural 3rd
in a piece of music. These notes have been dubbed ‘blue notes’ by western musicians.
This, of course, is not new to the African. Ekwueme (1993: 27) in his study of Igbo
cultural music has identified, the ‘neutral’ feeling of the major 3rd and major 7th in the
diatonic scale.
African singers are known to modify the flattened 3rd and flattened 7th to various
degrees in their singing, which to Western musical sensibilities may sound somewhat out
of tune. Heterophony, a system of embellishing a note by wandering around its pitch at
the same time as some singers are maintaining the fixed pitch, has also been identified
(Ekwueme, 1993:23). The use of ‘blue’ notes must also be seen against the backdrop of
lack of standardization in the tuning of traditional African melodic instruments and the
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
predominance of drums in African music. Because of this heritage, African traditional
music may not call for an exactness in intonation as in western Art music. The use of
‘bent’ notes by Blues guitarists like B. B. King, Eric Gale and Chuck Berry must also be
seen as attempts by black musicians to modify the Western diatonic scale to suit the
African taste.
The interrelationship of Music, Dance and Poetry/Speech
A very close relationship exists between music and dance in Africa. This tradition
was carried over to the Diaspora and led to an enduring tradition of dance music among
African-Americans as well white Americans. In most parts of Africa, the poet and the
musician is often one and the same person. Verbal imagery and figures of speech are a
major part of Africa oral poetry. There is also a close relationship between speech and
song where the singer can move from speech to song and back in a performance. These
relationships pervade most of Afro-American music both past and present.
Performance Practices
Apart from defined African scale patterns as seen in the blues, and the primacy of
rhythms which underlie much of African music, the much talked about ‘power’ of
African music lies in its performance where the performer actually ‘re-creates’ the music
by altering tones, timbre, rhythms, voice quality and sometimes, the structure. Call and
response, an important feature in African music was brought to the new world by African
Americans. This was infused into work songs, spirituals and other musical expressions of
the Afro-America. Sometimes, call and response may be between voice and instruments,
a typical device of the ‘bluesman’. The Blues singer may allow his guitar one or two bars
of solo at the end of each phrase or line. Much of this can be heard in the Blues of B. B.
King where he uses riffs of ‘bent’ notes on his guitar as response to vocal phrases.
Apart from instrumental Jazz, much of Afro-American music are songs that touch on
dominant themes and key issues in the Afro-American experience in the Diaspora. They are not
songs of lament or self-pity as some are apt to think. They are songs of a people wanting to assert
their personality, in the face of white prejudice, segregation and oppression. The songs invite you
into the world of the Black, their pains and joy, their hopes and fears, expressed most of the
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
times with a unique sense of humour, including their willingness to celebrate life even in
unpleasant situations. Musical performances are therefore, aimed at touching the listener by the
soul and engendering audience participation. The performer’s body, soul and spirit must
therefore co-operate in this all consuming endeavour, a situation which Seeger (1980:451) aptly
summarizes this way: “He must touch the listeners soul and to do this he must perform with
‘soul’. When filled with the spirit he can moan, groan, hum, scream, wail, whisper, or seduce
with his voice or instrument, … pace up and down, jump up, fall down, spin or he may repeat a
syllable endlessly or use nonsense words” . This ‘soul’ experience is a carry-over of the African
tradition where the performance of music and dance are seen as a spiritual experience, where the
‘spirit’ must actually possess you to be able to reach out and grab the listeners by the soul. In
Africa, music is said to unite the people with their gods in ecstasy and ‘spirit possession’ is an
essential African element in music and dance performances.
Audience participation in Afro-American music is a carry-over of the African
experience, where a very thin line of demarcation exists between performers and
audience. In much of black musical performances, tremendous energy is involved. When
the music ends, both performers and audience are physically and emotionally exhausted.
The close relationship between music and the physical expression of dance is an African
identity.
Cross-Fertilization Of Musical Ideas in Contemporary Times
Having identified the roots of Afro-American music as essentially African, it is
important to stress here that, over the years, there has been a steady cross-current of
musical ideas and cultural exchanges between Africa and the Diaspora. These cultural
exchanges have come full circle, representing a form of cross-fertilization. This Crossfertilization has been in the areas of popular and gospel music.
Some major cultural events in Africa has led to increased collaboration between
African musicians in Africa and African musician in the Diaspora in contemporary times.
Some of these events include the 1971 ‘Soul to Soul’ concert
’777 in Nigeria and the annual PANAFEST8 event in Ghana
6
in Ghana, the FESTAC
These events should be
seen as having set the stage for continued interaction and collaboration between African
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
musicians within Africa and African musicians abroad. For example, during the ‘Soul to
Soul’ concert two Afro-American Jazz artistes collaborated with Amoah Azangeo, to
create a unique fusion of pure Black music and Afro-American Jazz. The album recorded
from this was later packaged for international audience ( Collins, 1992:64). In 1984, King
Sunny Ade collaborated with Stevie Wonder on the album Aura, co-produced by Stevie
Wonder for Island Records U .S. A. He played the harmonica on some of the songs on
the album too. Sunny Ade’s recording deal with Island Records must have informed this
new move to package African music for an international audience which may have
influenced him to write and sing songs in English, while still maintaining the African
rhythms .
In describing the music of Fela Anikulapo, Trevor Schoonmaker9 in his tribute
described Fela’s Afro-Beat as an “infectious mix of American funk and Jazz with
traditional Yoruba and highlife music”. It would be recalled that Fela’s music after his
contact with Afro-American Jazz and black history, took a new dimension which was a
clear diversion from his earlier highlife music. His music represents a cross-fertilization
of musical ideas between the homeland and the diaspora.
In the African pop scene, Afro-American Hip Pop and Rapp reign supreme. Hip
Pop in Africa while retaining the Afro American stylistic resources, has been adapted into
the mainstream pop culture of African nations. From Lagos Nigeria, to Dakar Senegal, to
Cape Town South Africa, Hip pop and Rapp have taken on a regional identity by
maintaining the beat and fitting in African lyrics, melodies, and ‘slangs’ peculiar to each
country.
In the area of gospel, Afro-American gospel music form the bulk of songs used for
Christian worship in Pentecostal churches in Africa. There has been a steady influx of
Black musicians in and out of Africa for various musical projects. Most notable among
them is the series of live recordings of praise worship by a collaboration of AfroAmerican and African Christian musicians under the Integrity Music U.S.A and recorded
in South Africa. In such live situations, African musicians contribute songs in African
languages, while White musicians do ‘jam sessions’ with other Black musicians. Such
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
recordings like ‘Rejoice Africa’10 have been packaged for the international market.
Today, many African musicians like Manu Dibango, Baaba Maal, Hugh Masekela and
Youssou N’dour are currently playing in the current of Afro-America blues, Jazz and
pop. These are just a few examples.
From the foregoing, it is apparent that more than ever before, African musicians in
the diaspora have felt the need to re-kindle the ‘Africanness’ in them. By revisiting and
collaborating with musicians from the African homeland, Afro American musicians in
the Diaspora have established
contemporary connections with their roots. This is
important in sustaining the African identity in the face of globalization both in the
homeland and in the Diaspora.
Summary And Conclusion
This paper has established the historical and contemporary connections between
African and Afro-American music. It has discovered that, Afro-American music though
re-defined to reflect the realities of the American enviroment , retains essential African
elements till date. These core African elements like rhythm, blue note, dance orientation
and a whole gamut of performance practices have been highlighted in this paper to
buttress the point that Negro music making in the U.S.A has an essentially African core.
Factors that aided the survival of Afro American music have also been examined.
In conclusion therefore, one can safely advocate that Afro-American music should
be seen as a continuation of the African tradition in the Diaspora. This we have done here
by establishing historical and contemporary connections between the musical traditions
of the homeland and the African Diaspora. The cross-fertilization of musical ideas as
seen in contemporary times, is therefore very essential in sustaining the African tradition
in the Diaspora as well as sustaining the African identity globally.
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Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
NOTES
1
Ben Austin has theorized extensively on the “African Tradition”.For more details see
“The African Tradition” http://www.mtsu edu/~baustin/Aftrad.html. visited on 2/9/03.
2
For more information on Harold Courtlander, see Ben Austin “ The African Tradition”
as noted above.
Randy Weston, “Afro American Music odyssey” is a historical documentation on the origins
of the Blues in Africa. It can be retrieved frohttp://www.there1.com/tittle.html.Visited
on2/9/03.
3
Mike Hobart (online) “Three Replies to Jazz: a Peoples Music” can be retrieved from
http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj64/hobart/htm. Visited on 9/7/2003.
4
5
Randy Weston again reflects on the power of Jazz music. See note 3 for details.
6
The ‘Soul to Soul’ concert was held in 1971 in Ghana. The two-day event featured top
Black American bands playing alongside Ghanaian bands.
7
FESTAC stands for the Second Festival of African Arts and Culture which took place in
Nigeria in 1977. It was attended by black musicians from 62 countries with about 150
music and dance shows.
8
This tribute was given at a recent event in New York to mark the Sixth Anniversary of
Fela’s death which included a book launch also. Trevor Schoonmaker, an independent
curator living in New York is the Director of the ‘Fela Project’, which is a multimedia
initiative on Fela and his Afro beat (see Guardian Newspaper Lagos, July 2, 2003 pp.54).
9
Rejoice Africa is a gospel musical album recorded live in South Africa sometimes in the
90’s. It was a collaborative effort between Afro-American and indigenous South African
gospel musicians.
10
PANAFEST stands for Pan-African Festival of Arts and Culture. It is an annual event
in Ghana that attracts, on a yearly basis, a cream of top Afro-American artistes
performing alongside their African counterparts.
15
Afro-American Music and the African Identity by Austin Emielu
REFERENCES
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Books..
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Seeger, Charles. 1980. “United States of America Folk Music”: in Stanley Stadie (ed)
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians No.19, London: Macmillan
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Collins, John. 1992.West African Pop Roots. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Ekwueme, Laz. 1993. Choir Training and Choral Conducting for Africans, Lagos:
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Boardman, Eunice and Landis, Beth. 1966. Exploring Music vol.6, New York: Holt
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Holt, Thomas 1980. “Afro Americans”, in Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic
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Ian, Hoare.1970. “Black Lyrics and Soul’s Interaction with White Culture” in The Soul
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Lawrence, Levine.1971. “The Concept of the New Negro and the Realities of Black
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York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc. pp. 125-147.
Ofonagoro, Walter. 1978. “The Origin of the Diaspora: The Slave Trade from Africa”
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Southern, Eileen.1997. The Music of Black Americans: A History, New York: W.W
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Wade and Cheryl Hudson.1995. How Sweet the Sound: African: American Songs for
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