What are the cultural influences in Africa?
African culture is expressed in its arts and crafts, folklore and religion, clothing, cuisine, music and languages. Expressions of culture are abundant within Africa, with large amounts of cultural diversity being found not only across different countries but also within single countries.
How has African music influenced American?
Roots in Africa Their work songs, dance tunes, and religious music—and the syncopated, swung, remixed, rocked, and rapped music of their descendants—would become the lingua franca of American music, eventually influencing Americans of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.
How important is music in African culture?
Music in Africa is very important when it comes to religion. Songs and music are used in rituals and religious ceremonies, to pass down stories from generation to generation, as well as to sing and dance to. Traditional music in most of the continent is passed down orally (or aurally) and is not written.
Why is African culture important?
Africa is a vast continent with diversity of cultures. Rather than see this as an impediment to development, the continent should take advantage of this rich cultural diversity in its quest for economic development and should change the attitudes of its people towards work, interpersonal trust, time, youth and women.
What musical instrument is important in African culture?
Drums are among the more popular African instruments, but other important percussion instruments include clap-sticks, bells, rattles, slit gongs, struck gourds and clay pots, stamping tubes, and xylophones. African stringed instruments include the musical bow, lute, lyre, harp, and zither.
How did African music start?
Early attempts at notating African music were made by T.E. The single and double iron bells, which probably originated in Kwa-speaking West Africa, spread to western Central Africa with Iron Age Bantu-speaking peoples and from there to Zimbabwe and the Zambezi River valley.
Why was music important to African slaves?
Music was a way for slaves to express their feelings whether it was sorrow, joy, inspiration or hope. Songs were passed down from generation to generation throughout slavery. These songs were influenced by African and religious traditions and would later form the basis for what is known as “Negro Spirituals”. Col.
Did music come from Africa?
Music is found in every known society, past and present, and is considered to be a cultural universal. Consequently, the first music may have been invented in Africa and then evolved to become a fundamental constituent of human life, using various different materials to make various instruments.
Who participated in African music?
The influence of African music is widespread. It came over to America with the African slaves and combined with the folk music of the European settlers to produce new styles of music such as blues, gospel and jazz . These went on to form the basis of pop music today.
Why is notation not used in African music?
Likewise, the playing of African musical instruments involves a whole combination of body movements. This is one reason African music is less amenable to notation than Western music; for analytical purposes, sound filming (rather than just sound recording) is essential.
What is special about Africa?
Africa is the world’s hottest continent with deserts and drylands covering 60% of land surface area (e.g. Kalahari, Sahara and Namib). Africa is the world’s second driest continent (after Australia). Africa has approximately 30% of the earth’s remaining mineral resources.
How bad is the poverty in Africa?
One in three Africans live below the global poverty line. They make up 70 percent of the global poor, and their numbers are rising. Despite the overwhelming number of extremely poor people in Africa, the causes of poverty on the continent are no different than the causes of poverty around the world.
Which parts of Africa are poor?
Source: PovcalNet September 2019 version. Poverty in Africa is heavily concentrated in a few countries. Over 70 percent of the region’s poor people live in just 10 countries—Nigeria, D.R. Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Madagascar, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, and Malawi.
How much of Africa is black?
Black Africans made up 79.0% of the total population in 2011 and 81% in 2016. The percentage of all African households that are made up of individuals is 19.9%.
What percentage of Africa is poor?
While the poverty rate has decreased from 56% in 1990 to 40% in 2018 the number of poor continues to rise.
Is all of Africa 3rd world?
Third-World countries included nations in Asia and Africa that were not aligned with either the United States or the Soviet Union.
What are the poorest continents?
Africa is considered the poorest continent on Earth. Almost every second person living in the states of sub-Saharan Africa lives below the poverty line.