Babatunde Olatunji

Dance has always been the focal point in which Africans are able to let free through movements of emotion. In this essay I will discuss the history of African Dance and its importance to the African Culture. Also will be discussing the general information of African dance, the different types of African dance and the ones that I like the most. Dance in the African culture is something that cannot be taken advantage of in the African Culture because it holds such a strong meaningful moment at the time of any occasion.

a. Most of the collective music manifestations found in sub-Saharan Africa represent the community, and encourage group participation using a method that is called call-and-response. If they aren’t using a call-and-response such music’s are usually to be found at events such as religious ceremonies, and/or most other ritual based activities.

LIttle did he know he was going to be famous one day. He was born during the Nigerian Civil War, and had seven siblings he was the sixth oldest child. His mom was a seamstress and his dad was a civil mining engineer. They designed mines and open underground things. He lived in a dangerous little village and was not outside a lot because of gangs. His lifelong dream as a kid was to be an airline pilot. He didn’t even think of neuropathology. That is the study of diseases in the brain. His first year of schooling was the fall of 1971 which means Omalu was 3. He would then go on to many more

The African beats, the wind instruments and the rhythms that have been passed down through the

Buddy Rich, born Bernard Rich on September 30, 1917, was one of, if not the greatest, the best jazz drummers in the history of music. Rich began playing drums at a very early age once his father realized in restaurants, Buddy Rich would tap knives and forks on the plates (http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/03/obituaries/buddy-rich-jazz-drummer-with-distinctive-sound-dies.html?pagewanted=1). He began performing at the age of 18 months. At the peak of Rich’s childhood career, Rich was reportedly the second-highest paid child entertainer in the world (http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/03/obituaries/buddy-rich-jazz-drummer-with-distinctive-sound-dies.html?pagewanted=1). When he was just four years old, he was known as “Baby Traps, the Drum Wonder” performing

African influence is evident in African secular and religious practices, in instruments modeled after African instruments, and in the use of musical traits associated with Africa’s ethnic groups.

While in Barbados, Ligon writes about cultural adaptations which are evident between the European and African inhabitants. Ligon knew a slave named “Macow”, he entered Ligon’s house only to find Ligon playing a musical instrument (called the “Theorbo”) and singing a song to it. Macow waited, watched, and listened attentively to these noises the Theorbo created. What caught Macow’s interest was the fact that the Theorbo made different pitches in sounds. All Macow knew was the drum, and how it was only capable of making a single tone. Ligon stumbled across Macow a couple days after this had happened. He noticed that Macow had a large piece of timber in which he was trying to duplicate the sound of the Theorbo. What Ligon points out in this story is the fact that some of the African slaves (or servants) actually have the potential to learn the Arts. Macow adapted to Ligon’s cultural practices and tried to duplicate them with this act.

“Ompeh” is a song from the Akan speaking peoples of Ghana. “Ompeh” was an ensemble led by Stanley Ato Bortsie and Ato Quartey. The melody in “Ompeh” is a repeated rhythm that plays out through the song whereas Western music is built upon a tension and release method. The rhythms of the song are repeated throughout its entirety incorporating a drum beat, perhaps a cymbal, and people clapping. A repeated rhythm throughout the entirety of a song is not something I hear often in Western Music. Also, a cymbal is not a usual instrument in Western songs rather pianos and guitars are used more often. The tempo is also steady throughout, although the claps build in contrast to the drums that have a steady beat. The claps are a quick 1-2 beat and the

In Africa, music isn’t just something they see as having fun, it has become something greater. Africans use music in their everyday lives. It has become a social event, where African community’s come together and accompany songs with cultural beliefs, traditions, rituals, festivals and “recreation after a day’s hard work”(Bame, 7). For instance, in some communities it is believed farmers are able to heal people while dancing. Other’s dance to honor the death of a person, and find their soulmates.

Tolulope Omokore, a Nigerian-born and Maryland-based basketball player for the University of Central Florida. Family oriented and very cultural is living 868 miles from her hometown. Somehow manages her time between 35+ hrs of training a week, being a full time student, as well as working an internship for marketing and fan development with UCF which includes managing and assisting with all elements of Game-Day production.

In specifically, the community ceremonies on battles warriors where everyone comes together to watch the biggest fight of the year. As the author describes on Okonkwo's defeat of Amalinze the Cat, a great wrestler who was unbeaten for seven years, the music of the community illustrates the unity between their harmonic songs, “The drums beat and the flutes sang and the spectators held their breath” (Achebe, 1 pg). Achebe points out the excitement Umuofia experiences because the competition of the two warriors develops a commotion among the crowd due to the winning of Okonkwo. Thus, throughout the fight, the instruments perfectly portray the community’s atmosphere between these warriors. Their dynamic culture brings both the unity of villages and the combination of a woodwind and percussion instrument.

The special thing about these rhythms is that there are many unique ways to approach the dancing and the playing of the rhythm. Professor Parker explained to me that “ You can go so many places to learn these songs, dances, and rhythms and other instructors will teach them different. It’s the people’s movement and that's what so unique about West-African movement it’s interpreted differently. Yes you may see similarities but I guarantee you it won’t be the same Tendu or Plie´that you can identify immediately in other dance genres.” (Parker)

In this essay, I will be examining the musical genre of Afrobeat which was created by Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Afrobeat first came to be in the late 1960’s during the Civil Rights Movement in America. Fela Kuti a Nigerian, was able to create a genre that has change the way we view music today. Afrobeat is made up of two different words, “Afro” and “Beat”. “Afro” correlates with “African organized sound while beat is a rhythmic counting pattern in relation to such music” (Oikelome, 2013). Therefore, the meaning of Afrobeat is the unique African rhythmic patterns of such music. The coming of this genre is very interesting since the man behind it has quite a story.

In this course we have learned about all of the different cultures and their musical traditions. My favorite so far has had to be the west African music culture. They have a variety of different music, instruments, and dances to contribute to the reasons I liked this music culture so much. So, I have taken it upon myself to further my research on this particular musical group. I will compare and contrast a variety of different videos from the west African music culture and I will analyze how they connect to this culture.

Scholars have attempted to define music, and to be quite honest, it will be a huge challenge to try to weave a definition around the art that is music, because it is beyond definition. However, for the purposes of this work, we shall adopt the definition by Aluede & Eregare (2009), not because the definition is, in itself, complete, but because it captures the very essence of what we look for in the definition of music. Music, according to Aluede & Aregare (2009), is not only an organization of sound but also a symbolic expression of a social and cultural organization, which reflects the values, past and present ways of life of human beings. Also, Jones (1975), cited in Amana and Onogu (2015), defines music as “a language which encodes emotions, aspirations and people’s goals in autonomous and self-expressive arts forms.” These definitions are important in understanding music, because they highlight the fact that music does not only appeal to the feel-good emotion, it is not only used for entertainment; it is a valid form of social expression and this underscores the centrality of music in African socio-cultural life.