He did not so much play the drums, as become the drum. His influence was felt through his trailblazing percussive work and his many collaborations.
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Articles on African music
Displaying 41 - 60 of 68 articles
Poverty aside, cultural factors like the influence of hip hop songs may also play a role in making a life of cybercrime attractive to young people.
A year later, it’s clear that the dance promotes a conscious concept of Africanity – sowing feelings of tolerance and contentment that have conquered international audiences.
The 1970s and 1980s saw a new genre of popular protest - its spirit would be felt even in 2011 when protests toppled a dictator.
Sacred sites where rituals are performed by the community should be protected as living archives that house local heritage.
She was the glue that bound younger artists together, helping them navigate the volatile terrain of the music industry.
Both choirs and classical music were childhood influences on a stellar career that would leave behind major new recordings in these areas.
She was a vocalist who sang in every style – from Carmen to UShaka – with equal mastery, popularising classical forms and epitomising ‘the new South Africa’.
The increased migration of Africans and the global growth of hip hop culture has seen a dynamic new generation of Pan Africanism emerge.
Baxsan’s tumultuous six-decade journey as a singer was irrevocably tied to Somalia’s national identity and cultural history.
Like Pata-Pata, Homeless and Mbube, the song Jerusalema is elevated by a historical moment in time and has the power to cross over to different audiences.
During the coronavirus pandemic the Jerusalema dance challenge enacted a way for communities to connect - repetitive enough to be picked up and varied enough to tease.
The artist’s body of work, through its very public focus on queer masculinity, offers alternative ways of thinking about what being a man is.
His single Yeke Yeke was the first African song to pass a million in sales, but it’s meaning was best understood in Guinea, home of the griot and kora star.
Her sensitive new album is rooted at home in South Africa while at the same time journeying to Mali, where it was recorded and co-produced with Salif Keita.
Looking at his brilliant career is looking into Algeria’s relationship with its history and identity, but also questioning what it means to be exiled.
The composer, performer and poet was an artistic pioneer of lasting and distinctive gifts, and bottomless stamina. He gave us over 70 years of high-octane Somali musical mastery.
The saxophonist and singer leaves a legacy spanning more than 60 years of musical production that will continue to echo in global sounds.
Spirituals were created out of the experience of enslaved people in the US. They weren’t songs of anger – but of an abiding belief in the victory of good over evil.
Johnny Clegg was a prophet, even if the ideal future he prophesied has not yet come to pass.
Top contributors
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Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town
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Associate of the Gordon Institute for Business Science, University of Pretoria
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Professor of music, SOAS, University of London
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Lecturer in Musicology, University of South Africa
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Professor Emeritus, Social Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand
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Senior Lecturer, South African College of Music, University of Cape Town
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Professor of Music, Wesleyan University
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Artist in Residency, University of Pretoria
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Fellow, King's College London
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Extraordinary Professor, Stellenbosch University
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Senior Lecturer, Stellenbosch University
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Lecturer, Makerere University
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Lecturer, University of Fort Hare
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G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
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Professor of World Music, University of Connecticut
