This class is an introduction to popular culture in Africa and will include discussions on popular culture from the entire continent (Cairo to Cape), though much of the emphasis is on “Sub-Saharan” Africa. The African continent produces some to the most active popular cultural centers in the world that influence popular culture in Europe, North America, and other parts of the world. Cuban-Dominican “Latin” dances often have African origins such as the Mambo, Conga, and Salsa are African. The Senegalese singer Baaba Maal believes that Jamaican Reggae is African and the Mali guitarist Ali Farke Toure believed that original home of the Blues is the Nile Bend in Mali, his home area. Africans have often been linked to other cultures and have often influenced them without proper recognition. Africa remains one of the most active areas for cultural production in the arts (music, dance, visual arts, theater and film) in addition to its contribution to literatures in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Afrikaans as well as to indigenous languages such as Wolof, Mande, and Pulaar.
Please use the call number below to search the library catalog, through the Call Number function, to browse the library collection listing materials relevant to this course.
DT: History of Africa
M2198-2199: Popular Religious and Devotional Music
ML 1-3930: Literature on Music
ML3469-3541: Popular Music