Ethnomusicology: Africa

Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. Most importantly, the music of north Africa (red region on map) has a different history from that of Sub-Saharan African music.

• North Africa is the seat of the Mediterranean culture that built =Egypt and Carthage before being ruled successively by Greeks, Romans and Goths and then becoming the Maghreb of the Arab world. Like the musical genres of the Nile Valley and the Horn of Africa (sky-blue and dark green region on map), its music has close ties with Middle Eastern music.
• East Africa and the offshore islands in the Indian Ocean (light green regions on map) have been slightly influenced by Arabic music and also by the music of India, Indonesia and Polynesia. However, the region's indigenous musical traditions are primarily in the mainstream of the sub-Saharan Niger Congo-speaking peoples.
• Southern, Central and West Africa (brown, dark blue and yellow regions on map) are similarly in the broad sub-Saharan musical tradition, but draw their ancillary influences from Western Europe and North America.
•  The music and dance forms of the African diaspora, including African American music and many Caribbean genres like soca, calypso and Zouk; and Latin American music genres like the rumba, salsa; and other clave (rhythm)-based genres, were founded to varying degrees on the music of African slaves, which has in turn influenced African popular music.