This classic ethnomusicological survey provides as a valuable guide to African music. The essays review a broad swath of genres and topics, including court songs and music history, musical instruments in different traditions, and the connection between Islam and African music. Contributors are Lois Ann Anderson, John Blacking, Philip J....
This Africa is both a literary history and a survey of the West African novel. Gleason explores seventeen novels in French and eight in English, developing a framework of literary criticism that includes the conqueror, the hero, city life, village life, and personal identity. Authors whose works are studied include...
The Sacred Meadows is an anthropological study of the religion of Lamu, the oldest inhabited town in Kenya, originally settled in 1370, and situated on an island off the Kenyan coast. Abdul Hamid El-Zein discusses the religious impact of Islam and its place in Lamu society. He explores the structure...
Containing details of 390 L.P. and E.P. recordings,African Music on LP: An Annotated Discographycontributed to the scholarship of African music at a time when very little had been written. Organized by record label and arranged in alphabetical order, Allen P. Merriam assesses the stylistic characteristics of each recording, providing new...
Three Nigerian Emirates:A Study in Oral History is a widely held study on a scarcely examined region of Nigeria. Victor N. Low presents a detailed account of the leaders, people, and culture of the Hadejia, Katagum, and Gombe regions documented in a transcribed oral history. This work presents a valuable...
In Southern Nilotic History,Christopher Ehret reconstructs the history of the Southern Nilotic speaking peoples of East Africa, from their earliest origins to the beginning of the colonial period. As a history, the book is a remarkable tour de force. Using mainly linguistic evidence, the author locates populations, moves them around,...
Africa South presents a history and description of southern Africa from the arrival of Europeans until the creation of the Republic of South Africa in 1961. Harm J. de Blij provides a portrait of the landscape and the internal policies and struggles within the region. The work serves as a...
The richness, variety, and complexity of the culture of the Hausa city-states are illustrated in microcosm in Glossary of Hausa Music and Its Social Contexts, in which several hundred Hausa terms for music are collected. David W. Ames and Anthony V. King concentrate on the kingdoms of Zaria and Katsina,...