African Folk Music (Traditional Music)

Folk in Africa refers to the collective of vernacular traditional musics, played in villages with local instruments (griot, Malian lute, kora, drums) and transmitted orally. These traditions vary greatly from one region to another but share common melodic and rhythmic structures.

In West Africa, folk is expressed in the songs of Manding griots (kora, ngoni), Songhai and Tuareg traditions (northern Mali) and Wolof songs in Senegal. In the south, South African folk includes isicathamiya and traditional Zulu songs.

References

• Wikipedia — African folk music
• Stern Guide, preface and chronology of Africa