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Cultural Significance of African Music and Dance: An Afrocentric Analysis
Ellistine, Solomon
Ellistine, Solomon
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Thesis/Dissertation
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2025-08
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Africology and African American Studies
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https://doi.org/10.34944/h5p6-0d93
Abstract
The primary goal of this paper is to investigate how music and dance plays a significant role in African culture. African music and dance are each both an embodiment of history and an art form, which capture the continent’s vibrant culture. They are each a form of art that play a vital role in the lives of African people and which are critical in solidifying the African social structure, with its complex diversity of social purposes. These forms of art allow African people to communicate with the divine, promote their community bond, mark life transitions, and transmit cultural values across generations.
After being forcibly sold out of Africa and brought to the Americas and other parts of the globe through enslavement, Africans brought their own culture and way of life to America. Having been brought across the Atlantic to a foreign land, they were detached from their own languages and communities. Music and dance was a way to transmit their cultural values through an oral tradition, which allowed them to preserve their culture and history. During enslavement, they continued to participate in their African rituals, told stories, sang, danced, and played African derived instruments to continue to celebrate life as they did in Africa. Music and dance are cultural forms of expression that helped the people to survive and communicate with one another.
The shape of the communities has changed with time and along with those changes, coupled with fluctuations of the political climate and economic factors, the role of music and dance has adapted and changed. They both continue to be important element in the spiritual, emotional, and social well-being of African diasporic societies. For generations, their practice of music and dance, and storytelling was a way for them to preserve their history, customs, and mythology. Both of these forms of art play a vital role in their rituals, ceremonies, social gatherings, which reflects their history, values of the people and a reflection of the African culture attachment to one’s native land and ancestral heritage. Despite the forced migration and oppression, the enslaved Africans and their descendants were able to preserve the components of their cultural identity, blending them with other cultures in creating new forms of expression. Each era and genre of African American music and dance are distinct cultural expressions that laid the foundation for future forms of American music. For instance, the call and response structure of the music in Yoruba influenced genres such as jazz, blues, and gospel music. Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus contributed to popularization of African dance forms and choreography through their research in Africa and the Caribbean.
My goal is to show how the socio-cultural implication of African music and dance has enriched our understanding of how African people organize, conceptualize, and experience various aspects of their daily lives. Belief is the key component of culture and influences human behavior immensely. The music and dance of Africa and its significance continue to survive through generations of African people engaging in the search for cultural identity and appreciation of African worldview.
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