by Beth Szczepanski

Created on: July 07, 2008   Last Updated: July 18, 2008

Oral tradition has throughout human history and across all cultures been the most powerful force for spreading cultural knowledge and skills from one generation to another. Even in literate cultures, most of the skills needed to function within the cultural group are taught not through the written word but rather through oral instruction from family and community members. Music making in Africa provides a useful illustration of the power of oral tradition; music is vital to a wide range of activities in a number of African cultures, yet musical practices are not usually passed down through written notation and instruction booklets but rather through community interaction and verbal teaching. This applies to both non-professional musicians, such those who participate in community singing and dancing during work, play and certain rituals, and professional musicians, such as praise singers and master drummers.

Although Africa contains an extraordinary variety of cultural groups, there are a few generalizations we can make regarding music that apply to a majority of those cultures. In most cases, musical practices are handed down orally rather than in written form. We should not, however, assume that this form of transmission can be used only for simple songs and straightforward dance movements. In fact, the rhythmic complexity of much African music, such as the Agbekor drumming of the Ewe people in Ghana, far exceeds anything conceived of by Beethoven, or even Henry Cowell. In addition, in many African societies musical performance involves complete community participation. As the entire community contributes to the music and dance, there is no such concept as performer and audience member. Finally, music plays a role in nearly every part of life in many traditional African societies. Farming, hunting, playing, holding religious rituals and greeting a ruler all call for unique forms of music and dance. As music plays integral roles in each of these activities, people do not necessarily differentiate the music from the activity it accompanies.

In most traditional African societies, community members learn the music and dance of everyday activities through a process of enculturation. Children absorb work songs, recreational songs, clapping patterns and dance movements simply by observing their elders and participating as soon as they are able. David Locke writes, "Babies move on the backs of their dancing mothers, youngsters play children's games and then join

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