African Music Quiz

Ewe –

An ethnic group in Ghana, Togo, and Benin known for complex drumming traditions and vibrant dance-music culture.

Mande –

A large cultural and linguistic group in West Africa known for epic storytelling, jali (griot) traditions, and kora music.

Dagbamba –

An ethnic group from northern Ghana recognized for their drumming traditions, especially the “lunsi” drummers.

Shona –

A major ethnic group in Zimbabwe known for mbira music and rich spiritual traditions.

Agbekor –

A traditional Ewe war dance and drumming style featuring energetic rhythms and coordinated group movements.

Gankogui –

A double-bell instrument used in Ewe music that provides the central time-keeping pattern.

Griot/Jali –

A hereditary West African musician-historian who preserves history through storytelling, praise-singing, and music.

Kora –

A 21-string West African harp-lute played by jali and known for its bright, intricate melodies.

Konkong –

A rhythmic pattern or percussive accompaniment in Mande music, often played on iron or wooden idiophones.

Mbira –

A traditional Shona thumb piano with metal keys plucked to create interlocking melodies.

Chimurenga Music –

A Zimbabwean musical style (popularized by Thomas Mapfumo) combining mbira traditions with modern instrumentation and political themes.

Afrobeat –

A West African musical genre blending highlife, jazz, funk, and African rhythms, pioneered by Fela Kuti

BaAka –

Forest-dwelling peoples of Central Africa known for polyphonic vocal music and communal performance.

Essay #1

layered rhythms, community participation, and cultural purpose. Drums are the most common instruments and are used for dance, communication, and ceremonies, create polyrhythmic patterns. Idiophones like the mbira provide steady patterns or melodies that guide the music. call-and-response and repeating cycles, rituals,

Learning traditional music in Africa

oral transmission and active participation rather than written instruction.

observing elders, practicing during ceremonies, Skills are passed down through imitation, repetition, and apprenticeship

. This hands-on, communal process

preserve traditions and keeps music closely connected to social life and cultural identity.

Functional music used in work and ceremony

serves practical and social functions rather than existing only for entertainment.

Work songs: help coordinate group labor, boost morale, and create a sense of unity.

Ceremonial music: accompanies events using drums, singing, and dance to guide participants and connect them to the community or the spiritual world.

It reinforces cultural values and strengthens social bonds.

An essay on African use of or adaptations of western (European or
American) or other non-African music or musical influences.

blended traditional Western and other global musical to create new styles. Instruments like guitars, keyboards, and brass horns were adapted into African genres such as highlife,

Afrobeat: often combined with indigenous rhythms and vocal styles.

music from Europe and the Americas—like jazz, funk, and rock—also inspired African artists, who reshaped these sounds to reflect local culture and languages.

created vibrant modern genres that remain deeply rooted in African musical identity.

No tribe/ Ghana

Stamp song

Ghana/ Ewe

Music traditionally used for war: preparation or celebration.
Now commonly used for funerals and festivals.

The Gambia/ Mande

A praise song, performed by Mandé griots, called jalolu (singular, jali)
Performers: lead singer (a woman), her husband (playing the kora) and
a second man who speaks encouraging asides and plays konkong

Ghana/ Dagbomba

A Praise Name Dance
Text: honors a former warrior king of the Dagbon people.
Instruments: two different types of under-the-arm drums, which play a
distinctive answering pattern

Zimbabwe/ Shona

A traditional mbira piece relating to a war song and performed to call near a
protector spirit of the Shona nation. polyrhythmic

Zimbabwe/ Shona

Modern commercial dance club music
Musically influenced by the Shona mbira tradition
Text: on social-political themes, in this case cheering Zimbabwe’s successful
overthrow of white minority rule and its new black run government – and
chiding those who don’t support it

Central African Republic/ BaAKa

Net-hunting music, sung here by young people in a training context (to learn
how to vocally assist in the forest hunt)