African Dance & Music Forms

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African Music & Dance Traditions

West Africa

1. Drumming as Language among the Ewe of Ghana and Togo
   Rhythm as speech surrogate, historical memory, and social regulation in Agbadza, Atsiagbekor, and war traditions.
2. Yoruba Bata and Dundun Traditions: Music, Religion, and Power
   Sacred drumming, orisha worship, praise poetry, and embodied theology.
3. Mande Griot Traditions and the Politics of Memory
   Kora music, oral historiography, genealogy, and hereditary musicianship.
4. Asante Court Music and Dance in Precolonial and Colonial Ghana
   Fontomfrom ensembles, royal symbolism, diplomacy, and statecraft.
5. From Highlife to Afrobeats: Continuity and Change in West African Popular Music
   Colonial modernity, urban nightlife, migration, and global circulation.

Instructors / Researchers

• Sylvanus S. Kuwor
• Kofi Agawu
• Ayo Bankole
• Senior master drummers and court musicians from Ewe, Asante, Yoruba, and Mande traditions

North Africa

6. Gnawa Music of Morocco: African Spirituality in the Maghreb
   Trance, healing rituals, spirit possession, and trans-Saharan exchange.
7. Music, Dance, and Sufism in North Africa
   Dhikr, sama, embodied devotion, and Islamic African aesthetics.
8. Amazigh (Berber) Music and Dance Traditions
   Indigenous identity, resistance, language preservation, and performance.

Instructors / Researchers

• Mohamed Chafik
• Hassan Hakmoun
• Recognized Gnawa maâlems and Sufi cultural leaders

Central Africa

9. Polyrhythm and Polyphony among BaAka and Mbuti Forest Peoples
   Vocal layering, communal authorship, ecology, and spirituality.
10. Royal Music and Dance in the Kingdom of Kongo
    Kingship, cosmology, ritual authority, and colonial encounter.
11. Congolese Rumba and Urban African Modernity
    Post-colonial identity, dance halls, diaspora, and global popular culture.

Instructors / Researchers

• Kazadi wa Mukuna
• Community-based forest music custodians and cultural elders

East Africa

12. Ngoma Traditions of Eastern and Southern Africa
    Healing, initiation, spirit possession, and community performance.
13. Swahili Taarab Music and Dance
    Indian Ocean exchange, gendered performance, and poetic expression.
14. Maasai Dance and Song
    Movement, age-set systems, vocal call-and-response, and pastoral identity.
15. Ethiopian Sacred and Secular Music Traditions
    Church chant, azmari performance, modal systems, and improvisation.

Instructors / Researchers

• Mwenda Ntarangwi
• Ashenafi Kebede
• Swahili Taarab musicians and Maasai cultural educators

Southern Africa

16. Zulu Dance and War Chants
    Masculinity, memory, nationhood, and embodied history.
17. Tswana and Xitsonga Dance Traditions
    Migration, labor histories, and cultural continuity.
18. Gumboot Dance and the Politics of Labor
    Mining culture, resistance, rhythm, and performance innovation.

Instructors / Researchers

• Johnny Clegg
• Township cultural leaders and gumboot practitioners

Contemporary & Pan-African

19. African Dance in the Diaspora
    Transmission, adaptation, pedagogy, and global classrooms.
20. Afrofuturism in African Music and Dance
    Technology, digital performance, and imagined African futures.