As the music industry gathers for Grammy Week, African music is playing an increasingly prominent role — not only on the awards stage, but across global pop culture.

African music, with its distinctive emphasis on polyrhythm and beats flowing from percussive instruments, was long treated as subordinate in the international music arena. Music from the continent ...

Traditional African musical sounds and songs are under threat today. More than 50 years after the end of official colonial rule, the legacy of colonialism continues to sideline many traditional ...

The Djembe: From West African Villages to Global Stages The djembe drum dates back roughly between 400 and 800 years, created ...

With the massive cultural impacts of colonialism, technology, and commerce, African music has moved rapidly away from its centuries-old traditional roots. The influences of jazz and Caribbean music ...

The University of South Africa, Unisa, made history with the inaugural Unisa African Music Festival hosted on 26 and 27 September 2025 at its Muckleneuk Campus in Pretoria. The two-day event brought ...

Joseph Kamaru, the performer who records under the name KMRU, admits that being a composer of ambient electronic music is not an obvious path to fame and fortune in his home country of Kenya. “It has ...

Boudina McConnachie is affiliated with Rhodes University and hosted Madosini at ILAM funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2021. Renowned African musician, songwriter and storyteller Latozi ...

Sharjah: Visitors at the second edition of Sharjah Festival of African Literature (SFAL 2026) engaged enthusiastically with a ...

Selah Thompson (front) teaches how the skirt is used in Afro Cuban dance to mimic natural movements seen in nature at the Traditional Music Society dance class. Susan Pfannmuller Special to The Star ...

The country has a rich, original relationship to jazz, with American techniques layered into regional traditions and rhythms. Explore 50 years of recordings picked by musicians, poets and writers. By ...