Sub-Saharan music

African traditional music is frequently functional in nature. Performances may be long and often involve the participation of the audience.^[2] There are, for example, many different kinds of work songs, songs accompanying childbirth, marriage, hunting and political activities, music to ward off evil spirits and to pay respects to good spirits, the dead and the ancestors. None of this is performed outside its intended social context and much of it is associated with a particular dance. Some of it, performed by professional musicians, is sacral music or ceremonial and courtly music performed at royal courts.

The emphasis upon communal singing in Sub-Saharan African music has, as in Europe and Oceania, led to the development of harmony and the homophonic texture. Formally, a lot of music uses a call and response structure with elaborate improvisation,variation and development based on rhythmic cycles of varying lengths, often using complex polyrhythm, cross rhythm, backbeat and syncopation.^[3] Musically it may be divided into four regions:

• The eastern region includes the music of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe as well as the islands of Madagascar, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Comor.

• The southern region includes the music of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and Angola.

• The central region includes the music of Chad, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, including Pygmy music.

• The western region includes the music of Senegal and the Gambia, of Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia, of the inland plains of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the coastal nations of Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria,Cameroon, Gabon and the the Republic of the Congo as well as islands such as Sao Tome and Principe.