Sona Jobarteh & Band - Kora Music from West Africa

musical instrument Print musical instrument Kora, long-necked harp lute of the Malinke people of western Africa. The instrument’s body is composed of a long hardwood neck that passes through a calabash gourd resonator, itself covered by a leather soundboard. Twenty-one leather or nylon strings are attached to the top of the neck with leather tuning rings. The strings pass over a notched bridge (10 strings on one side of the bridge, 11 on the other) and are anchored to the bottom of the neck with a metal ring.

America's Cultural Roots Traced to Enslaved African Ancestors O black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire? How, in your darkness, did you come to know The power and beauty of the minstrels' lyre? Who first from midst his bonds lifted his eyes? Who first from out the still watch, lone and long, Feeling the ancient faith of prophets rise Within his dark-kept soul, burst into song? The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes - Poems Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play.Down on Lenox Avenue the other nightBy the pale dull pallor of an old gas light He did a lazy sway . . . He did a lazy sway . . .To the tune o' those Weary Blues.With his ebony hands on each ivory keyHe made that poor piano moan with melody. O Blues!Swaying to and fro on his rickety stoolHe played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.

The History of African American Music From the lyrical cries of black street vendors in eighteenth-century Philadelphia to the infectious dance rhythms of the Motown sound, African American music has been heard at all times and in every corner of America. African American involvement in the nation's music making has influenced every genre of American music, helping to create a sound now recognized as distinctly American. Reflecting both the hardships and triumphs black Americans have experienced in the United States, their music has also served to shape the national identity, profoundly influencing the lives of all Americans. The first Africans transported to this country came from a variety of ethnic groups with a long history of distinct and cultivated musical traditions. Some were able to bring musical instruments with them or build new ones in this country. The "banja" or "banshaw," now known as the banjo, was one of the African instruments that continued to be built and played in America.

Slavery and the Making of America . The Slave Experience: Education, Arts, & Culture During the colonial and Antebellum periods, enslaved blacks pursued the right to express themselves using education, the arts, and craftsmanship against pragmatic, customary, and legal restrictions. From the earliest colonial settlements, folktales and fables circulated within slave communities in the South, reflecting the oral traditions of African societies and incorporating African symbolism and motifs. The rabbit, for example, was borrowed from African stories to represent the "trickster" in tales told by the enslaved. Folktales such as the popular Brer Rabbit adventures not only gave slaves a chance to create alternate realities in which they could experience revenge and other forbidden impulses, but they also imparted practical knowledge and survival and coping strategies to listeners.

Understanding Jim Crow (Setting the Setting) From the late 19th century to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, many Southern states implemented laws of racial segregation that came to be known as Jim Crow laws. Many of these laws defined segregated public spaces. Others detailed social opportunities that would promote white supremacy, while deliberately stifling black progress. Europeans Come to Western Africa non-tabled version Europeans Come to Western Africa Part 1 Narrative: • Introduction • Map: The British Colonies • Europeans Come to Western Africa • New World Exploration and English Ambition • From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery • The African Slave Trade and the Middle Passage • The Growth of Slavery in North America Part 1: Narrative | Resource Bank Contents | Teacher's GuideAfricans in America: Home | Resource Bank Index | Search | Shop WGBH | PBS Online | ©

From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery non-tabled version From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery Part 1 Narrative: • Introduction • Map: The British Colonies • Europeans Come to Western Africa • New World Exploration and English Ambition • From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery • The African Slave Trade and the Middle Passage • The Growth of Slavery in North America Part 1: Narrative | Resource Bank Contents | Teacher's GuideAfricans in America: Home | Resource Bank Index | Search | Shop WGBH | PBS Online | © Slavery in the Caribbean - International Slavery Museum, Liverpool museums Enslaved Africans cutting cane in Antigua, published 1823. Image reference NW0054, as shown on www.slaveryimages.org, sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library. Courtesy of authors Jerome S Handler and Michael L Tuite Jr. Sugar and slavery The introduction of sugar cultivation to St Kitts in the 1640s and its subsequent rapid growth led to the development of the plantation economy which depended on the labour of imported enslaved Africans. African slaves became increasingly sought after to work in the unpleasant conditions of heat and humidity.

Here's What You Need to Know About Senegal Is a country in western Africa that is south of the Senegal River. The Atlantic Ocean is to the west. Mauritania is to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea-Bissau and Guinea to the south. The country completely surrounds The Gambia with the exception of Gambia’s small coastline on the Atlantic. Olaudah Equiano's early life in Africa - International Slavery Museum, Liverpool museums Abolition campaigner and former enslaved person Olaudah Equiano wrote his autobiography in 1789. Find out more about his early life in Africa by either listening to the following five audio extracts or reading the transcripts. Early life Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. "The part of Africa, known by the name of Guinea, to which the trade for slaves is carried on, extends along the coast above 3400 miles, from Senegal to Angola, and includes a variety of kingdoms.

Zora Neale Hurston's 'Barracoon' Tells the Story of the Slave Trade's Last Survivor Sitting on his porch in 1928, under the Alabama sun, snacking on peaches, Cudjo Lewis (born Oluale Kossola) recounted to his guest his life story: how he came from a place in West Africa, then traversed the Middle Passage in cruel and inhumane conditions on the famed Clotilda ship, and saw the founding of the freedman community of Africatown after five years of enslavement. After two months of listening to Kossola’s tales, his interlocutor asked to take his picture. Donning his best suit, but slipping off his shoes, Kossola told her, “I want to look lak I in Affica, cause dat where I want to be.” His listener, companion and scribe was Zora Neale Hurston, the celebrated Harlem Renaissance author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. She poured his story, told mostly in his voice and dialect, into Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo.”