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16 - African Electrical Networks

from Part V - The Global Instrument

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2024

Jan-Peter Herbst
Affiliation:
University of Huddersfield
Steve Waksman
Affiliation:
Smith College, Massachusetts
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Summary

This chapter approaches the history of electric guitar music in sub-Saharan Africa through the perspective of the “new organology,” considering the unique imbrication of materiality and sociality within the cultural work of music. Multiple local and transnational networks impact the work of guitarists, including the movement of musicians, economic systems that circulate instruments, and the circulation of musical knowledge, genre, and instrumental technique. Networks are both embedded in the landscape—such as electrical infrastructure—and lay atop the physical, such as mobile data and social media applications. The author draws upon ethnographic interviews with guitarists from Ghana and Congo to show how these networks of circulation and the materiality of instruments can provide new ways of thinking about guitar music in Africa and the African diaspora.

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Chapter
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Selected Bibliography

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Eyre, Banning, “African Reinventions of the Guitar,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar, edited by Coelho, Victor Anand (Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 4464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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