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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2021
Since the end of the nineteenth century, black music has been prominent in the international arena—from ragtime to rumba and jazz, right up to today’s black and white fusions. Dance music and drama originally from Africa were adapted to the New World, creating an enormous impact there and feeding back into the mainstream of music in Africa itself. This double transformation, brought about by leaving and returning home, has created a truly international music-style in Africa, and yet one that is doubly African.
John Collins received his Ph.D. from SUNY-Binghamton in New York and currently resides in Ghana where he is director of the Bokoor African Popular Music Archives Foundation. His two books, West African Pop Roots (Temple University Press, 1992) and Highlife Times (Ananseaem, 1994) trace, among other aspects, Black American musical influences on contemporary African music.
1. This essay is adapted, with the author’s and publisher’s permission, from Collins, John, West African Pop Roots, Temple University Press, 1992 Google Scholar. Another book in which many of the same issues are discussed is Collins’ Highlife Times, Ghana: Anansesem Publications, 1994.
2. A film of the whole tour, including four weeks in Europe, three days in Accra and the return to America was later released under the title “Satchmo the Great.”
3. The musical feedback continued as Bebop; then rock and roll, soul and rhythm and blues came to Africa, influencing new fusions and African musics.