Africans accuse African Americans of "appropriating" their culture (legitimate criticism?)

[Sassy]

@ the logic

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I didn't read all of the posts leading up to the point about the Banjo. However, who is the dumb ass researcher that is claiming that the Banjo is not from Africa? Only a dumb ass White dude trying to rewrite history would even write some dumb shyt like that. It is well known that the instrument is from Africa and the Africans used it long before the arrival of the Europeans. In fact the first time that the Europeans ever saw the Banjo or Banjur is when the slaves showed them. Unbelievable.

Here is a quote from a White Bluegrass music source. Even they know where the Banjo is from:

"... The banjo, as we can begin to recognize it, was made by African slaves based on instruments that were indigenous to their parts of Africa. These early "banjos" were spread to the colonies of those countries engaged in the slave trade. Scholars have found that many of these instruments have names that are related to the modern word "banjo", such as "banjar", "banjil", "banza", "bangoe", "bangie", "banshaw". Some historians mention the diaries of Richard Jobson as the first record of the instrument.. While exploring the Gambra River in Africa in 1620 he recorded an instrument "...made of a great gourd and a neck, thereunto was fastened strings." The first mention of the name for these instruments in the Western Hemisphere is from Martinique in a document dated 1678. It mentions slave gatherings where an instrument called the "banza" is used. Further mentions are fairly frequent and documented. One such is quoted in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians from a poem by an Englishman in the British West Indies in 1763: "Permit thy slaves to lead the choral dance/To the wild banshaw's melancholy sound/". The best known is probably that of Thomas Jefferson in 1781: "The instrument proper to them (i.e. the slaves) is the Banjar, which they brought hither from Africa... ."

History of the Banjo

The banjo as we know it in the Americas is clearly from west africa.

 

[Poitier]

It takes me 5 mins to find traditional Tuareg music with strings, keys, wind instruments all arranged and playing a progression of notes, riffs, rhythm and melodies

It takes me 5 mins to find traditional Ethiopian music with all those Near Eastern instrumentation

@Lost1 you seem to have a hard time pulling up LIVE footage of traditional West African music with these elements and definitely nothing before the advent of Blues music.

 

[DabbinSauce]

Nope. Gospel was first. Blues came out of the Black Church. Listen to early Blues recordings and you can clearly hear the Gospel music. If you notice mostly all African American music and musicians come out of the Church.

You can tell that's where Country music come from too

 

[Insensitive]

As far as I know Blues was the music you didn't play in polite or religious company.
It was "Devil's Music".

It was essentially Black secular music that had little to do with gospel.
And both followed Negros Spirituals/ Working Songs but developed quite differently because of that.

 

[WaveGang]

This thread needs to be closed.

More often than not these divisive threads end in somewhat of a stalemate as ultimately we all strive for the same goal.

 

[Samori Toure]

As far as I know Blues was the music you didn't play in polite or religious company.
It was "Devil's Music".

It was essentially Black secular music that had little to do with gospel.
And both followed Negros Spirituals/ Working Songs but developed quite differently because of that.

You might be writing about Boogie Woogie music; which is more like R&B, Rock and Roll, Swing and stuff like that. That is not to say that Blues was played in the Churches, but that many of the musicians are out of the church and some of the music was modified from church music and for that matter from call and response in the fields which also occurred in churches.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

didn't I already say the "originated in ghana" thing is a misconception and myth (repeated by people with a really shallow knowledge of the genre)

if it can't get even the first sentence correct then yeah, it's not exactly trustworthy

Check this vid out..it talks about Palmwine, Highlife and Jazz

 

[IllmaticDelta]

As far as I know Blues was the music you didn't play in polite or religious company.
It was "Devil's Music".

They said that but Blues is all over Afram gospel music. Blues is the "evil"twin to Spirituals and Gospel

It was essentially Black secular music that had little to do with gospel.
And both followed Negros Spirituals/ Working Songs but developed quite differently because of that.

Blues has more impact on Gospel than the other way around

 

[IllmaticDelta]

You might be writing about Boogie Woogie music; which is more like R&B, Rock and Roll, Swing and stuff like that. That is not to say that Blues was played in the Churches, but that many of the musicians are out of the church and some of the music was modified from church music and for that matter from call and response in the fields which also occurred in churches.

Boogie Woogie is uptempo blues and is the basis for Black Gospel piano

 

[Insensitive]

They said that but Blues is all over Afram gospel music. Blues is the "evil"twin to Spirituals and Gospel




Blues has more impact on Gospel than the other way around

There we go.
And yo much respect because you stay dropping knowledge.

I consider myself pretty knowledgeable but even then I find myself genuinely impressed and walking away more informed after I read your posts.

Keep posting.
This thread can only get better from here.

 

[Whogivesafuck]

They said that but Blues is all over Afram gospel music. Blues is the "evil"twin to Spirituals and Gospel

This post had me thinking about Thomas Dorsey. Most would call him the godfather of AA Gospel music. He started is career as a blues pianist, but after the death of his wife and infant son transitioned to Gospel music.


Early blues/Jazz Recordings







Precious Lord, Take My Hand ( One of the most popular aa gospel songs)

 

[IllmaticDelta]

This post had me thinking about Thomas Dorsey. Most would call him the godfather of AA Gospel music. He started is career as a blues pianist, but after the death of his wife and infant son transitioned to Gospel music.


Early blues/Jazz Recordings

he furthered the Gospel and Blues connection and even added some Jazz in

 

[hatechall]

Damn I wish I hadn't missed this thread. I agree with the poster who said that diasporic cultures are extensions of (continental) African cultures.

African Americans are the most influential African ethnic group in the world and we rarely involve ourselves in cultural appropriation. In fact, we started the conversation about cultural appropriation. So who's culture is being appropriated here?

 

[IllmaticDelta]

That is people's perception, just like other blacks have bad perceptions around the world. Personally, I don't care.

Doesn't mean it's true. The genre is for everyone one now. More white care for it in America than AAs. It's no longer their culture because it's not practiced like that by the AA music community.