A large amount of archaeological evidence shows that Africa may be the earliest birthplace of mankind.

Since the Neolithic Age, most of the development of human civilization has been concentrated in the Eurasian continent and North Africa. Civilizations in Central and South Africa and the Americas are relatively backward.

Africa is the second continent in the world after Eurasia. Among them, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 2/3 of the total area of ??Africa. The equator runs through its middle. There are the Sahara Desert and the Kalahari Desert; there are the Ethiopian Plateau, the East African Plateau with deep valleys and steep cliffs, and the endless South African Plateau, forming a landform that is high in the east and low in the west, high in the south and low in the north, and slopes from southeast to northwest; there are the Nile River and the Congo River , Zambezi River, Niger River, Senegal River, Gambia River and other radiating rivers, and rapids and waterfalls abound.

A fairly developed civilized society appeared in East Africa earlier. An ancient country with Axum as its capital was formed in Ethiopia around BC. It entered its heyday in the 4th century and converted to Christianity, gradually forming the Ethiopian Empire. After the 16th century, the rise of the Ottoman Empire led to the decline of the Ethiopian Empire. Sudan, between Egypt and Ethiopia, had a country at the end of the 12th century BC. Christianity was introduced to the Kingdom of Meroe in the mid-6th century. It was gradually conquered by the Arabs from the mid-7th century to the 13th century, and gradually became Islamic and became Arab civilization. part of the world. Somalia's international trade along the East African coast was quite prosperous, and a number of extremely dynamic commercial cities appeared around BC. In the 8th and 9th centuries, Islam was introduced to East Africa. After the 10th century, a large amount of Chinese porcelain was imported (the East African city-states were recorded in the works of Chinese travelers Wang Dayuan, Fei Xin and others).

The country of Ghana in West Africa was also roughly formed around the 3rd century. Mali, located in the Kangaba region on the upper reaches of the Niger River, also gradually rose to form the Mali Empire in the early 13th century (known for its gold mines and died in the 17th century). century). After Ghana and Mali, the Songhai Empire (died in 16 AD) dominated West Africa. It was the largest empire in West Africa and the last empire. After its demise, West Africa fell into tribal warfare.

The so-called black Africa south of the Sahara has a culture formed by the various tribal societies living in the forest areas and Savannah grasslands. It is also reflected in the music culture, forming a variety of tribal music cultures. Although historically it has been influenced by Asia and other regions, and some regions have accepted the influence of foreign music culture to varying degrees, many regions in black Africa, which is relatively isolated from other parts of the world, still have their own unique characteristics. traditional music culture. Compared with national music in other parts of the world, the most significant feature is that it combines self-entertainment functions with social functions. There are music for self-entertainment such as rice-grinding songs, rice-pounding songs, lullabies, shepherd songs, paddling songs, and housework songs; different industry music, godly music, witchcraft music, wedding and funeral music, adult ceremony music, and concurrent music. It has various social functions such as education, medical care, justice, and moral judgment. It can be seen that music is closely related to social life and traditional customs. A person's life from birth, adulthood, marriage, death and other stages must be completed through etiquette. Music is an indispensable part of etiquette. Therefore, every Members of each tribe are more or less involved in some kind of music activities, and music art has become "a social activity that emphasizes not only artistry, but also social, political and religious aspects." (JA·Kwa) Benna Nketiya, "African Music", People's Music Publishing House, 1982 edition, page 30)

In music, the most representative feature is that it is completely different and abnormal from other parts of the world. Distinctive rhythmic syntax, especially polyrhythms. Four, five, six and seven-tone scales are found everywhere. Its intervals are similar to the equal temperament, such as the average heptatonic scale (in singing), the equidistant hexatonic scale (approximately the whole-tone scale), and there are also unequal intervals. The musical phrases are short and repetitive, and the texture is monophonic music, but it also has various forms of branch polyphony. The more common forms are sustained tones, parallel tones, polyphonic music, polyrhythms, etc. As an interesting performance convention, in small ensembles, each person plays only one note in a group.

Most of African musical instruments are of the same type widely distributed in various places, but their structures are slightly different. For example, the sanza, a representative musical instrument in Africa, not only has different names in different places, but also the vibrating pieces tied to it are mostly made of metal, and in some areas they are made of wood; its chime can be in the shape of a wooden box, It can also be made from gourds. Another major feature is the complex sound world that uses music and noise to mix. When the xylophone is played, not only does its body vibrate, but the bells and scratchers around the instrument and on the wrist also sound; the xylophone also has small holes and stickers on the sounding tube installed under each key Apply membrane to create buzz.

The distribution of African musical instruments is roughly as follows: West Africa has tubular and container-shaped flutes (mostly transverse flutes), horns, trumpets (ivory, horn, wooden, etc.) and other air-sounding instruments, harps, Stringed instruments such as qite and lute types (some originated from Arabia), as well as barrel-shaped and tube-shaped drums, scrapers, bells, cracked tree drums, etc.

Central Africa has chanting boards (usually an oval-shaped thin plate tied to one end with a string and lifted up in the air to rotate and produce sounds, which is also a "pronunciation prop"), recorders, transverse flutes, and trumpets. , wind instruments, oboe and other air-sounding instruments, as well as particularly conspicuous bows (there are many types, the most common ones are "mouth bows" played with the mouth), lyre instruments, and various drums. In particular, the drum can imitate tonal speech (the cadence of melodic speech in daily conversation) and is used as a so-called "talking drum". It is an important tool for conveying will and refereeing.

The types of musical instruments in East Africa are generally the same as those in West Africa.

In addition to the same musical instruments as those in West Africa, South Africa's musical instruments are especially the gora, a plucked instrument with 21 strings. Blow up the air to make it vibrate and produce unique sounds. There are also various forms of xylophones, bows, etc.