Music of Africa
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this introduction to musical traditions of West Africa, organized around four countries: Senegal, Mali, Ghana, and Nigeria, with brief overviews of Southern, Central, and East African music. The course combines listening assignments, readings, and written work with in-class instruction in West African drumming, song, and dance, plus lecture demonstrations by guest artists. Class discussion is central to the format, connecting musical practices to their cultural contexts rather than treating them as isolated sound. Materials include the syllabus, assignment sheets, and listening lists as published on MIT OpenCourseWare, free to access with no certificate attached. The course suits anyone wanting a structured entry point into African musical traditions grounded in both scholarship and hands-on performance practice.