formations and it is they who provide the great strength and vitality of contemporary African popular music. For the majority of Africans, music remains live and closely tied to their daily lives. The fact that this existence is now under threat from war,
famine, invasion and western cultural imperialism in no way diminishes the continuing contribution which Africa makes to the enrichment of our daily lives.
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Music in Independent Africa, 1950-75
In terms of performance, these years witnessed the almost universal introduction of amplification and electric instruments, substantially changing the sound if not the structure of African music. In this respect, this volume defines ‘contemporary’
African music as basically the electrified popular music which first appeared in the
mid-1950s. As far as production was concerned, these years witnessed several
