African American Music

Abstract: The comparative study of the music on both sides of the Atlantic regarding slavery elements has generated
research about the journey to American continent, but there is little written on the return trip and its influences
in Africa. In this paper is analyzed the cultural heritage in a back way discussed through slavery of Ndowe
group. This legacy arrived in Cuba with Carabalíes slaves who founded the society Abakuá. Later it was made a
return trip to Africa with the deportees Abakuá carried to Fernando Poo (today Bioko) in Equatorial Guinea. The
framework of the study lies in a consideration of the cultural areas in Africa, beyond the colonial borders and in a
reflection on the search nowadays for a more global identity in Ndowe groups and the expression of a “secondary
orality” that is starting. The Ndowe group occupies an area extending trough Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon Gabon
and some areas in Congo.
Keywords: Ndowe; Abakuá; creoles; Equatorial Guinea; slavery, secondary orality; music

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