REVIEWS 155

and football clubs alike replaced the old Beni competition; and Beni itself survived in the form
known as Mganda in Malawi and on the Tanzanian Coast because it was felt to belong to the local
culture despite a relative lack of economic development. In these places it is no longer favoured
because of its European characteristics.
Professor Ranger is afraid of befug accused of triviality and impressionism. He cerj:ainly avoids
the first charge by presenting us with a very plausible explanation of the origin and demiSe of Beni.
As he himself notes, he has found it difficult to avoid being impressionistic. He covers a vast
geographical area and treats what is a highly complex subject. In general he groups his scattered
pieces of information about Beni very skilfully under various headings, and makes what could have
been a boring book into something entertaining and informative. One regrets that there is no
extended study of the content of Beni sung texts, and that we do not have descriptions of the
working of a Beni ngoma in a givc;n social situation, iii the manner of Clyde Mitchell's Kalela
Dance. But this is not really sociology; it is panoramic social history.

AYLWARD SHORTER

Ed: In the same manner as we printed a composite of opinion on Rev. Dr. A.M. Jones' work
Studies in African Music in Vol. 11, no. 2, we now do the same for Prof. J.H. Nketia's new book
The Music of Africa, which is likely to play as important a part in the teaching of African music.
We regret that two original reviews from African musicologists were not received in time. They
will be published in the next number.

THE MUSIC OF AFRICA by J.H. Kwabena Nketia, (Gellancz) London, 1975, pp. x+278, £4.00,
copyright 1974 by W.W. Norton Inc. ·
J.H. Kwabena Nketia's The Music of Africa is an introduction designed for the general reader
and the college student. Prof. Nketia was born in Ghana: he is Di.rectQr Qf the Institute of African
Studies at the University of Ghana in Legon and a regular member of the Department of Music at
UCLA, and his numerous books and articles have earned him recognition as the leading scholar in
the field of African music.
His book is heavily biased towards the music of West Africa; but although he generally-ignores
the music of southern African societies because he argues, rather curiously, that it 'belongs to
stylistic families outside Africa' (p. 3), he does give a few examples of and references to music
from other parts of Africa, and especi~y Tanzania . . .
For those who want to know more about African musk as an art form and as a means of ex-
pressing African attitudes and ways of thinking about the world ... Nketia's introduction is rather
short on information about African concepts of sonic organisation, but it is as good as anything
currently available, and it could be improved if the publishers were to provide a demonstration
tape or record of at least the music given in transcription in the text . . .
Prof. Nketia relies chiefly on staff notation to convey some idea of the musical structures even
to those who have not heard a performance live or on record. He also describes the role of music in
community life, the recruitment of performing groups and training of musicians, the different
social processes that generate and constrain musical creation, and the interrelationships of music
and dance and of melody and speech. He does not forget, as do some anthropologists, that his
main concern is with the special world of music: 'the functional use of song in social life or its
value as source material should not make us overlook the importance of the musical content of the
songs' (p. 205).
Minor criticisms of the book are that many of the captions do not indicate the sources of the
photographs, though their position in the text sometimes suggests a context, and that in Chapters
15 and 16, on Rhythm in vocal music and Speech and melody, it would have been useful to have
had specific references to publications on other African musical traditions where the same or
similar principles have been observed. Also, on pp. 113 ff., different scales are shown without any
indication of their distribution in Africa or reference to their use in specific recordings. The chap-
ter on rhythm could have been less confusing if there were examples. of the different types and a
156 AFRICAN MUSIC SOCIETY JOURNAL

more detailed exposition of the rationale of the author's terminology .and system of classification.
Although I appreciate that Prof. Nketia was writing primarily for an audience acquainted with
the European musical tradition, and that the summary of characteristics of many different musics
presents special problems of classification, nevertheless I would have liked greater use of African
categories and attitudes in the presentation of material. For instance, museum terminology (idio-
phones, membranophones, etc.) tells us nothing about the symbolic or musical significance of
different instruments, and I suspect that in African societies there are other divisions that cut
more meaningfully across these sterile categories. European classifications of African scales and
modes are not as interesting as the African conceptions of what constitutes a fixed store of tones
and how it is fixed from one generation to another. African modes may be specified by the naming
of tones, sometimes in hierarchies of melodic importance, or they may be implicit in the system-
atic use of different modes according to social context. Moreover, the selection of particular
modes and melodies may be influenced by broader tonal considerations, which in turn may be
suggested by the form and content of patterns of body movement.
In spite of these reservations, I hope that this book will be read wherever music is taught in the
United Kingdom, and that it will stimulate students to listen to and fmd out more about African
music. When, as I hope, it runs into a second edition, perhaps Prof. Nketia will be encouraged to
give more emphasis to African concepts of music-making and will explain, for example, how poly-
rhythmic techniques are not merely a musical gimmick, but part of a system of expression that is
memr-t to enhance the quality of human experience and to establish special relationships between
people and with the world of nature.
'The cultivation of musical life in traditional African societies . . . is promoted through active
participation in group life, rather than through the creation of special musical institutions. This is
what forms music making in Africa into a community experience, for the continuity of musical
traditions depends to some extent on both individual and collective effort' (p. 50). We might add
to Prof. Nketia's words that in Africa the continuity and vitality of truly corporate life are assured
by the regular performance of dance and music. The causes of the sickness that currently afflicts
the United Kingdom are not economic, but social; and Africa has much to teach us about the vital
role that dance and music can play in the development of human intelligence and sensitivity and in
the healing of a sick, divided society.

JOHN BLACKING

Reprinted from the Times Literary Supplement (August 15th, 1975, p. Pl7) by kind permission
of the Editor. This review formed part of a joint review with two other books -African Sanctus
by David Fanshawe, which will not be reviewed in African Music, and African Music: A People's
Art, by Francis Bebev. reviewed in this number.

Professor Nketia has written yet anothe'r book on African music. Hitherto he has been con-
cerned with his own people - the Akan of Ghana. This time the title of the book casts his net
far wider, to embrace the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.
For the Western reader, a book written by an African musician about his own music is bound to
be of special interest, for only an African knows and feels the inner aesthetics of his own music,
and since African music differs so fundamentally from our Western system, this subjective aspect
is one which an outsider cannot know from his necessarily objective approach to the music.
The Preface tells us this book is intended for the student and for the general reader. Indeed, to
cover the whole of sub-Saharan Africa in 245 pages, seeing that every one of the 2,000 odd tribes
has its own expression of that music, means that this modest book can only be a very generalised
survey.
Its contents cover the social and cultural background of African music: musical instruments -
based on the usual ·four categories - idiophones, membranophanes, aerophones and chorda-
phones: the structures of the music -embracing instrumental ensembles, melody and polyphony,
and rhythm. There follow discussions on Speech and Melody, Music and Dance, and African
musical;;onventions. There are about thirty-eight pictures, three maps, a short discography and a
useful bibliography.
Unfortunately; Professor Nketia adopts a highly analytical and desiccated approach liberally
sprinkled with the catch-phrase jargon of anthropology. One gets tired of 'contexts' - 'children