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African banjo Roots

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For those interested in the African roots of the banjo

132 Members, Created 1/27/2011 -

Administrators: Marc Nerenberg (owner)

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From Mark Ralston on 1/28/2011 3:31:25 AM

I've occasionally come across some interesting YouTube clips of traditional, contemporary African music including akonting, which prompted me to search YouTube for other clips on old banjo styles & banjo history. I put some clips that caught my interest into a playlist: here's a link, FYI.

http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=418E7E1C4440FE96

4 Comments
	GirlAnachronism says: 1/28/2011 9:22:21 AM The link doesn't work for me :( It says "You Don't Own this Playlist". Instead, can you try logging out of Youtube and searching for the video as a user and sharing that URL? I think that would work.
	Mark Ralston says: 1/28/2011 2:07:59 PM See if this works: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_playlists&search_query=playlist+%22history+of+the+banjo+%22&uni=1 If not, search YouTube for "history of the banjo" I see that there are a lot of new postings that show up for this search since I made up my playlist.... some nice new stuff. For some reason, my all-time favorite is HAMITIC CUSHITE AFRICAN ORIGINS OF THE BANJO.
	GirlAnachronism says: 1/29/2011 1:54:01 PM Great. Thanks for the new link :)
	danl says: 3/31/2016 1:21:25 PM The banjo originated in the Americas by non-African-speaking African Americans, while the first banjo in Africa was imported there. If there is a Hamatic Cushite connection, it is merely about an instrument that had some features of what would later be invented as the first thing called a banjo in the New World. The slave trade routes from Africa were merely a section of the connected trade routes past Southern Europe, the Mid-East, the Balkans, Spain etc. -- where some key (non-African) features necessary to create the new instrument came from. It is so unfair to cheat African-Americans of their due, as if they never progressed or were capable of surpassing their African-speaking ancestors who played much more primitive primitive gourd instruments for which there was no consistent construction pattern to begin with. Today's Akonting (for instance) is the result of the stringed gourd evolution in Africa, not the banjo. Even then, today's Akonting is not a copy of any particular African heritage instrument, and employs post-1900 technology per the specific requirement of each player. They are not copies of ancient instruments, they just happen to be built somewhat in the same tradition. It's high time the legend of the banjo coming from Africa stop. Again, the first banjo in Africa was imported there, most likely after 1830.
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