AN INTRODUCTION

The music of the African Diaspora is an enduring legacy of the millions of abducted Africans who died in slavery. Their indestructible culture and ingenuity gave birth to new instruments, rhythms and vocal styles and bequeathed us the building blocks of the world’s popular music: Soul, Hip Hop, Jazz, Funk, Salsa, Gospel, Reggae, Blues… Today it’s clear that the power of the music is rooted in the heroic struggle for survival and emancipation.

This living legacy grew out of the Atlantic slave routes between Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas and Europe, in a continuum of interaction that mixed and remixed the musics. These interactions are the sacred repositories of the history of the African Diaspora. Each music tells its own story of the journeys – of how the field hollers and work songs of slaves toiling in America’s rural south gave birth to the Blues which evolved into City Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Soul, Hip Hop and beyond, charting the passage of African Americans out of the inhumanity of slavery; of how the Baskeda rhythm of Sierra Leone distilled into the spiritual Nyabingi drumming that produced the One Drop heartbeat of Reggae. To know the music is the key to understanding the significance of this legacy – which guides and inspires the ongoing creative fruition of the African Diaspora.

Passage of Music, supported by Arts Council England, was a season of Black music commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. Passage of Music scanned the spectrum of today’s continuing connections in the music of the Black Diaspora – from grassroots, community-driven events that engage and develop the composers and producers of the future, to the visionary, cross-artform works of our major artists who continue to push the boundaries of Black British arts.

In This Great Future You Can't Forget Your Past, So Dry Your Tears I Seh

Rita Ray is a member of the Shrine Synchrosystem, a DJ, broadcaster and programmer/curator of musical events.

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PASSAGE OF MUSIC PODCAST

Presented by Anna Umbima, the Passage of Music podcast features interview material with participants in the Woolwich/Home Again project, with BTWSC’s Kwaku, Orphy Robinson and seperewa player Osei Korankye, together with performance excerpts from Dilemma of a Ghost and Routes through Roots.