Black people have a rather unenviable place in history where efforts have been made to discredit their artistry and intelligence. From Euro-American anthropologists to historians, we have been told black people had little to no intellectual capacity or history.
One of the aspects affected by these efforts is the whitewashing of the history of certain kinds of music and dance.
In this article, we identify and trace four dances and sounds that came from black people in slavery in the New World.
These artistic expressions were conceptualised and moulded in the slave era so they are separable from more recent inventions such as reggae, R n B or hip-hop. Grab your dancing shoes and enjoy: