Avorgbedor, Daniel K.

About the author: Daniel Avorgbedor is currently Associate Professor in the School of Music and the Department of African-American and African Studies at The Ohio State University, Columbus. He received his PhD in Ethnomusicology and Folklore from Indiana University, Bloomington. He has also taught at the University of Ghana, at Bretton Hall College (U.K.) and at City College of New York. Major publications include essays in New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed; Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, The World of Music, Oral Tradition, and others.

2003 0-7734-6821-8
These essays present new critical perspectives on the dynamic configurations of music, religion (indigenous, Islam, Christian), and ritual in contemporary African societies. Examples demonstrate issues and processes of accommodation, the construction of religious, ethnic, and cultural identities, and local articulations of gender and the aesthetic. Examples from African-American Pentecostalism, independent Christianity, Tumbuka healing, Yoruba kingship ritual, Senegalese Sufism, etc confirm both common and divergent patterns in African cultural traditions.