Revisiting the Katanga Guitar Style(s) and Some Other Early African Guitar Idioms

Before the rise of rap and hip-hop in Africa during the 1990s, the guitar reigned supreme for over a half a century as an integral instrument in syncretized forms of African jazz and popular music. It served as an indispensable resource in an array of musical styles, speaking a mutually intelligible language that transcended differences of race and ethnicity. During the 1920s and 1930s, numerous commercial recordings of West African acoustic guitar music were made, signifying the growing popularity and appeal of guitar playing in sub-Saharan Africa. However, while Kru sailors and other itinerant musicians developed and disseminated palm wine highlife idioms, including dagomba, ya amponsah, and mainline, their playing style has only tenuous ethnographic, ethno-linguistic, or musical connections to Copperbelt guitar music, which developed in Central Africa during the immediate post–World War II era. During the 1950s, distinct acoustic guitar playing styles emerged in urban mining camps and towns located along the Copperbelt, a region in Katanga in southeastern Zaïre (southern Belgian Congo) and northern Rhodesia (Zambia). Gerhard Kubik