This section establishes Africa as the first “music conservatory” and introduces the musical systems, instruments, and philosophies that would later travel across the Atlantic and shape the music of the African diaspora.
This part frames Black music in the Americas not as imitation, but as cultural survival under pressure - a continuation of African systems reshaped by new realities.
This part frames the blues not simply as a genre, but as a cultural technology for survival—an expressive system through which individuals claimed voice in a society still structured by racial inequality.
