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Composition In Africa
A Symposium and Festival
University of Cambridge, 2006

What is African composition? Do composers exist in Africa? Some decades ago, similar questions were asked about African literature but, after the award of four Nobel prizes to African writers, there is no longer any doubt in international circles that there is such a thing as African literature. Indeed, some of the works of Africa’s literary giants, originally written in European languages, have been translated into various local languages around the globe.

The cultural background and historical context that nurtured African literature are similar to those of composition, although in terms of international recognition, music is several decades behind literature. Even within the African continent, the works of modern composers are virtually unknown. However, since the 1990s, there have been indications that this position is about to change, as interest in modern African composition has increased steadily in international circles. There is every reason to believe, therefore, that African composition may soon follow in the footsteps of, not only African literature (its continental sibling), but of modern composition in Latin America and Asia (its global partners) in gaining acceptance in the world’s major venues of music performance and scholarship.

The biennial international symposium and festival on “Composition in Africa and the Diaspora” was launched as a means of creating awareness and understanding for the activities of composers on the continent and its Diaspora and as a forum for scholarly discourse aimed towards the establishment of an appropriate theoretical framework for the study of this music.