Afro-Cuban Overview:
The term "Afro-Cuban" is confusing to many, in particular since Cuban music already contains a mixture of African and European (mostly Spanish) roots. Why, then, call some Cuban music Afro-Cuban? Mainly as a way to emphasize the increased amount of African elements present in many of the island's rhythms and dances. These Africanisms tend to be present in varying degrees wherever Africans were brought as slaves, and include: call-and-response vocals (where a lead vocal alternates with a fixed, repetitive chorus), polyrhythm (layers of rhythms in a complex structure), syncopation (an emphasis on the up-beats of off-beats within a musical phrase) and improvisation (from variation to full-blown solos).
We generally divide Cuban music into two general areas: folkloric and popular. African-derived folklore in Cuba developed both on the sacred as well as secular level, and some of the secular forms—such as the conga and the rumba—certainly appear more African than Spanish. Popular forms, such as the son, seem to have an equal mixture of African and Spanish influences, so that the son could be classified as Creole. And other forms, such as trova, evolved primarily from Spanish country music and have less African elements. However, some trova styles such as the bolero and the guajira wound up within the repertoire of groups regarded as Afro-Cuban or Creole.
Perhaps the best evidence pointing to the adaptation of the term Afro-Cuban has to do with the contributions of Cuban ethnographer Fernando Ortiz, who meticulously chronicled and categorized virtually all of the island's African-derived forms and undid years of previously Negrophobic musicology by authors who categorically denied that Cuban music had any African influences. Therefore, the term Afro-Cuban can be seen as a tribute to those African slaves and their descendents who unknowingly and knowingly formed part of Cuba's music history. Rebeca Mauleon
