The Banjo: America’s African Instrument, by Laurent DuBois

A banjo is an instrument that produces a sound formed by strings over skin. That is the defining feature of the array of African predecessors, the distinguishing mark breaking off the hereditary line from some prehistoric ur-string instrument. Not that instruments develop in such a forward march, evolutional adaptation is towards perfection for an environment not a ladder of increasing complexity or refinement. The banjo is a New World instrument born early in transatlantic history to suit the needs of a new kind of society based on displacement. One of the interesting ideas Laurent Dubois puts forward in this encyclopedic early history of the instrument is that the reason the recognizable form of the banjo appeared so early, ans spread so widely, was that it could be claimed by no specific ethnic group. Enslaved peoples brought with them images from home of instruments of strings over skin but the specifics varied. There were round necks, flat necks, even two necks, and anywhere from one string to a multitude. When a functional form familiar enough for everyone, but claimable by no one, was settled on it was rapidly shared along the commercial trade routes of two continents. John