From Ring Shout to Bomba

Exploring sounds of the musical rhythms of the Ring Shout and the evocative textures of the Caribbean bomba song and dance, this book presents a comparative musicological and ethnomusicological work that concentrates on the parallel diasporic aspects of history, religion, and music of the Gullah/Geechee and Afro-Latin people. From Ring Shout to Bomba documents how the Gullah/Geechee community has striven to preserve their culture and history throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It carefully investigates the transcultural links among this United States community along the "Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor" and the Afro-Latin communities from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Brazil. From Ring Shout to Bomba offers readers past and present archival and ethnographic field research related to these communities by examining their musical and religious customs. It enables audiences to explore the African connections of the Ring Shout with the Latin American and Caribbean "call and response" syncretic religious forms found in Lucum, Candombl, and Espiritismo. This book also discusses  cultural preservation techniques and reexamines the ethical aspects of both understanding and (re)interpreting Gullah/Geechee and Afro-Latin identities. Such research presents audiences with a different perspective that adds more to the constantly evolving history.