2. INDEX
• Culture
• Music and dance
• Language
• Clothing

3. Culture
Human culture in
Africa is as old as the
race itself; and it
includes rock
carvings from the
Neolithic period, the
petroglyphs of Ice
Ages and hunter
gatherers in the
grasslands of North
Africa

4. Music and Dance
Indigenous music and traditional dances have
been transmitted by oral tradition and are
different in both the north and south. Many
African languages are tonal languages, so the
sound level determines the meaning and affects
the melodies and African rhythms.

5. Music and Dance
African dances are an important way of
communication, and dancers use gestures, masks,
costumes and body language. When the sun sets they
play every day at that time a ritual called ‘Shapare’,
which is interpreted with bongo, trumpet and drum.
Later we will see a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxfTx5uotq4

6. Language
The most common languages are Arabic, Suahili and Hausa
after these English, French and Portuguese. African official
languages are:
• Amharic in Ethiopia ->
• Somalí in Somalia ->

7. • Swahili in Kenya and Tanzania ->
• Setswana in Botswana ->
• Afrikáans in South Africa and Namibia ->
• Malagasy in the Republic of Madagascar ->

8. Clothing
Women’s traditional
clothes in Ethiopia are
made from cloth
called shemma and
it’s use to make
‘habesha kemis’. This
garment is basically
cotton cloth, about
90cm wide, woven in
long strips which are
then sewn together.

9. Clothing
Men wear knee-high shirts and trouser women
might not wear socks at all. Men as well as women
wear shawls, the netela.