ABSTRACT
Studies of southern Africa usually define their subject as the southern tip of the continent. However, to focus on the music requires special consideration of the northern boundary of the area, often considered the Zambezi River. This boundary does not include the area west of the Zambezi, nor does it help clarify matters by dividing Mozambique. The people of northern Mozambique are culturally related to central African peoples, and unlike other peoples of southern Africa, most of them have been influenced by the Arabic cultures of East Africa. Madagascar is geologically a part of southern Africa, but its culture, including its music, derived from cultures of Southeast Asia, whence came its languages and the ancestors of most of its inhabitants.
