Azizi and Torctgyd, thanks for the fascinating discussion. I know next to nothing about African history and I suspect that I am not alone in this. Azizi, since you believe that "native" and "African bush" are pejorative terms, what other terms would you prefer that people use?

I'm also interested in a related phenomenon in a different culture. In the Clearances of the Scottish Highlands about 200 years ago, the English cruelly and forcibly sent many Highlanders to Cape Breton to get them out of the way. Transporting them was cheaper than feeding and caring for them. Besides, it was more profitable to have sheep inhabit the Highlands. I have often heard that the Celtic music of Cape Breton today resembles Scottish Highland music of 200 years ago, while, in contrast, Scottish Highland music has evolved into something quite different today. How do people know this?

Again from the history of Scottish music, people have tried to infer how Scottish dance music of the seventeenth century sounded. For clues, they use the sound of Scots Gaelic as it was written, drawings of the bow, and drawings and writing about dance shoes of the period. Of course, this is only a few centuries ago, and similar issues about music in Africa go much further back in time.