The Blues

In Blues music, we can see an important example of the global network of cultural flows in and out of Africa that spans several centuries in its evolution. 

It was born in America's Deep South at the end of the 19th century, when African-Americans drew on spirituals and work songs, often from slave traditions, to form a new style of narrative ballad. This in turn would provide the basis for many of the major musical forms of the 20th century. As a style, it is difficult to overstate the importance of the Blues. Its roots, in the slave communities of the centuries preceding its invention, can be traced back to West Africa. Although there is a distinct European influence in its structure, influence of  vocal call-and-response traditions, as well as the narrative of oral story-telling, are a direct legacy of the Slave Coast. Additionally, the Blues' earliest instruments - the banjo and diddley bow (a one-stringed instrument) - are considered to be directly derived from West African musical family. 

Here are underground cartoonist Robert Crumb's portraits of African-American blues heroes Skip James and Blind Willie Johnson:

Blind Willie Johnson singing 'God Moves on the Water'

and Skip James singing 'Devil Got My Woman'.