Music of Gabon

Music of Gabon encompasses the traditional, ritual, popular and urban musics of the Gabonese Republic. Scholarly literature describes Gabonese musical life as highly diverse, reflecting the country's ethnolinguistic plurality, especially Fang, Myènè, Teke, Punu, Njebi, Kota, Mitsogo and Babongo/Bongo communities, and the close historical connection between music, dance, healing, initiation and oral literature. Gabonese musical traditions are especially notable for the importance of sung narrative, harp traditions, initiation repertories and dance societies. Among the best-known forms discussed in the literature are the Fang mvet, which denotes both an instrument and a genre of oral literature, and the harp-centred ritual musics of bwiti/bwete associations.