Music of the Gambia

national anthem of the Gambia, written by Virginia Julia Howe and composed by Jeremy Frederic Howe , adopted after an international competition before independence in 1965

Mbalax (or mbalakh) is the urban dance music of Senegal, Mauritania and the Gambia. The musical style is rooted in instrumental and vocal styles accompanied by polyrhythmic sabar drumming of the Wolof, a social identity that includes both the original Wolof people of the Greater Senegambia region and the urban panethnic identity that arose during colonialism.