Disquisitive Orange

The banjo originated in Africa.  “Africans transported to the Caribbean and Latin America were reported playing banjos in the 17th and 18th centuries, before any banjo was reported in the Americas.”  Blackface Minstrel shows made the Banjo popular among white culture in the US and Great Britain during the 1830s and 1840s.  Some of these minstrels learned and replicated styles (the clawhammer or frailing) that were transported with Blacks from Africa.  …  “Today Black banjoists are exploring the original Black traditions of clawhammer and finger style five-string banjo…”