Cameroon

===Music and dance===
{{further|Public holidays in Cameroon}}
[[File:Baka dancers June 2006.jpg|thumb|upright|Dancers greet visitors to the East Region.]]

[[Music of Cameroon|Music]] and [[dance in Cameroon|dance]] are integral parts of Cameroonian ceremonies, festivals, social gatherings, and storytelling.<ref>[[#Mbaku|Mbaku]] 189</ref><ref name="West 18"/> Traditional dances are highly choreographed and separate men and women or forbid participation by one sex altogether.<ref>[[#Mbaku|Mbaku]] 204.</ref> The dances' purposes range from pure entertainment to religious devotion.<ref name="West 18">[[#West|West]] 18.</ref> Traditionally, music is transmitted orally. In a typical performance, a chorus of singers echoes a soloist.<ref name="Mbaku 189">[[#Mbaku|Mbaku]] 189.</ref>

Musical accompaniment may be as simple as clapping hands and stamping feet,<ref>[[#Mbaku|Mbaku]] 191.</ref> but traditional instruments include bells worn by dancers, clappers, drums and [[talking drum]]s, flutes, horns, rattles, scrapers, stringed instruments, whistles, and xylophones; combinations of these vary by ethnic group and region. Some performers sing complete songs alone, accompanied by a harplike instrument.<ref name="Mbaku 189"/><ref>[[#West|West]] 18–9.</ref>

Popular music styles include [[ambasse bey]] of the coast, [[assiko]] of the Bassa, [[mangambeu]] of the [[Bamileke|Bangangte]], and [[tsamassi]] of the Bamileke.<ref>[[#DeLancey|DeLancey and DeLancey]] 184.</ref> [[Music of Nigeria|Nigerian music]] has influenced Anglophone Cameroonian performers, and [[Prince Nico Mbarga]]'s [[highlife]] hit "[[Sweet Mother]]" is the top-selling African record in history.<ref>[[#Mbaku|Mbaku]] 200.</ref>

The two most popular music styles are [[makossa]] and [[bikutsi]]. Makossa developed in Douala and mixes folk music, highlife, [[Soul music|soul]], and [[Soukous|Congo music]]. Performers such as [[Manu Dibango]], [[Francis Bebey]], [[Moni Bilé]], and [[Petit-Pays]] popularised the style worldwide in the 1970s and 1980s. Bikutsi originated as war music among the Ewondo. Artists such as [[Anne-Marie Nzié]] developed it into a popular dance music beginning in the 1940s, and performers such as [[Mama Ohandja]] and [[Les Têtes Brulées]] popularised it internationally during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.<ref>[[#DeLancey|DeLancey and DeLancey]] 51</ref><ref name= Nkolo/>