Roots in Reverse explores how Latin music contributed to the formation of the négritude movement in the 1930s. Taking Senegal and Cuba as its primary research areas, this work uses oral histories, participant observation, and archival research to examine the ways Afro-Cuban music has influenced Senegalese debates about cultural and political citizenship and modernity. Shain argues that the trajectory of Afro-Cuban music in twentieth century Senegal illuminates many dimensions of that nation's cultural history such as gender relations, generational competition and conflict, debates over cosmopolitanism and hybridity, the role of nostalgia in Senegalese national culture and diasporic identities. More than just a new form of musical enjoyment, Afro-Cuban music provided listeners with a tool for creating a public sphere free from European and North American cultural hegemony.

AcknowledgmentsNote on Spelling of Senegalese NamesIntroduction: Sound Track for a Black AtlanticKora(son): Africa and Afro-Cuban MusicHavana/Paris/Dakar: Itineraries of Afro-Cuban MusicSon and Sociability: Afro-Cuban Music, Gender, and Cultural Citizenship, 1950s-1960sFrom Sabor to Sabar: The Rise of Senegalese Afro-Cuban Orchestras, 1960s-1970sReSONances Senegalaises: Authenticity, Cosmopolitanism, and the Rise of Salsa M'balax, 1980s-1990s"Music Has No Borders": The Global Marketing of a Local Musical Tradition, 1990s-2006Conclusion: Making WavesNotesGlossaryList of InterviewsBibliographyDiscographyIndex