African lullabies – love songs for children – play an important role in creating an intimate bond between parent and child. Mothers often sing them to their children who they carry on their backs as they work in the house or the fields. These children grow up experiencing music not as separate from life, but as an integral part of their own bodies' inner melodies and rhythms.

Lullabies serve a variety of purposes for the thousands of distinct cultural groups that are spread across the African continent. Some transmit stories of great leaders and ancestors as well as tales of famous dancers, drummers and musicians. In many lullabies the ancestral and spirit world plays a central role. It is not uncommon for the lyrics of a lullaby