Five detailed case studies which consider the roots of black South African music and dance traditions. The author relates the early history of isicathamiya, the evolution of Zulu music and dance, the transformation of ingoma, and documents the life and work of Reuben T. Caluza.

McAdoo and the Virginia Jubilee Singers, documents the earliest link between the African and American performance traditions. Numerous eyewitness reports, musicians' personal testimonies, and song texts enrich Erlmann's narratives and demonstrate that black performance evolved in response to the growing economic and racial segmentation of South African society. Early ragtime, ingoma, and isicathamiya enabled the black urban population to comment on their precarious social position and to symbolically construct a secure space within a rapidly changing political world. Today, South African workers, artists, and youth continue to build upon this performance tradition in their struggle for freedom and democracy. The early performers portrayed by Erlmann were guiding lights--African stars--by which the present and future course of South Africa is being determined.