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Cuba
 Cuba is a critical nerve center in Afropop's worldwide network. Its strong African cultural life helped it to produce some of the most influential music in the New World, and once that music went back to Africa, dance music there was never the same again.
Both in their entertainment and in their religious practice, Africans working on Cuban sugar plantations preserved and developed a rich array of percussion and vocal music. From the sacred bata drumming associated with Yoruba Santeria religion, to the complex, layered rhythms of recreational rumba, the African end of the Afro-Cuban music equation was in full flower during the 19th century.
Meanwhile, in Matanzas, folksy European dance idioms had evolved into a serene ballroom dance music that Cubans called danzon. The synthesis that ignited the Afro-Cuban musical revolution, and led to today's salsa and timba music, began early in the 20th century in the eastern city Santiago where a music called son combined the melodic string genres played by Europeans with the lively percussion rhythms played by Africans. Though considered shocking and lewd at first, son was soon adapted in Havana and styles like habanero and charanga, which features flute and violin, quickly emerged. Ever since, Havana has been one of the most important and influential musical cities in the African diaspora.
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