Thanks, when I studied harmony it was going through Bach's 4-part choral stuff. Those hymns went to Britain and were merged with Welsh and Scottish melodies, then came to America where the churches that Blacks were acculturated to had those tunes, so they picked up the concept and made it less palatable and more histrionic with it's over the top ornamentation? Is that a good summary?
Is there harmony in native African music? I'm totally ignorant and asking an inncoent question - I don't know anything beyond Fela Kuti who's awesome but it's a lot of unison over rhythms, the singing and all that. Same with Indian music, just more voices singing the same notes rather than harmony.