Dance is a spiritual thing for all the non-contaminated African cultures. It is used to honor the ancestors, to mark the passage of a group of young boys and girls into puberty, to encourage a warlike spirit or to celebrate a victory, and so on. The music accompanies the story telling. The story tellers know the entire folklore and history of the tribe in much the same way that Bards did in the Celtic world. The decorative arts, especially the hairstyles and body painting, identify a person with a particular tribe. I don't think the patterns woven into baskets and cloth are tribal, these patters I think come from the African world.
