Before the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic liturgy generally left relatively limited space for local cultural expressions. However, in colonial Africa, missionaries had to deal with practices that were particularly important to evangelised societies, including music and dance. The case of the Missionaries of Africa in Ségou (French Sudan) shows how, in Catholic missions at the time, there were spaces external to the liturgy where such customs could be integrated. For the Bamana people of Ségou, music and dance were intrinsic to social and religious life, as they marked the stages of the life of individuals and were fundamental to the various initiatic societies, to the extent that musical instruments themselves could become objects of worship. The missionaries soon recognised the centrality of these elements, as attested by their ethnographic writings, and managed to incorporate them into the celebration of the Catholic festivals, distinguishing the Christian message and rite from the "external" expressions of faith.