In Cuban music, rumba is a generic term covering a variety of musical rhythms and associated dances. The rumba has its influences in the music brought to Cuba by Africans brought to Cuba as slaves as well as Spanish colonizers. Rhythmically, rumba is based on the five-stroke pattern called clave and the inherent structure it conveys.

Rumba developed in the Cuban provinces of Havana and Matanzas in the late 19th century. As an energetic Afro-Cuban dance, rumba was often suppressed and restricted because it was viewed as dangerous and lewd. Afro-Cuban rumba is different from ballroom rumba and the African style of pop music called rumba. Rumba developed in rural Cuba, and is still danced in Havana, Mantanzas and other Cuban cities as well as rural areas, especially those with a significant or predominant African community, although now it is infused with influences from jazz and hip hop.

Although there were slaves that arrived in Cuba in the 16th century with early Spanish settlers, there was not the established Afro-Cuban culture that exists today. The evolution of Afro-Cuban culture began around the late 18th and early 19th century due to the increase in the number of slaves brought to Cuba from places in West Africa such as the Congo or Nigeria. Due to the reliance on sugar as an export, many of the slaves worked on sugar plantations, which gave Cuba access to African culture.