The University of KwaZulu-Natal is hosting an international African music symposium and the 10th African Cultural Calabash from September 29 to October 4. The music symposium will bring together academics, artists and documentary filmmakers with an interest on Africa and the diaspora.
The International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) African Musics Symposium, which will take place at the university’s Howard College campus in Durban, will see delegates dialogue, exchange research and creative outputs about African music and dance.

The symposium will also see discussions on academic papers, concerts and workshops where delegates can interact and share knowledge.

The keynote speaker is emeritus Professor J. H. Kwabena Nketia, a Ghanaian ethnomusicologist and composer, considered Africa’s premier musicologist. He is easily the most published and best known authority in African music and aesthetics in the world.

Chairwoman of the local arrangements committee and programme committee, UKZN academic, Dr Patricia Opondo, said she was very proud to be able to bring the prestigious international symposium to Durban. The event, she added, has three themes: African bows, harps, fiddles and guitars; packaging heritage; and transnational diasporic cultures.

“It is so exciting that after a year of planning, we are now about to celebrate this decade of presenting African folklore and indigenous performing arts through the annual African Cultural Calabash,” she said. “This year is special as we have included a three day symposium that includes paper, workshop and film presentations by 35 performer-academics around the globe.

“To have esteemed emeritus Professor Kwabena Nketia presenting the keynote address, is indeed the cherry on top.

“These four days will provide life changing experiences for our music students, particularly those majoring in African music and dance, as we will bring the best in the field to them. They will not only listen to groundbreaking research, but will be able to participate in amazing workshops, and best of all perform to an illustrious international community.”

About 100 guests are expected to attend the symposium including Professor Dave Dargie, who has spent 40 years recording Southern African bows, particularly those found in the Eastern Cape.

Papers that will be presented include:

• “Southern Africa’s Remarkable Heritage of Musical Bows: Does It Have a Future?” By Prof. Dave Dargie (Germany/South Africa);
• “Re-packaging Heritage, Reinventing Africa: Rethinking Musical Education, Culture and Insight into Diasporic Cultures” by Ayorinde Oladele (Nigeria/South Africa); and
• “Ethnomusicological Perspectives on the Nile Project: Musical Collaboration as Transnational Cooperation” by Damascus Kafumbe (Uganda/USA).

Opondo said: “We will also be bestowing a lifetime achievement awardon UKZN Umakhweyana Bow teacher, Br. Clement Sithole in recognition of his contribution in preserving this Zulu indigenous instrument that he learned at the feet of the late Princess Constance Magogo.

“We have also invited the South African musical bow icon and legend, Madosini from the Eastern Cape, who will perform on uhadi and Umrube.”

Delegates from the music departments of the University of Cape Town, University of Witswatersrand, University of Pretoria, and Northwest University, who teach and research African music and ethnomusicology will also be in attendance.

Delegates can expect to participate in workshops of music and dance from a number of different African countries and learn from research findings of ethnomusicologists and African researchers on a broad variety of subjects.

Artists and scholars from Zimbabwe, Botswana, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, Uganda, Cape Verde, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Malawi as well as from Portugal, Germany, the United States, Turkey, Hungary, are expected to attend the event, which dovetails with the 10th anniversary celebrations of the African Cultural Calabash, hosted by the African Music Project at UKZN.

The African Cultural Calabash is a an annual folklife event curated and produced by the Applied Ethnomusicology section in the School of Arts – African Music and Dance division. It will include performances by Tomeletsi Sereetsi (Botswana), ZviriMudeze (Zimbabwe), Jembeken (Mozambique/South Africa, USA); Zippy Okoth (Kenya), Ngalanga Ensemble (Mozambique/South Africa), and Praise Zinhuku (Zimbabwe) serenading the audience with music and dance from across the continent.

The line up includes Madosini, the grande dame of Xhosa Umrube and Uhadi bows; and performances by other Southern Africa bow researcher-performers Dave Dargie, Cara Stacey and KwaZulu-Natal’s own Bro Clement Sithole, performing on an old Zulu indigenous instrument, the umakhweyana bow.

There will also be performances by postgraduate student and Maskandi star Nozuko Nguqu and Zvirmudeze Mbira ensemble from Zimbabwe.

Following the performances will be the ever popular African cuisine function with mouth-watering dishes from throughout the continent.

Tickets for the 10th anniversary concert are on sale for R200 for adults and R150 for students and pensioners.

Contact Thulile Zama (031-2603385) at the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music on the Howard College campus or email: culturalcalabash@gmail.com for more information.