Dipsticking the Study of Indigenous African Music from the John Blacking Era into the 21st Century
| Main Author: | Mapaya MG |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book publication-section |
| Bahasa: | eng |
| Terbitan: |
Centre for Advanced Study of African Societies
, 2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
https://zenodo.org/record/4502500 |
Daftar Isi:
- Indigenous African music, like all music, is as old as humanity (Adum, Ekwugha & Ojiakor, 2015; Friedmann, 2011). European explorers and missionaries encountered it before its study took root. It was only in 1947 in South Africa, with the formation of the African Music Society, followed almost a decade later in 1955 by the formation of the Society for Ethnomusicology in the United States, that scholarly attention to African music gained traction (Agawu, 1992). Before these developments, the music was merely documented, if studied at all, primarily for purely musicological reasons. Its study, in the main, served as a way in which insight into the culture and/or religiosity of Africa was to be (mis)construed. While celebrating the contribution of John Blacking in the establishment of African musicology, it would be disingenuous to overlook some of the missteps, misrepresentations and neglect of the local abstractions in the enterprise of musicology. Highlighting these should not be seen negatively, but as an effort to correct the history.