Challenges Experienced by South African Indigenous Musicians: A Critical Discourse Analysis
Sakhiseni Joseph Yende 
Issue: Vol.4 No.11 Article 8 pp.1404 -1414
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20234118 | Published online 24th November, 2023
© 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Framed within social constructivism theory, this article argued that government, organisations, and stakeholders could foster and promote collaboration, community engagement, cultural recognition and policy advocacy to address the socio-economic challenges faced by Indigenous African musicians. With an increasing number of indigenous African musicians who greatly contribute to the country’s cultural landscape, South Africa is well renowned for its incredibly rich and diversified heritage of music. However, due to modern influences and globalisation, there are growing concerns that indigenous African musicians are facing significant obstacles in the music industry that have implications for preserving and promoting cultural heritage. A sensitive endeavour that calls for careful navigation and adaptation is balancing classical aspects with modern musical genres. It was against this background that this article set out to critically discuss and raise awareness of the challenges experienced by South African Indigenous musicians. A qualitative research method was adopted together with critical discourse analysis as the primary methodology. The findings of this article pointed out that indigenous African musicians face several socio-economic challenges in pursuing their artistic careers. The findings of this article affirmed that there is a need to empower indigenous African musicians through educational programmes and financial support from various stakeholders to preserve South African culture, identity, and indigenous languages in the globalised world.
Keywords: Cultural Heritage, Indigenous African Musicians, Indigenous Languages, Socio-economy, Sociomusicology
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Dr. Sakhiseni Joseph Yende is an emerging distinguished young scholar currently affiliated with the University of Western Cape in South Africa, where he serves as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of African Language Studies within the Forensic Linguistics and Multilingualism division. His academic trajectory has been marked by remarkable achievements and substantial contributions to various aspects of the performing arts, with a particular emphasis on opera.
Yende, Sakhiseni Joseph. “Challenges Experienced by South African Indigenous Musicians: A Critical Discourse Analysis.” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 4, no.11 (2023): 1404 -1414. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20234118
© 2023 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
