Towards Sustainable Preservation: Revitalising Indigenous African Instruments and Craftsmanship
Ntshengedzeni Evans Netshivhambe 
Issue: Vol.5 No.15 Special Issue Article 8 pp.91-107
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245158 | Published online 30th December, 2024
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This study addresses a critical gap in the scholarship of indigenous African music by shifting the focus from preventing the extinction of musical traditions to ensuring the sustainability of indigenous African instruments within academic frameworks. The purpose of the research is to critique the prevalence of the long-prevailing academic approaches employed by Western scholars in African music studies, particularly their failure to emphasise the preservation, modification, and integration of indigenous African instruments in educational settings. These instruments are vital components of sustainable African music education. Using a multi-method approach that includes a review of relevant literature, performance analysis, and interviews with indigenous music practitioners, students, and community members, the study highlighted how previous research on African music studies has predominantly focused on documenting African cultural practices. However, it argued that this documentation does not ensure sustainability if the teaching and performance of these instruments are not integrated into academic and educational practices. The findings revealed that while documenting African music traditions has been a focus for over a century, these efforts are insufficient for sustaining the music if African instruments are not actively incorporated into music-making and pedagogical practices. The study underscores the need for institutions of higher learning and schools to prioritise the inclusion of indigenous African instruments within their curricula. The study contributes to the scholarship on indigenous African music by offering concrete recommendations for education policy and curriculum design. It emphasises the importance of balancing documentation with practical application and suggests that the sustainability of indigenous African music depends on active engagement with its instruments in both academic and performance contexts.
Keywords: Indigenous music, Sustainability, African instruments, Preservation, Craftsmanship, Instrument building
Adedeji, Femi. “Repositioning Indigenous African Musical Instruments for the Much-Needed Cultural Transformation of Music Education in Nigeria.” Journal Of Nigerian Music Education (JONMED) 8 (2016).
Agawu, K. “Contesting Difference: A Critique of Africanist Ethnomusicology.” In The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction, edited by Clayton, Martin, Trevor Herbert, and Richard Middleton, 2nd ed. New York: : Routledge, 2003.
Agawu, Kofi. The African Imagination in Music. Oxford University Press, 2016.
———. “The Invention of African Rhythm.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 48, no. 3 (October 1, 1995): 380–95. https://doi.org/10.2307/3519832.
Agordoh, Alexander A. “Music in African Communities.” Africa in Contemporary Perspectives: A Textbook for Undergraduate Students, 2013, 430–44.
Akpakpan, Mary J, Peremodoere Ayebatonye-Fatayi, and Eunice Ukamaka Ibekwe. “Socio-Cultural Functions Of Ibibio Traditional Musical Instruments.” Awka Journal Of Research In Music And Arts (AJRMA) 16 (2023).
Aning, Ben A. “Tuning the” Kora”: A Case Study of the Norms of a Gambian Musician.” Journal of African Studies 9, no. 3 (1982): 164.
Anku, W. “Principles of Rhythm Integration in African Drumming.” Black Music Research Journal 17, no. 2 (1997): 211–38.
Anku, Willie. “Circles and Time: A Theory of Structural Organization of Rhythm in African Music.” Music Theory Online 6, no. 1 (2000): 1–8.
Arom, Simha. “Time Structure in the Music of Central Africa: Periodicity, Meter, Rhythm and Polyrhythmics.” Leonardo 22, no. 1 (1989): 91. https://doi.org/10.2307/1575146.
Asante, M.K. An Afrocentric Manifesto. Toward an African Renaissance. Manchester: Polity Press, 2007.
Ashton, Heidi. “Cutting the STEM of Future Skills: Beyond the STEM vs Art Dichotomy in England.” Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 22, no. 2 (2023): 148–63.
Barnett, Ronald. “University Knowledge in an Age of Supercomplexity.” Higher Education 40, no. 4 (2000): 409–22. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004159513741.
Berliner, Paul. The Soul of Mbira: Music and Traditions of the Shona People of Zimbabwe. Vol. 26. University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Bigenho, Michelle. “Why I’m Not an Ethnomusicologist: A View from Anthropology.” The New (Ethno) Musicologies, 2008, 28–39.
Blacking, John. How Musical Is Man? . Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1973.
———. “Musicians in Venda.” The World of Music 21, no. 2 (1979): 18–38.
Bohlman, Philip Vilas, and Katherine Bergeron. Disciplining Music: Musicology and Its Canons. University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Brandel, Rose. “The African Hemiola Style.” Ethnomusicology 3, no. 3 (September 1959): 106. https://doi.org/10.2307/924609.
Campbell, Patricia Shehan. Lessons from the World: A Cross-Cultural Guide to Music Teaching and Learning. (No Title). New York: Schirmer Books, 1991.
Chernoff, John M. “The Rhythmic Medium in African Music.” New Literary History 22, no. 4 (1991): 1093–1102.
Clayton, Martin. “Ethnographic Wax Cylinders at the British Library National Sound Archive: A Brief History and Description of the Collection.” British Journal of Ethnomusicology 5, no. 1 (1996): 67–92.
Euba, Akin. JH Kwabena Nketia: Bridging Musicology and Composition: A Study in Creative Musicology. Richmond: MRI Press, 2014.
Fomunyam, Kehdinga George. “Towards Enhancing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education: A Case for Higher Education in Africa.,” 2021.
Gibson, Catherine. “Afrocentric Organization Development? Shifting the Paradigm from Eurocentricity to Afrocentricity,” 2000.
Gordon, G. A. “ Marimbas in South African Schools: Gateway Instruments for the Indigenous African Music Curriculum .” Stellenbosch, 2020.
Hughes, Christine. “Legislative Wins, Broken Promises: Gaps in Implementation of Laws on Violence against Women and Girls,” 2017.
Irlandini, Luigi Antonio. “Non-Western Musical Instruments and Contemporary Composition.” Projeto de Pesquisa, Universidade Do Estado de Santa Catarina (Udesc), 2020.
Jones, A. M. “African Rhythm.” Africa 24, no. 1 (January 21, 1954): 26–47. https://doi.org/10.2307/1156732.
Kalyoncu, Nesrin, and Cemal Özata. “Instrument Teaching in the Context of Oral Tradition: A Field Study from Bolu, Turkey.” Oral Tradition 27, no. 2 (2012).
Kauffman, Robert. “African Rhythm: A Reassessment.” Ethnomusicology 24, no. 3 (September 1980): 393. https://doi.org/10.2307/851150.
Kidula, Jean Ngoya. “Ethnomusicology, the Music Canon, and African Music: Positions, Tensions, and Resolutions in the African Academy.” Africa Today, 2006, 99–113.
Kirby, Percival. The Musical Instruments of the Indigenous People of South Africa. NYU Press, 2013.
Koetting, James, and Roderic Knight. “What Do We Know About African Rhythm?” Ethnomusicology 30, no. 1 (1986): 58–63.
Lieberman, Fredric. “Should Ethnomusicology Be Abolished?: Position Papers for the Ethnomusicology Interest Group at the 19th Annual Meeting of the College Music Society, Washington DC, November 1976.” In College Music Symposium, 17:198–206. JSTOR, 1977.
Mapaya, Madimabe Geoff. “African Musicology: Towards Defining and Setting Parameters of the Study of the Indigenous African Music.” The Anthropologist 18, no. 2 (September 17, 2014): 619–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/09720073.2014.11891580.
Merriam, Alan P. “Characteristics of African Music.” Journal of the International Folk Music Council 11 (1959): 13–19.
———. “The Anthropology of Music.” Northwestern University Press, 1964.
Milliron, Catherine E. “Next Time Won’t You Sing with Me? The Role of Music Rooted in Oral Tradition as a Resource for Literacy Learning in the Twenty-First Century Classroom.” Channels: Where Disciplines Meet 1, no. 2 (2017): 4.
Morin, Francine. “Learning across Disciplines: An Approach to West African Music.” Music Educators Journal 89, no. 4 (March 1, 2003): 27–34. https://doi.org/10.2307/3399901.
Nattiez, Jean-Jacques, Catherine Dale, and Simha Arom. “Simha Arom and the Return of Analysis to Ethnomusicology.” Music Analysis 12, no. 2 (July 1993): 241. https://doi.org/10.2307/854274.
Netshivhambe, Evans Ntshengedzeni. “Ignored or Invisible: The Status of Indigenous South African Instruments In the Venda Society.” Unisa Press, 2023.
———. “Indigenous African Music Performance Re-Imagined in Public Spaces.” In African Language Media, edited by P. Mpofu, I.A. Fadipe, and T. Tshabangu, 243–58. Routledge, 2023.
———. “Keeping the African Sound Relevant.” In Strategies for Survival at SIBIKWA 1988 – 2021, 2022b, edited by P. Klotz and S. Ndaba, 225–50. Routledge, 2022.
———. “Keeping the African Sound Relevant.” In Strategies for Survival at SIBIKWA 1988–2021, 225–50. Routledge, 2022.
Nettl, Bruno. The Study of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-One Issues and Concepts. University of Illinois Press, 2005.
———. The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-Nine Issues and Concepts. University of Illinois Press, 1983.
Nettl, Bruno, and Philip V Bohlman. Comparative Musicology and Anthropology of Music: Essays on the History of Ethnomusicology. University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Nketia, J.H. The Music of Africa. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1975.
Nketia, K. Ethnomusicology and African Music – Collected Works, Modes of Inquiry and Interpretation . Vol. 1. Accra: Afram Publications, 2005.
Nompula, Yolisa. “Valorising the Voice of the Marginalised: Exploring the Value of African Music in Education.” South African Journal of Education 31, no. 3 (2011): 369–80.
Nzewi, M. “A Contemporary Study of Musical Arts Vol. 1,” 2007. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hnuWTrOwp9kC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=%22musical+art%22+definitions+%2B+nzewi&ots=QI2VWgb5DQ&sig=VDVVBgX3kyUFMxvp2Dz-YASo_Yg.
Oludare, Olupemi E. “Yoruba Traditional Instrumental Ensemble and Indigenous Knowledge Systems.” Pathways to Alternative Epistemologies in Africa, 2021, 205–19.
Petersen, Alvin. “Teaching African Musics: Personal Reflections in a South African University Setting.” The World of Music, 2009, 51–64.
Reily, Suzel. “Local Musicking and the Production of Locality.” GIS-Gesture, Image and Sound-Anthropology Journal 6, no. 1 (2021).
Stone, Ruth M. “Commentary: The Value of Local Ideas in Understanding West African Rhythm.” Ethnomusicology 30, no. 1 (1986): 54–57.
Temperley, David. “Meter and Grouping in African Music: A View from Music Theory.” Ethnomusicology 44, no. 1 (2000): 65–96.
Tracey, Hugh. “Measuring African Scales.” African Music: Journal of the African Music Society 4, no. 3 (1969): 73–77. https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v4i3.1438.
Waghid, Yusef. “Knowledge Production and Higher Education Transformation in South Africa: Towards Reflexivity in University Teaching, Research and Community Service.” Higher Education 43 (2002): 457–88.
Whitt, Laurie Anne. “Biocolonialism and the Commodification of Knowledge.” Science as Culture 7, no. 1 (1998): 33–67.
Ntshengedzeni Evans Netshivhambe earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees from Wits University, South Africa. He is a dedicated researcher, composer, and arranger focused on integrating African indigenous knowledge into higher education. He combines traditional African composition techniques with modern frameworks, enhancing African art music within academic curricula. His work celebrates Africa’s cultural heritage, bridging tradition and contemporary scholarship. Evans’ research promotes the respectful integration of African knowledge in education. His interests include music composition, Africanness, formalising indigenous African music knowledge, and professionalising indigenous instruments. He is passionate about profiling the stories and knowledge of the legends of our time.
Netshivhambe, Ntshengedzeni Evans. “Towards Sustainable Preservation: Revitalising Indigenous African Instruments and Craftsmanship,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no.15 (2024):91-107. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245158
© 2024 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/).
