EMERGING TRENDS FROM INDIGENOUS MUSIC AND DANCE PRACTICES: A GLIMPSE INTO CONTEMPORARY MALENDE AND TSHIGOMBELA

Abstract

Past research into the history, state, function and performance contexts of indigenous African musical practices yielded a number of disturbing observations: there was no hope that the practitioners of this genre would ever begin deriving a living out of their art; there was the fear that some indigenous musical practices were nearing extinction because the few indigenous music practitioners still alive were on the brink of death, and there was therefore a need to capture the heritage before it was irretrievably lost. Lately the world of indigenous African music has undergone an evolution. South Africa’s rapidly changing postcolonial terrain has recently witnessed an upsurge of new stylistic trajectories  in  indigenous  musical  practices  –  nowadays  it  is  arranged  and performed by modern musical ensembles. Popular music which incorporates traditional genres has begun functioning within the socio-cultural and religious lives of Africans today, and it is no longer regarded as ‘foreign’ or alien to concert halls. It is now also frequently encountered in music stores, both in rural and urban areas. the current article traces this new, exciting and rewarding trajectory.