Community Music Education for Black Africans during Apartheid and in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

There are many community music projects in South African townships and their courses range from music theory, aural, practical  individual and ensemble lessons on orchestral instruments and recorders – these instruments being primarily ‘Western’. Despite the  relative successes of community music projects – indeed one of the few in the realm of arts in post-apartheid South Africa – what remains  troubling is the dominance of Western thought and modes of teaching music that maintain the idea of music study as alien in  black communities. This speaks to a significant theme, namely: Arts education for community development, which is my area of interest.  These community music projects are primarily timely platforms to firmly entrench appreciation, understanding and most undoubtedly  the value(s) of the arts to the black African youth. Drawing on my experience as a lecturer in (and graduate from) a South African tertiary institution, and as a teacher in a community music project, this research will interrogate the content of the programme(s): from the  theoretical material taught in music theory classes, to the practical repertoire taught and/or performed. The focal point of this research is  on how this content informs or speaks to its intended “beneficiaries” – the black African youth. Through these and other  considerations, the paper aims to sketch the potentially radical consequences that a transformed music education at community and  earlier levels will have for higher education music studies in South Africa.