Reframing the Hybridity Discourse in TwentyFirst Century African Art Music: A Composer’s Perspective

Abstract

Hybridity is fundamental to African art music because the genre emerged through a synthesis of African traditional music and Western  classical music. Such fusion enabled the composers to produce music that reflected the socio-political developments in Africa during  Western colonialism. Although Western colonialism has ended, composers of African art music continue to employ hybridity as a  reflection of the existential realities in twenty-first century Africa. One of such existential realities is urbanisation. Since the end of  Western colonialism in Africa, many new cities have emerged while existing urban centres have continued to expand. These urban spaces  facilitate the convergence of people from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds and have catalysed the development of new urban  cultures across the continent. In the last two decades, many composers have synthesised African urban cultures with Western classical  music and African traditional music in new compositions that reflect the realities in present day Africa and extend the binary hybridity  that spawned African art music. However, scholarly writings have continued to describe African art music as a genre that synthesises  African traditional music with Western classical music alone, thus excluding compositions that explore urban cultures. This paper  analyses two African art music compositions that draw from urban cultures in Nigeria and South Africa. Through the analysis, the author  reflects on his experiences as a twenty-first century African composer and argues for an extension of the binary focus on hybridity which   currently dominates the discourse on African art music.