Musical Arts in Africa: Theory, Practice and Education (review)

For decades, outsiders have been informing the world about African musical practices. This book is the first to present the musical arts of Africa from an insider's perspective. Skillfully edited by Meki Nzewi, Kofi Agawu, and Anri Herbst, this volume is a group of very readable essays whose collective goal is to produce scholarship about African musical arts by African researchers and scholars, rooted in African theories and philosophies, and for Africans and the world community. The fifteen chapters by thirty-one different African scholars seek to identify indigenous African knowledge systems and present concepts and models in African musical arts "that would enhance the ethos of research, creativity, cultural pride and identity" (p. xii) while acknowledging and validating the pervasive effects of colonialism on the continent. The collective voice of the authors of this distinctive volume is powerful, as the first of its kind a long overdue and most welcome addition to the literature.

Within the scope of only three hundred pages, the authors present clearly outlined chapters that convey (often brilliantly) the richness and diversity of sub-Saharan African musical arts. The chapters, organized in multithematic layers symbolic of a typical African music ensemble, are about twenty pages each and include on average more than thirty references, drawn primarily from the scholarship of Africans and the research literature in ethnomusicology, music education, anthropology, and related fields. With the exception of the first, second, and last chapters, each one is jointly written by scholars from sixteen different universities in seven countries primarily in western and southern Africa. The strongest representation is from South Africa with sixteen writers, followed at a distance by Ghana with four authors. A major strength of this book is derived from the selection of author groupings, providing treatment of a genre from multiple perspectives while asserting a unified African ideality. This is a major tribute to the editors who assembled this team.

In terms of content, the first three chapters provide a base for the volume through exploration of the theoretical, prescribed, and academic foundations of traditional arts. Kofi Agawu begins the volume pondering issues of identity—who is African and what is music—and continues by identifying a wide range of indigenous traditions, outlining what can be reaped from basing contemporary musical arts education on them. Chapter 2, "Defining and Interpreting African Music," which looks at common structural and methodical considerations of the musical arts as well as their role in the lives of Africans, is particularly strong. "Thoughts Systems Informing the Musical Arts," chapter 3, is the first to confidently confront the detrimental effects of colonialism on African artistic practices. Elizabeth Oerhle and Lawrence Emeka concur with Lucia that "emulating the West is costing the African his musical heritage" (p. 38).

The devastating impact of colonialism on the African continent is routed out fully in this volume, and its devaluation of African traditions is staggering. A few of the monumental effects identified in the discourse include: (1) the preference for written transmission over aural, and the introduction of boundaries between the arts where there traditionally were none, have resulted in the loss of portions of the African heritage; (2) the Western music preference of a very small minority has determined curricular study of music from early childhood to tertiary levels throughout the continent; (3) the taking of sounds and techniques by others without context, acknowledgment, and/or compensation, has resulted in misunderstandings of practice and stymied artists and artistic conventions throughout Africa.

The chapters "Musicianship" and "Ensemble" are excellent partners. In the former, authors Michael Nixon, Joshua Uzoigwe, and Benon Kigozi explore transmission of music and musicianship skills through three excellent case studies. The discussion of studying music outside of one's own culture and using traditional methods of teaching in a nontraditional setting—the school—is well presented through an...