Our Musical Heritage: ILifa Lethu leMveli kwezoMculo: Ons Musikale Erfenis

The theme for the 2006 National Heritage Day celebrations is: Celebrating our music, our Heritage. Music is a universal phenomenon, which in several ways touches the hearts, minds, and souls of the entire humanity. From time immemorial music has pervaded all the walks or aspects of lives of different human populations. Through music one can weave and interweave a narrative or narratives that encompass, encapsulate and articulate socio-economic and political developments of various historical epochs. A deliberate oversimplified teleological chronological sequence broadly includes pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial times.

The story of South African music is one of dialogue with imported forms, and varying degrees of hybridisation over the years. From the earliest colonial days until the present time, South African music has created itself out of the mingling of local ideas and forms with those imported from outside the country, giving it all a special twist that carries with it the unmistakeable flavour of the country.

In the Dutch colonial era, from the 17th century on, indigenous tribes people and slaves imported from the east adapted Western musical instruments and ideas. The Khoi-Khoi, for instance, developed the ramkie, a guitar with three or four strings, based on that of Malabar slaves, and used it to blend Khoi and Western folk songs. The mamokhorong was a single-string violin that was used by the Khoi in their own music making and in the dances of the colonial centre, Cape Town, which rapidly became a melting pot of cultural influences from all over the world.

Western music was played by slave orchestras (the governor of the Cape, for instance, had his own slave orchestra in the 1670s), and travelling musicians of mixed-blood stock moved around the colony entertaining at dances and other functions, a tradition that continued into the era of British domination after 1806. In a style similar to that of British marching military bands, coloured (mixed race) bands of musicians began parading through the streets of Cape Town in the early 1820s, a tradition that was given added impetus by the travelling minstrel shows of the 1880s and has continued to the present day with the great carnival held in Cape Town every New Year.

The information above is credited to SA.info. [http://www.southafrica.info/ess_info/sa_glance/culture/music.htm ]

There are songs that tell stories about our pre-colonial societies and communities - epitomizing and articulating values, norms and morals that those societies and communities observed and respected. They tell stories about how such communities related and interacted with each other and to one another; how they co-operated or conflicted; how they interacted and related to their natural environment as well as to their metaphysical realities.

Similarly, there are songs that evoke and invoke memories about the advent of imperialism and colonialism and subsequent trials and tribulations of the oppressed indigenous communities. These are songs about the initial encounters and the frontier psyche, the wars of resistance, struggles against apartheid and sometimes elements of collaboration to colonial and apartheid ideologies. Through music one is able to analyse and understand the complex socio-economic and political realities and situations that human beings and the entire world creation has witnessed and experienced.

The info above is credited to SA History.org.za

Likewise the predominant challenges and realities that are facing the post-colonial communities/societies are captured in the melodies of the new sounds that are produced by the current generations on a daily basis. So our music represents the "gestalt", the whole and the totality of our human experiences as they evolve over time. SA has rich and diverse music traditions that cross cultural borders. These borders include amongst other things, race, ethnicity, colour, gender, class, age, physical ability, regions, location, language, faith, creed and economic status.

The ability of South Africans to make music has endured over a number of years. Generations of South Africans have used the medium of music to come to terms with the social and economic reality and as a medium to communicate with nature and deity. Music has characterized almost all stages of human development. It has been used during birth, initiation, marriage, war and death.

The info above is credited to SA History.org.za

For South Africans music is more than entertainment - it is part of our lives.