Makwaya musical compositions by the Nemamwa people of South-Eastern Zimbabwe: an afro-centric musicological approach

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to analyse the origins, compositional techniques, transformations, as well as the play motifs of a Zimbabwean indigenous choral music called makwaya in an effort to bust the myth that Africans had no musical culture to share with the rest of the world. Thus, the study is a restoration of an African choral music tradition of the Karanga culture bearers in the community of Nemamwa in Masvingo District in South- Eastern Zimbabwe. The study is guided by the African Critical Theory (ACT), which provides insights on how the once colonised communities can redeem themselves from the shackles of colonialism through a critical African mind. Alongside the African Critical Theory, the study also employs Gonye and Moyo's (2018) AfriCrit as an extension of the Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a critical lens that facilitates an understanding of lived oppression — the struggle to make a way out of no way which propelled me to problematise dominant ideologies in which knowledge is constructed. Thirdly, I employ Shelemay’s Cultural Theory, which focuses on how traditions undergo change as they get transmitted from one generation to the next and the role of cultural activists in preserving legacies that are affected by the ever-changing (kaleidoscopic) musical terrain. The study was an ethnography. Data were collected qualitatively through the use of semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Interviews were preferred because I wanted to get the perceptions and feelings of the Africans regarding makwaya musical genre. The participants were purposively sampled. The data-gathering instruments were augmented by some perusal of literature such as textbooks, journal articles, newspapers, monographs and other archival materials. Research findings revealed that the genre of makwaya was purely an African musical culture which was then expropriated by the Euro-American missionaries for liturgical purposes. It also emerged that the influence of technological advancement and Christianity led to the weakening of the African indigenous musical culture. In light of the research findings, it is recommended that the practising musicians in the community of Nemamwa put their resources together to erect infrastructure that they can use to develop music, as a way of reviving and preserving the musical heritage as a community identity.