Observe a group of young African children playing a rhythm game and you will witness a polyrhythmic animation of movement. Hands move in one rhythm, voices sing another, hips swaying to yet another. Due to their upbringing, these children have an uncontested rhythmic prowess that allows them to understand and perform complex patterns of music.
In Zimbabwe, children play these games with ease before attending school where a Western-based formal music education stunts their polyrhythmic growth. Simple songs such as “Baa Baa Black Sheep” are taught guided by the theory of teaching from simple to complex. Which begs the questions: What is simpler than the “known”?
“The best I got (…) were just comparisons of African music to Western Music. It vexed me that African music was taught in a foreign framework. There has to be a better way!”
The great issue here is that the Zimbabwean education system is built on a Western framework, which is not sympathetic to indigenous music and culture. This framework has labelled local rhythms complicated.
Emmanuel Mujuru, Head of Education at Music Crossroads Academy Zimbabwe, notes that during his studies in Ethnomusicology at the Zimbabwe College of Music, lecturers struggled to create content for the Theory of African Music course. He says, “the best I got (…) were just comparisons of African music to Western Music. It vexed me that African music was taught in a foreign framework. There has to be a better way!”
Indeed, Dietrich Woehrlin of the Berlin based Global Music Academy, often wonders why people of African descent find it difficult to exercise and explain rhythmic dependence outside a performance. The simple answer is that it is difficult to explain these concepts through a framework that was not created for them. However, the reality remains one in which the Western structure is the common language of music. But how then can these complex patterns be illustrated?
The latest curriculum review by the Zimbabwean Ministry of Education has been a long overdue response to this quandary. Music Crossroads Academy Zimbabwe contributed to the new Secondary Level Musical Arts Syllabus with the Rhythmic and Body Percussion section. The program is designed to ensure security and independence in polyrhythmic music. Students improve their understanding of indigenous music through activities that use the whole body as percussion. The course also gives them the tools necessary to explain rhythmic independence to uninitiated ears.
Some may argue that since indigenous African music was not originally written down, it would be out of place to subject it to notation that uses Western symbols. Mr. Mujuru’s response is that the Music Crossroads curriculum and teaching approach have proven that it is indeed possible to notate indigenous African rhythms. The curriculum revision is the first step in accomplishing that task. In his words: “[it is a] paradigm shift from an overly theoretical approach to a practical, hands-on experience that inspires creativity”.
