To Pamwe or to Play: the Role of Play in Arts Education in Africa *

Abstract

French

Based on ongoing field research into Namibian music and dance, this article deliberates on play as an important component of childhood and an important element of Namibian performance. Considering that socialization is often described as the fundamental goal of African education, and that play is central to Namibian musical performances, this article investigates traditional functions of music as a means of socialization. Because play reflects and responds to societal value systems, the meaning of play is briefly explored, and the characteristics of play in Namibia are described in detail. The paper then proposes the increased use of play in African music education and advances the proposition in terms of the construction of a musical world and identity. The construction of a person's musical world is described in terms of the mental templates formed by a specific cultural group and by the environmental rules of play, which establish the meta-communicative frame. The article concludes with a summary of general contributions play, as a means of learning, being, and expressing can make to music education.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Addo

A. O.

1995. Ghanaian children's music cultures: A video ethnography of selected singing games. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of British Columbia, Canada.

Arnoldi

M. J.

1995. Playing with Time. Art and Performance in Central Mali. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Arom

1991. African polyphony and polyrhythm. Musical Structure and Methodology. Translated from the French by M. Thorn, B. Tuckett and R. Boyd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Aycock

(no date): from an untided article on Baudrillard's notion of play at http://eserver.org/cyber/baudrill.txt (retrieved 2001-12-10).

Bjørkvold

J. R.

1989. The Muse Within: Creativity and Communication, Song and Play from Childhood through Maturity. Translated from the Norwegian by William H. Halverson, 1992. Aaron Asher Books. New York: Harper Collins.

Brook

1968. The Empty Space. New York: Atheneum.

Campbell

P. S.

1998. Songs in Their Heads: Music and its Meaning in Children's Lives. New York: Oxford University Press.

Chernoff

J. M.

1979. African Rhythm and African Sensibility. Aesthetics and Social Action in African Musical Idioms. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Driver

T.F.

1991. The Magic of Ritual. Our Need for Liberating Rites that Transform Our Lives & Our Communities. San Francisco: Harper.

10.

Elliott

D.J.

1995. Music Matters: A New Philosophy of Music Education. New York: Oxford University Press.

11.

Fiske

S. T.

, and Taylor

S. E.

1991. Social Cognition (2nd Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill.

12.

Gardner

1999. Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books.

13.

Hanna

J. L.

1979. To Dance is Human. A Theory of Nonverbal Communication. Austin and London: University of Texas Press.

14.

Hargreaves

D. J.

, and North

A. C.

(Eds.). 1997. The Social Psychology of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

15.

Huizinga

1955. Homo ludens. Boston: Beacon Press.

16.

Kavari

J. U.

2000. The Form and Meaning of Otjiherero Praises. Thesis submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

17.

Kubik

1986. Stability and Change in African Musical Traditions. The World of Music, Vol. XXVIII, no. 1, pp. 44-68.

18.

Mans

M. E.

, Olivier

, and Rivière

1998-2001. Field research for the project “The Living Musics and Dance of Namibia: exploration, education and publication. Project supported collaboratively by the French Mission for Cooperation and Cultural Affairs in Namibia, and the University of Namibia.

19.

Mans

M. E.

2001. “Playing the Music - comparing performance of children's song and dance in traditional and contemporary Namibian education”. IN: Thompson

C. M.

, & Bresler

(Eds.) Music as a Species-specific Adaptation. Chicago: Kluwer. (Forthcoming).

20.

Mans

M. E.

“Constructing cultural identities in contemporary musical traditions - strategies of survival and change” IN: Mufune

, Winterfeldt

, and Fox

(Eds.). A Namibian Sociology Reader. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan. (Forthcoming)

21.

Mans

M.E.

Unlocking play in Namibian musical identity. Paper presented at the conference Playing with Identity in Contemporary African Music, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Turku, Finland. It was presented in the present form at the 2nd Pan African Society for Music Education Conference in Lusaka, Zambia in August 2001.

22.

Mufune

, Winterveldt

, & Fox

, A Namibian Sociology Reader. In press.

23.

Nzewi

1999. Strategies for music education in Africa. IN: International Journal of Music Education. Conference Edition. 33: 72-87.

24.

Olivier

2001. Categorizing the Ju/'hoan Musical Heritage. IN: African Studies Monographs, Suppl. 27: 11-27, March.

25.

Schechner

1988. Performance Theory. (Revised and expanded edition) Roudedge: New York and London.

26.

Sloboda

J.A.

(Ed.) 1988. The Musical Mind. The Cognitive Psychology of Music. Oxford: Clarendon.