The notion of children’s “voices” is a construct used to frame the lack of power and agency that young people yield in their lives. However, representing children as “voiceless” overlooks how they employ tools, such as music, to voice their agency in dynamic, articulate, and meaningful ways. This collaborative article examines how children and young people in Vhavenda communities in South Africa utilize music to straddle their realities between tradition and change. Through this exploration, we will demonstrate how children and young people shape, embody, and challenge the lived and contemporary notions of what it means to be Vhavenda.
BarbarinOARichterLM (2001) Mandela’s Children: Growing up in Post-Apartheid South Africa. New York: Routledge.
2.
BarronI (2014) Finding a voice: A figured worlds approach to theorising young children’s identities. Journal of Early Childhood Research12(3): 251–263.
3.
BennettA (2004) Popular Music and Youth Culture: Music, Identity and Place, 5th edn.Basingstoke: Macmillan.
4.
BlackingJ (1967) Venda Children’s Songs. Johannesburg, South Africa: Witwatersrand University Press.
5.
BlackingJ (1990) Music in children’s cognitive and affective development. In: RoehmannFLWilsonFR (eds) Music and Child Development: Proceedings of the 1987 Denver Conference. St. Louis, MO: MMB Music, pp. 68–78.
6.
BradburyJClarkJ (2012) Echoes of the past in imaginings of the future: The problems and possibilities of working with young people in contemporary South Africa. Global Studies of Childhood2(3): 176–189.
7.
BrayR (ed.) (2010) Growing up in the New South Africa: Childhood and Adolescence in Post-Apartheid Cape Town. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press.
8.
BucknallS (2012) Children as Researchers in Primary Schools: Choice, Voice, and Participation. London: Routledge.
9.
CampbellPS (2010) Songs in Their Heads: Music and Its Meaning in Children’s Lives, 2nd edn.New York: Oxford University Press.
10.
CampbellPSWigginsT (eds) (2013) The Oxford Handbook of Children’s Musical Cultures. New York: Oxford University Press.
11.
CarmelSGreeneS (2014) Key Thinkers in Childhood Studies. Bristol: Policy Press.
EmberlyA (2009) Mandela went to China… and India too: Musical cultures of childhood in South Africa. University of Washington, Washington, DC, ProQuest UMI.
14.
EmberlyA (2013) Venda children’s musical cultures in Limpopo, South Africa. In: WigginsTCampbellP (eds) Oxford Handbook of Children’s Musical Cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 77–95.
15.
EmberlyADavhulaMJ (eds) (2014) Looking Back, Looking Forward: Vhavenda Musical Life as Documented by John Blacking 1956–1958. Grahamstown, South Africa: International Library of African Music.
EmberlyADavidsonJ (2011) From the Kraal to the classroom: Shifting musical arts practices from the community to the school with special reference to learning Tshigombela in Limpopo, South Africa. International Journal of Music Education29(3): 265–281.
18.
GreenL (2011) Learning, Teaching and Musical Identity: Voices across Culture. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
19.
GroverS (2004) Why won’t they listen to us? On giving power and voice to children participating in social research. Childhood11(1): 81–93.
20.
HallettCProutA (eds) (2003) Hearing the Voices of Children: Social Policy for a New Century. London: Routledge.
21.
HerbstANzewiMAgawuK (eds) (2003) Musical Arts in Africa: Theory, Practice and Education. Pretoria, South Africa: University of South Africa (UNISA) Press.
22.
HillM (2006) Children’s voices on ways of having a voice: Children’s and young people’s perspectives on methods used in research and consultation. Childhood13(1): 69–89.
23.
HohtiRKarlssonL (2014) Lollipop stories: Listening to children’s voices in the classroom and narrative ethnographical research. Childhood21(4): 548–562.
24.
HuqR (2006) Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Postcolonial World. London; New York: Routledge.
25.
I’ansonJ (2013) Beyond the child’s voice: Towards an ethics for children’s participation rights. Global Studies of Childhood3(2): 104–114.
26.
JacksonAYMazzeiLA (eds) (2009) Voice in Qualitative Inquiry: Challenging Conventional, Interpretive, and Critical Conceptions in Qualitative Research. London; New York: Routledge.
27.
JacksonM (ed.) (1996) Things as They Are: New Directions in Phenomenological Anthropology. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
28.
JamesA (2007) Giving voice to children’s voices: Practices and problems, pitfalls and potentials. American Anthropologist109(2): 261–272.
29.
JoubertI (2010) South Africa is my Best World: The Voices of Child Citizens in a Democratic South Africa. New York: Peter Lang.
30.
JoubertIEbersöhnLEloffI (2010) How post-apartheid children express their identity as citizens. Childhood17(3): 396–410.
31.
KomulainenS (2007) The ambiguity of the child’s “Voice” in social research. Childhood14(1): 11–28.
32.
KrugerJ (2014) The Girls in the Baobab Tree: Venda Stories from the Limpopo Valley. Potchefstroom, South Africa: Musical Arts in South Africa—Resources and Applications.
33.
LewisA (2010) Silence in the context of “Child Voice.”Children and Society24(1): 14–23.
34.
LundyL (2007) “Voice” is not enough: Conceptualising article 12 of the United Nations convention on the rights of the child. British Educational Research Journal33(6): 927–942.
35.
McTavishMStreelaskyJColesL (2012) Listening to children’s voices: Children as participants in research. International Journal of Early Childhood44(3): 249–267.
36.
MarshK (2008) The Musical Playground: Global Tradition and Change in Children’s Songs and Games. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press.
37.
MattesR (2012) The “Born Frees”: The prospects for generational change in post-apartheid South Africa. Australian Journal of Political Science47(1): 133–153.
38.
MinksA (2002) From children’s song to expressive practices: Old and new directions in the ethnomusicological study of children. Ethnomusicology46(3): 379–408.
39.
MokoenaHA (2014) Youth: “Born Frees” and the predicament of being young in post-apartheid South Africa. Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies38(1): 119–136.
40.
NewmanKSLannoyAD (2014) After Freedom: The Rise of the Post-Apartheid Generation in Democratic South Africa. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
41.
PhillipsD (1995) Giving voice to young children. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal3(2): 5–14.
42.
RidgeT (2005) Hearing the voices of children. Journal of Social Policy34(2): 334–336.
43.
SchnoorO (2012) Early childhood studies as vocal studies: Examining the social practices of “Giving Voice to Children’s Voices” in a Crèche. Childhood20(4): 458–471.
44.
SerpellRMarfoK (2014) Some growth points in African child development research. In: SerpellRMarfoK (eds) Child Development in Africa: Views from Inside: New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, vol. 146. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 97–112.
45.
SpyrouS (2011) The limits of children’s voices: From authenticity to critical, reflexive representation. Childhood18(2): 151–165.
46.
TitonJ (2015) Sustainability, resilience, and adaptive management for applied ethnomusicology. In: PettanSTitonJ (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 157–198.
