The Jazz Heritage Gala Concert is the culmination of a research project in the Eastern Cape that commenced in Port Elizabeth in 2009.

Compiled by Diane Thram, Professor Emerita, Rhodes University; authorised by the Tracey family

Sounding Indigenous in South Africa: Music and Performance Heritage in Khoisan Revival

This project is funded by the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence based at Bayreuth University in Germany.

"---He (Jenkinson) adds that the PoC will contain music and audio/visual contributions from the likes of pioneering innovator and artist Beatie Wolfe [UK], International music award Polar Music Prize [Sweden], Alexander Turnbull Library (part of the The National Library of New Zealand) [NZ] and International Library of African Music (ILAM) [South Africa]. The International Music Council (IMC) [FR], one of the Global Music Vault’s founding partners, has also contributed by adding even more diversity to the PoC. IMC facilitated the inclusion of material by two Music Rights Awards laureates, the Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies (Argentina) and Fayha Choir (Lebanon), as well as from Ketebul Music [KENYA] , Kenyan organisation led by IMC Music Rights Champion Tabu Osusa."

The International Library of African Music is proud to present the ISINGQI SIKANTU musical experience.

After suffering a catastrophic stroke while performing on stage in 2019, with only two months left for him to finish his master’s degree in ethnomusicology, Joe Makhanza had to pause his academic journey.

ILAM had the pleasure of having Jocelyn Moon, a Ph D candidate at the University of Washington,Seattle, talk about her research on the repatriation of Matepe recordings in Zimbabwe.

ILAM is looking forward to the impending visit of Venancio Junior Mbande, Master timbila performer from Mozambique. His visit is sponsored by Pro-Helvetia.

Austin Emielu, a Visiting Professor to ILAM has just come out with a new single titled ‘Land of my Birth’.

Dr McConnachie revolutionised the teaching of Instrumental Music Studies at Rhodes University by substituting western musical instruments for indigenous African performance practice. In just three years, enrolment on this programme has tripled from 27 to 94 – a living testimony to the value of responsive, relevant and empowering teaching in higher education.

Thanks to esteemed project donors, the Rhodes University International Library of African Music (ILAM) is able to continue with its African music research projects, during a time when the cultural sector is being negatively impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

If there is one musician as commonly associated as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti with the West African musical movements Afrobeat and Afrobeats (never mind Afro-Blues and Afro-Soul), this is the preserve of Orlando Julius Ekemode. Given Fela’s immense stature it would seem impossible to speak of another musician from whom he gained musical direction. Yet, one must, in the case of his fellow multi-instrumentalist Orlando Julius.

ILAM prides itself on the Hugh Tracey collection and those of others such as his son, Andrew, and Dave Dargie.

From the beginning of 1979 to mid-1989 I worked as an ethnomusicologist for the Catholic Lumko Pastoral Institute, situated until 1985 near Lady Frere in the deep rural amaXhosa area of the Eastern Cape. I travelled the length and breadth of South Africa, and also in Namibia, Swaziland, Botswana and Lesotho, conducting workshops at which local church members composed songs for use in church services.

Long before King Sunny Adé, Fela Kuti, and other African stars hit Europe and America during the world music surge of the 1980’s, record labels like Lyrichord, Smithsonian Folkways, and Nonesuch Explorer released African music that was mostly untouched by electric guitars and modern studio recording technology. England’s Harlequin label, for example, unearthed many early South African groups from the 1940’s and 1950’s. There was also Musicaphon’s UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music releases, one of which inspired Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters album.

ILAM’s latest deposit is a collection of photographs and other images taken by Dee (Dorene) Worman. The images were taken while accompanying her husband, Derek Worman, whose collection of recordings she donated to ILAM in 2017. The photographs are mainly about traditional music and dance performances in various parts of the old Transvaal.

In May 2017, ethnomusicologist Jocelyn Moon, her research partner and husband Zack Moon, and sympathetic-resonances.org creator Stefan Franke met with Andrew Tracey at the International Library of African Music (ILAM) in Grahamstown, South Africa.

ILAM is privileged to announce the launch of a jazz heritage research project with the title, “Research on the neo-traditional jazz heritage of the Eastern Cape from a developmental perspective.”

It has hardly been a month since the release of his gospel single and Rhodes University gospel artist and final year Bachelor of Arts student, Praise Ntsako Mathebula is already leading the Google Play Gospel charts with his song-Pfuxelela, which means ‘Revive’.

The year 2020 will be even more exciting for the international Library of African music (ILAM). There will be a series of events including hosting master musicians from different countries, fellowship programmes and collaborations with universities overseas. To start off we welcome Professor Austin Oghenemaro Emielu as a visiting professor for the next three years. Professor Emielu will be based at ILAM where he will be engaged in teaching and research.

On Saturday 03 September 2022, Rhodes University Vice-Chancellor Professor Sizwe Mabizela officially handed over a hood and gown to Dr Latozi Madosini Mpahleni, in full view of Dr Mpahleni’s family and the community at Mkhankatho village in Libode, outside Mthatha.

Renowned African musician, songwriter and storyteller Latozi “Madosini” Mphahleni passed away late in 2022. The cultural and indigenous music activist, who laughed as often as she played, was loved by everyone she met. She has left behind a rich legacy of Xhosa music, heritage and history. She also taught and nurtured a new generation of bow players, reinvigorating an art that was dying.

Earlier this month, the International Library for African Music (ILAM) received a long-anticipated visit from the Acting Director-General of Arts and Culture, Vusithemba Ndima.

On Thursday 20 May, Rhodes University and the International Library of African Music (ILAM) launch a new podcast series called African Music Activists. The series will showcase some of Africa’s most dedicated and influential music activists.

A staff member and two students from Rhodes University’s International Library of African Music (ILAM) will be stars of their own show during the National Arts Festival (NAF) in Makhanda this year.

Dr. Michael Frishkopf, Professor of Music and the Director of the Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology (CCE), asks how do we recognize the components and attributes of sound, describe and parse an audio recording of music, speech, or environmental sounds, or extract sonic features, classify types, segment units, and identify sources of sounds? Sometimes recordings capture a single sound source: a single instrument, speaker, or bird; others may find multiple but coordinated sources: a musical ensemble, or a conversation; yet typically in fieldwork, a recording encompasses a complex mix of uncoordinated sound sources, a total soundscape that may include music as well as speech, music from multiple groups performing simultaneously, many speakers speaking at once, or many bird calls, all of which are layered together with “noise” such as the sounds of crowds, highways and factories, rain, wind and thunder.

On 22 May ILAM hosted Paul Chamberlain who provided a talk entitled, A report on the Dinaka dance of the Ba Pedi people in Polokwane. Paul Chamberlain conducted his research with the support of the Fulbright Programme. Paul Chambers is a musician and educator from Kingston, New York, who attended the State University of New York at Fredonia where he received a Master of Music degree in percussion performance in 2015 and a Bachelor of Music Education degree in 2013.

“The preservation of musical instruments at the International Library of African Music,” Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

For some years now, repatriation of audio-visual recordings to communities where they were originally recorded has become very important and, indeed, has attracted both national and international advocates. The process of repatriating materials, however, presents numerous challenges for the receiving communities especially as far as linking the past to the present across divides of time, place and socio-cultural and political contexts.

Connecting Culture and Childhood is a SSHRC PDG (Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnership Development Grant) project that leverages a cross-cultural partnership between archives, academic institutions, researchers, and communities, to investigate the implications of repatriation for children and young people.

The International Library of African Music (ILAM) hereby announces its latest publication. See the details below.

Please be informed that the new edition of African Music, Volume 11(1), is now available. The content is as follows:

Brand New Chopi Xylophone “Mbila – Cilanzani” 10 keys built by Domingos Mbande.

Title: Current postgraduate students supervised by Lee Watkins at ILAM

Please be informed that the new edition of African Music, Volume 11(4), is now available. The content is as follows:

The new edition of the journal, African Music, Volume 10 Number 4, is now available.