Dr. Boudina McConnachie
B.Mus,PGCE RULS, M.Mus, PhD
Boudina McConnachie (PhD, MMus, BMus, PGCE, RULS) is an African musical arts (AMA) activist with a particular interest in musical arts pedagogy. She co-ordinates various music education courses through the Rhodes University Education department and is integrally involved in the teaching and learning programme at the International Library of African Music (ILAM). Boudina completed her undergraduate music degree majoring in African music (uhadi and mbira) and classical flute and was a music teacher at a government school in the Eastern Cape for over ten years. She completed her masters specializing in Indigenous Knowledge and copyright and her PhD in African music curriculum development. In 2018 she was named one of ten emerging African scholars to research various aspects of African music in the Mellon supranational grant for the Pan-African Music Initiative run through the University of Cape Town. She is a Mellon Principal Investigator for the “Unsettling Paradigms/Decolonial Turn” project at Rhodes University and serves on the Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa editorial team.
Boudina has written two books, Listen and Learn, Music Made Easy (2012) and My Music, My Classroom- Umculo Wam, Iklasi Yam (2016) and contributed towards the development of a Marimba Ensemble Teaching and Learning Guide (2016) for the NGO, Access Music Project (AMP). In addition she has reviewed articles for international journals, presented at conferences across the globe and has actively contributed towards the development of the African Musical Arts curricula at several universities in South Africa.
Her students include the world renowned African performers Albert Bisaso Ssempeke from Uganda and Venancio Mbande Jnr from Mozambique who are working towards Masters Degrees in African Musical Arts performance. Boudina is supervising a further eight post-graduate students with topics ranging from education and performance practice to instrument making and revitalization. Her undergraduate courses include World Music, African music performance and Ethnomusicology.
Publication Record
McConnachie, B. TBP. “Social Cohesion and Indigenous Arts Education in South Africa” in A Nation Divided? Assessing and Analyzing Social Cohesion in South Africa, edited by Justine Burns and Arnim Langer, commissioned by U.C.T. and UK Leuven, Cambridge University Press.
McConnachie, B. 2018. “Reshaping our Musical Values” in SASRIM 2017 Conference Proceedings. Edited by Mareli Stolp and Mia Pistorius.
McConnachie, B. 2018. “Bruinders, S. 2017. Parading Respectability: The cultural and moral aesthetics of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa. A Review” in African Music Journal Vol. 10 no. 4. (p. 197-198).
McConnachie, B. 2017. “The Changing Faces of Aawambo Musical Arts. A Review“. In African Music Journal Vol. 10 no.3.
McConnachie, B. & G. Walwyn. 2016. Basic Part-time Marimba Band Reading Guide. COPA, Johannesburg.
McConnachie, B. & G Walwyn. 2016. Basic Part-time Marimba Band Theory and Aural. COPA, Johannesburg.
McConnachie, B. & G Walwyn. 2016. Basic Part-time Marimba Band Practical. COPA, Johannesburg.
McConnachie, B. 2016. My Music, My Classroom. Grahamstown, South Africa.
McConnachie, B. 2013. Listen and Learn – Music Made Easy. Grahamstown, South Africa: ILAM.
McConnachie, B. 2008. “Siaka, an African Musician. A Review” in African Music Journal Vol. 9 no. 1
McConnachie, B. 2008. “Salungano! Salungano. A Review.” in African Music Journal Vol. 9 no. 1.
McConnachie, B. 2007. “Poetry and Languid Charm: Swahili Music from Tanzania and Kenya from the 1920s to the 1950s. A Review” in African Music Journal Vol. 8 no. 1. (p. 132-134.)
Coetzer, B. 2005. “Langarm in Grahamstown: the music, the dance and the social history”. Peer reviewed journal article in The Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa. (JMMA) Vol. 2 2005 edited by Anri Herbst. UCT, Cape Town.
Coetzer, B. 2005. “Langarm in Grahamstown: The dance, the social history and the music” in Papers presented at the 18th Symposium on ethnomusicology 2004. Edited by Andrew Tracey. ILAM, Rhodes University, Grahamstown.
Bursaries and Awards
Recipient of the Alty Award Rhodes University 2017
Recipient of the NIHSS SAHUDA PhD Scholarship 2015-2016
Recipient of the SARCHiE Post Graduate Part-time Scholarship 2014
Recipient of the NRF Postgraduate SAMAP Bursary 2007/2008
Awarded the NRF Prestigious Scholarship for Masters Studies in 2006/2007
Recipient of the Rhodes Masters Degree Scholarship 2006
Recipient of the ILAM Post Graduate Scholarship 2006/2007
Awarded the Rhodes University Prestigious Award Bursary for 2006/2007
National winner of The Journal of Musical Arts in Africa ethnomusicology writing competition 2005
Last Modified: Thu, 23 Jan 2020 13:36:01 SAST