Participants of the Forum Kofi Agawu Mathew Lavoie Midawo Gideon Foli Alorwoyie David Locke Kwasi Ampene James Makubuya Lois Anderson Joseph Mbele Naomi Andre Eddie Meadows Kelly M. Askew Josephine Mokwunyei Daniel Avorgbedor Lester Monts Gregory Barz Anicet Mundundu Katherine Brucher Robert Newton Mellonee Burnim Mbala Nkanga Eric Charry J.H. Kwabena Nketia Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje Alex Perullo Akin Euba Michel Rahfaldt Andy Frankel Daniel Reed Sharon Friedler Leo Sarkisian Steve Friedson Martin Scherzinger Frank Gunderson Cynthia Schmidt Isaac Kalumbu Titos Sompa Jean Kidula Mark Allen Stone Amandina Lihamba Ruth Stone Cynthia Tse Kimberlin Kenichi Tsukada Zabana Kongo Peter Wekesa Jimmy Khwambe (Dludlu) Chris Waterman 1 2 Acknowledgements Special thanks go to Lester Monts for his intellectual insights while shaping this forum, as well as for the generous monetary support provided by his office; Cynthia Schmidt for her photographs; my wife Koga Gunderson for her arduous transcription of these sessions, and Mellissa Beck for her supplemental transcription help; James Jackson at the Center for Afro- American and African Studies for his funding support; UM graduate students Joshua Tucker, Umi Vaughan, Julia Suzanne Byl, Michel Rahfaldt, & Katherine Brucher for their help in recording and taking notes at these sessions, Kelly Askew and Mathew Lavoie for their helpful discussions; Gretchen Weir and Laura San Facon for their planning and logistical support; and to J.H. Kwabena Nketia for his guidance throughout. 3 4 Foreword The U.S. Secretariat of the International Center for African Music and Dance at the University of Michigan hosted an international forum in Ann Arbor Michigan, April 6th through 9th, 2000. The theme of the forum was "Revitalizing African Music Studies in Higher Education", and addressed ways that educators and administrators might identify structural issues related to the role of African music in higher education, and ways in which that role might be empowered. Forum panels were broken down into eight rubrics, to include: African Music Studies in the Public/Private Sector Musical Fieldwork in Africa African Artists Abroad Teaching African Music in Sub-Saharan Africa New Approaches and Interdisciplinary Perspectives Organizing African Music Summer Camps and Tours Issues in Africanist Musicology Teaching African Diasporan Musics Each forum panel was ninety minutes long, and included one facilitator leading up to five panelists. Panel facilitators worked with their panelists to come up with “talking points”, which were subsequently distributed to all of the attendees before the forum. Panelists were asked to limit their presentations based on the “talking points” to five minutes each, in order to give all attendees ample time to respond to the presentations. Each panel had its own particular way of dealing with the talking point issue, because of the individual make-up of the panels and their facilitators. This document is a full transcription of the presentations and public conversations that took place at the forum. Though the transcriptions of these forum sessions have been edited, every attempt was made to retain the feeling inherent in the oral nature of the presentations. Frank Gunderson U.S. Secretariat of the International Center for African Music and Dance, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A. 5 6 Forum Participant Responses to Preliminary Questions Before attending the forum, attendees were asked, “What are the most pressing issues which you feel need to be addressed at our Forum?” “How can we enhance the role of African Music studies in higher education?” Here are their responses: How can we recruit more African students into our music/ethnomusicology programs? How do we find funds to provide financial assistance for African students to study in our U.S.-based programs? What can we do to establish more dialogue between African scholars/students on the continent and scholars/students/others in the United States? The #1 most pressing issue that could be addressed at the Forum should be how to ensure that we "retain the meaning and sense of African musical thoughts and practices." I take this issue to be equally important, regardless of whether the teaching is taking place in Africa or abroad. We need to adopt strategies for re-dressing the misinterpretations of Africa. The most pressing issue that needs to be addressed is to give our colleagues from other parts of the world at this Forum an equal voice. Their comments, suggestions, and recommendations in addressing both the positive and negative aspects regarding the current status of African music studies will give us valuable insights. It is important for American scholars to hear other points of view, so that all of us might reach a consensus about basic issues, such as how to make our collaborative efforts more reciprocal, and to consider cooperative rather than hierarchical approaches to problem-solving. It is my concern that after the jaw-jawings of the African music Forum, which promises to be most focused, crucial and momentous, future meetings/conferences/symposia etc. on African music need to be problem-solving oriented (specific task workshops). Normal vacation- event, paper-reading conferences are the vogue, but still premature for the current state and problems of African music studies (teaching, learning, research, writing). I confess that I have attended a number of paper-reading events, and come out with perturbations about whether we have been pursuing selfish, ego-boosting objectives, or solving the problems which are unique to African and Africa-American studies. African music can offer new dimensions to world music studies. 7 How can we improve standards of quality for the musical repertory being taught in Africa and abroad? We need to improve the teaching of African languages so that the language-basis of musical repertories can be better understood by those who have not learned the languages through enculturation. How do we reconsider the format of presenting African performing arts? To critically assess the settings of presentation, so as to appropriately match the context of performance with the nature of the material, e.g., cultural tourism, ethnographic sampler, art appreciation, participatory involvement, trance etc. How can we best mobilize our institutional and personal resources, taking advantage of new technologys such as the Internet, to make African music a prominent and serious topic of learning in American higher education? Web pages are a new medium for sharing and linking info. Distance- education is one of the waves of the future. Is the Association of African Universities interested in interactive distance education courses in the arts of Africa? We need cooperation with colleagues in all areas of Africanist music research. We need funding for African colleagues, access to the Web, fieldwork, and study abroad. New targeted areas of research should include border crossings and language training. The most pressing issue is the comprehensive study of all music within the African world (hemispheric and intercontinental studies), as seen by their historians, linguists and psychologists, especially since there are culturally hegemonic reasons for pursuing this discursive perspective. The study of African languages with regard to speech and song influence, and the Africanization of colonial languages, particularly English, French and Arabic. We need to discuss local music production, the manufacture and distribution of music for the purpose of entering and controlling African products in the global market, and the impact of the processes of commodification and globalization on the dissemination of the music outside the African world. The introduction of performance and study of African music into pre- college music curriculums, in order to balance the exposure of students to Western-oriented genres of music at an early age, especially those persons who are African-descended. 8 The issue of qualitative and quantitative academic and performance exchanges between performers, producers and music scholars who are recognized as having their origins in the African world. One concern I have about the representation and teaching of African music in the academy is the position of performance in the classroom. American students (in my experience) greatly value hands-on performative experiences in the form of localized drumming and dancing traditions. How can performance best be integrated into the classroom? Should survey courses and performing ensembles be maintained as separate modalities? Or should one inform the other? What are the experiences of others in this forum concerning curricular needs? Should we explore any form of teaching exchange between African and North American scholars in Music departments or schools? Have recent changes in available technology (such as MP3 and Napster) effected African musicians in any way? Does anyone know of any examples of field recordings or unauthorized recordings of African musicians being made available via the net? Are there any issues that could benefit African performers in this regard? Seeking inventive ways of addressing the unmarked entry of the music of Africa into global modernity. This includes models of music scholarship, shaped by specific political predicaments, that contribute to the social upliftment of Africa. We need to discuss African philosophies and theories about the content and practice of traditional musical arts as a basis for the systemization and analysis of African