learning experience #2: ladysmith black mambazo

Maybe it's because I'm an Africana Studies major or maybe it's because I resent graduating from such a white high school, but I'm incredibly supportive of multicultural and culturally-responsive education.

A few months ago I attended a Ladysmith Black Mambazo concert on campus. Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a South African vocal group that has been around since the 1960s and has recorded dozens of albums known worldwide. They've worked with Paul Simon, Ben Harper, and a ton of other well-known musicians.

What make Ladysmith Black Mambazo special is that their style isn't by any means Western: while some of their songs are written in English, a lot of them are written in other South African languages such as Tsetswana, Zulu, and Xhosa (a "clicking" language). They don't follow steady 4/4 tempos. Their stage show involves South African dancing (especially stomping and jumping).

Sadly, our music instruction in this country focuses almost exclusively on Western styles. Students miss out on the majority of music that exists (and has long existed) throughout our world, including South African vocal stylings, Indian Raga, and Guinea drumming. When these different musical styles are introduced, they're often simply collectively introduced as "world music", inadvertently implying that they're similar since they're given the same blanket title.

It's time we start recognizing the rich musical traditions of our world in our schools.

Tswelela solofela,
Tom Bishoff