Ethnomusicology, the Music Canon, and African Music: Positions, Tensions, and Resolutions in the African Academy

Abstract

African music entered serious scholarship through disciplines such as ethnomusicology. While scholars in African music have contributed significantly to the development of theories and methods of culture, the musics of Africa have been portrayed more as artifact than art, and African music scholars have been directed by European and other music practices. The resultant positions and tensions in the continent's academic music management are reflected in ethnomusicological discourse with African music. Drawing from Kenya, the paper examines the processes through which the African academy has grappled with the dynamics of ethnomusicology, African musicology, and the place of African music and musicians. An African musicology cognizant of the contributions of African musicians to the global-music canon while situating them in the historical development of African music is proposed.