A South African jazz musician recently held a thanksgiving concert at Stellenbosch University (SU) after completing his PhD at the institution.
Nduduzo Makhathini completed his Integrated PhD in music under a register of writing that he called “writing as ritual”.
The concert took place on 16 September at Fismer Hall in the Konservatorium at SU, and was titled ‘A Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi’.
“This solid meditation is not a ritual, it can never be repeated. […] It is a way of being in the moment, present and [rejoicing],” explained Makhathini, in his opening speech at the concert.
Makhathini performed alongside vocalist Mbuso Khoza, saxophonist Justin Bellairs, double bassist Stephen de Souza, drummer Dane Paris and dancer Cebolenkosi Zuma.
MatieMedia was in attendance at the concert.
Nduduzo Makhathini, a South African jazz musician, held a thanksgiving concert titled ‘A Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi’, following the completion of his Integrated PhD in music at Stellenbosch University. In partial fulfilment of his PhD, he held a concert at Stellenbosch University. At the event, he told the audience that the experience of the concert is similar to walking in the wilderness with no idea of the destination. PHOTO: Asive Mabula
Music as a critique
The concert was a representation of how music can critique and be used as a methodological tool, said Makhathini in an interview with MatieMedia.
“There’s a sense in which the university excludes the actual culture [of black people], but allows for it to be written about,” he told MatieMedia.
Nduduzo Makhathini, a South African jazz musician, spoke to MatieMedia after his recent concert, ‘A Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi’. “While we write about [music], there’s a sense in which the praxis doesn’t only underpin but sometimes leads the process of writing,” Makhathini told MatieMedia. AUDIO: Asive Mabula
Luvuyo Kakaza, Makhathini’s publicist, told MatieMedia that he saw the performance as the decolonisation of institutions.
“It’s important to have academics like Makhathini. […] [He] is raising very important concerns about the inclusiveness of other cultures into institutions like [SU],” said Kakaza.
A spiritual experience
Umgidi (the ceremony) started with the personnel drinking traditional beer and burning incense on-stage.
Makhathini, who is a healer in Zulu cosmology, addresses cosmologies as a lens to understand South African jazz. This is according to his supervisor, Dr Stephanie Vos.
“This worldview is one that is largely absent in the literature on South African jazz, a lacuna that Mr Makhathini’s study addresses in arguing for the importance of African cosmologies and epistemologies as a lens for understanding South African jazz,” explained Vos.
The concert was the artistic practice of the writing, which “goes where the text cannot go”, added Vos.
“You could see from the intro that there was a serious thought process behind what [Makhathini] was trying to achieve. […] It was a magical moment,” said Mncedisi Siza, a jazz enthusiast who attended the concert.
Siza described the concert as immensely spiritual and relatable, as Makhathini’s spirituality is rooted in the African continent.
South African jazz enthusiasts recently came out in their numbers to experience Nduduzo Makhathini’s concert titled ‘A Thanksgiving Ritual: Umgidi’. Even after Makhathini and his personnel walked off-stage, the audience continued to sing and ululate. VIDEO: Asive Mabula
Makhathini, who released his 10th album in May this year, told MatieMedia that his listeners can soon expect another album or a book.