Indigenous language as a tool in African musicology: The road to self-assertiveness

Abstract

The study of African music has thus far been conducted through the languages of the colonisers. As a result, only the material aspects of the music have become known with other pertinent dimensions remaining inaccessible to scholarship. From this situation, we could argue that the complete story of African music is yet to be told. However, deferring access to the full dimension of African music has dire consequences such as the inability to mount African music studies in schools. This article critically analysed the efficaciousness of vernacular languages in accessing cognitive aspects of the music. This approach should entice scholars to invest in the ‘scientification’ of African languages (Mazrui, 2004) where an African phenomenon is under study.