Ebony and ivory in imperfect harmony - Re-experiencing music education at the University of Cape Town

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I re-experienced my time as a music education student from 1973 to 1976 at the University of Cape Town (UCT). I used an autoethnography, based on autobiographical memory work, interviews, archival visits, and literature reviews, to re-experience my life as a Coloured music student at a former White higher education institution during apartheid. A critical, reflexive, and interpretive-analytic paradigm informed this autoethnographic study, which was grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT). My study was analytical and interpretive of the self but simultaneously culture, society, and the institution, with its racist and hegemonic practices, were critiqued. My contestation of my Coloured identity at UCT in the mid-1970s was underpinned by the philosophical and sociological conceptualisation of the intersections of race, racism, class, and music. As such, in this paper, I regard normalised and taken-for-granted White supremacy as a powerful force and argue that it played, and continues to play, an active role in perpetuating structural inequality at higher education institutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Autoethnography
• coloured
• music education
• race
• racism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The term Coloured in South Africa refers to a phenotypical group of people with varied cultural and geographic origins due to slavery and racially-mixed sexual relationships. During apartheid, the racial classification system in South Africa distinguished between Whites, Coloureds, Africans (Blacks), and Indians. In South Africa, the racial denomination ‘Coloured’ has a different meaning from what it means internationally. However, the conceptualisation of Black is, at times, used to refer to Coloureds, Africans, and Indians. It does not mean Black in dominant and popular discourses historically and contemporaneously.

2. Black in this instance refers to African, Coloured, and Indians.

3. Isicathamiya is a type of a cappella vocal style of music which originated in the 1920s and 1930s amongst the Zulu-speaking people of South Africa.

4. This article is based on the research for a PhD thesis by Franklin Lewis under the supervision of Johan Wassermann.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Franklin A. Lewis

Franklin Lewis is a former lecturer in Professional Studies and Practices and the Methodology of Music Education in the Department of Humanities, Faculty of Education, at the University of Pretoria. The paper is based on his PhD done at the University of Pretoria. Email: [email protected]

Johan Wassermann

Johan Wassermann⁴ is Professor in History Education and Head of Department of Humanities Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Pretoria. He supervised the doctoral study done by Franklin Lewis. His research portfolio includes over 70 academic publications in accredited journals and as book chapters. Email: [email protected]