Beyond the Digital Return – Workshop Event

Sounding African Music Heritage 2

University of Bayreuth/Germany
Iwalewahaus and Campus University of Bayreuth, Online
Date: 23rd and 24th April 2024

Sounding African Music Heritage is part of the outreach of the research project "Beyond the Digital Return: New Heritage/s, Sustainability, and the Decolonisation of Music Archives in South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana" of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth.

It aims at sharing our academic interest and research with the public and the wider academic community. Sounding African Music Heritage highlights the re-creation of Intangible Cultural Heritage as a creative process and collaborative research practice.

The 2-day event held on 23 and 24 April 2024 consists of a joint seminar with research-topic relevant contributions, two paper notes, a public panel discussion on music archives, repatriation/return, and popular music heritage; moreover, there will be an evening film screening and discussion of the Highlife Heritage Concert 2023, filmed in Ghana in July 2023, as well as a live music performance.

23.04.2024

(10am-4pm CEST)  University of Bayreuth – CAMPUS – ROOM S 135 (NW III) or via Zoom

Seminar Topic: Ethnomusicology/Music Anthropology, Archival/AV Preservation, and Living Heritage in Africa

Participants:

• Prof. Dr. Daniel Avorgbedor, University of Ghana,
• Prof. Dr. Barbara Alge, Goethe University, Frankfurt,
• Dr. Lee Watkins, Director, International Library of African Music (ILAM), Rhodes University,
• Dr. habil. Markus Coester, University of Bayreuth,
• Beyond the Digital Return research team, invited guests, BT Academy fellows, BIGSAS fellows

Join on campus or online via Zoom:

Zoom Meeting Meeting-ID: 659 7476 3164 / Kenncode: 384288

For more information on the project please visit: https://www.africamultiple.uni-bayreuth.de/en/Research/Research-Projects/Arts-and-Aesthetics/Beyond-the-digital/index.html

Programme:

• 10-13h        Seminar– Campus and online (Hybrid)

10-min presentation by doctoral students in the project on PhD-research and how it relates to the “Beyond the Digital Return” methodology and objectives: Tabitha Osoro, Nicole Pooley, Fidelia Ametewee, Moses Adjei, Kofi Kudonu (online)

10-min presentation - Dr. Jane Mwonga, Moi University, Kenya “Revisiting Singing Wells” – A Kenyan Music Heritage Project with links to ILAM (online)

15min presentation: Prof. Dr. Barbara Alge und Orlando Fernão, M.A. “Conservation and Digitisation of the Arquivo Musical (AM and ST Collections) of Radio Nacional de S. Tomé e Príncipe”

10min presentation - Elijah Madiba – Sound Engineer and research assistant at the International Library of African Music “Heritage through Beatz” - Archival Xhosa Music and Contemporary DJ Productions

10min presentation - Prof. Tom Mboya, Moi University, Kenya (online) “Traditional Music/Musical Traditions: Past(ness) in African Music Today – Substance and Significance”  (Workshop Eldoret, Kenya, 8th and 9th of August 2024)
 

• 13-14h              Lunch break
  
  
• 14-16h              Paper notes
  
  
• 14-14.25h         "(Re)Presenting the Harem: Women, Cultural Continuums and Gender Politics in Nupe Musical Traditions."
  Prof. Obianuju Akunna Njoku, PhD, Ethnomusicology and Gender Studies, Department of Music, The University of Mississippi (online)
  
  
• 14.25-14.40h      Response:
  Dr. Lee Watkins, Rhodes University, and Tabitha Osoro, Moi University
  
  
• 14.45-15.15h     “Participatory Archiving: Challenges and Opportunities in Building and Sustaining Living Heritage – Lessons and Resources from the Anyako (Volta Region, Ghana) Project”
  Prof. Dr. Daniel Avorgbedor – African Studies/Department of Music, University of Ghana 
  
  
• 15.20-15.35:     Response:
  Fidelia Ameteewe, University of Ghana, and Markus Coester, UBT  

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24.04.2024

(2 pm-10 pm CEST)  IWALEWAHAUS, Bayreuth Wölfelstraße 2

Sounding African Music Heritage

2 pm-4 pm: Roundtable

• 14h          Opening Remarks and Welcome
  Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Seeseman, Dean – Cluster of Excellence Africa Multiple
  
  
• 14-16h     Public Panel Discussion – Roundtable (open to the public)
  

Ethnomusicology and African Studies & their Potential Role for Intangible Cultural Heritage Recognition and Safeguarding

Moderated by Dr. Lee Watkins, Director of the International Library of African Music (ILAM), Rhodes University, South Africa, and Dr. Markus Coester, University of Bayreuth

Participants:

• Prof. Barbara Alge, Goethe University, Frankfurt/Germany,
• Dr. Cassandra Mark-Thiesen, University of Bayreuth,
• Prof. Dr. Daniel Avorgbedor, University of Ghana

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6 pm-22 pm: Concert Screening – Live Performance

• 18h         Concert Film Screening - The Highlife Heritage Concert 2023
  Discussion: What is “Heritage” about Popular Music? - The “magical” transformation of a mass-produced commodity
  
• 20h         Live Performance

RHYTHMERS featuring Frank Karikari (Ghana/Germany)

Highlife Guitar Vibes

Frank Karikari, guitar/vocals; Eko Alabi, drums/vocals, Kwame Sometimer, bass/vocals

Introduction by Dr Markus Coester: The legacy of the guitar idiom in Ghanaian Highlife

• 21h          Afro Lounge – Classic African Sounds played back on Vinyl

Please click to see the full programme (Deutsch)

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