Music as Pedagogy: The Life, Times, and Music of Oliver Mtukudzi

Abstract

At the time of his death, Oliver Mtukudzi left behind a vast and rich body of music that he produced in a long and illustrious career. Through an analysis of his skillful use of traditional Shona proverbs, textured idiomatic expressions, metaphor, and ingenious word play, this chapter examines the way in which Mtukudzi was able to not just entertain through his music, but was able to transform his art form into a veritable pedagogical tool. He was thus able to teach while simultaneously entertaining his audiences. In our engagement with the music of Mtukudzi, we argue that through its dialogic nature, the music was able to unwittingly position itself as an instrument at the service of instruction and reconstruction. These instruction and reconstruction are not in any way in the same ambit as that proffered by Western forms of formal education. The pedagogical and reconstructive potentials are found in the traditional forms of knowledge generation and knowledge transfer. Drawing on bell hooks’ concept of “education as a practice of freedom,” we argue that Mtukudzi’s music has to be viewed as a reconstructive pedagogy that raises the social consciousness of the listeners of his music. Framed against the current trends in Africa and other formerly colonized spaces for decolonization of ways of learning and teaching, such an examination of Mtukudzi’s music is important in articulating reconstructive ways of thinking about knowledge, knowledge generation, knowledge transfer, and archiving of lived experiences in Africa.