Economic sustainability through indigenous heritage: a Karanga cultural musical arts community project

Abstract

The Karanga musical arts have been heavily, and widely, utilised to enhance social lives of its adherents. The Karanga musical arts, falling under the Intangible Cultural Heritage(ICH), have been scarcely engaged by its creators, owners and expert performers to unlock economic opportunities in order to sustain livelihoods. Emerging global views, and goals, mainly fronted by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to realise Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), have resulted in member states, Zimbabwe included, coming up with approaches focusing on Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs). In Zimbabwe, deliberate efforts have been made to upscale the tertiary curriculum to the to 5.0 model, which priorities innovation and industrialisation for sustainable communities. Despite leveraging on resilient indigenous musical arts that have been engaged for social, cultural and emotional reasons from precolonial times; a paradigm shift is required for repositioning contemporary Karanga community for a sustainable cultural and creative economy. This study, therefore, is an established practical project designed to spur the development of the Karanga musical arts creative cultural industry, herein known as Dzimbadzamabwe Heritage Enterprise (DHE). A cultural settlement was institutionalised taking into account both Karanga cosmologies and modern tourism expectations. DHE`s major goal is poverty reduction which engage and deploys the musical heritage of the Karanga people near the Great Zimbabwe Monuments. The research is grounded in post-colonial theory, and informed by indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). This project was inspired by the applied ethnomusicological social mission of solving community problems by creating employment opportunities, which resonate well with the nation`s Education 5.0 policy that puts emphasis on innovation and industrialisation. Interviews, observations and focus group discussions were used to gather data and thematic analysis utilised in the analysis of data. The study revealed that the establishment of DHE created a cultural industry for cultural creators and owners in their communities and foreseeing formulation of the Karanga Musical Arts Entrepreneurship Model for Survival (KMAEMS).The study concluded that musical arts are substantive and potential premises that stimulate, enable and drive economic sustenance of rural communities. This participatory action research further submits that, while it is important to represent and transcribe African indigenous music genres, western transcription models are inadequate, inappropriate and misrepresent a living heritage of African people thereby compromising authenticity and exactness of African heritage. This study recommends more inclusive African models of transcription and analysis to be discovered and availed for African musical arts scholarship