South African folk music and AIDS

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South African folk music is a form of activism that brought awareness to the spread of HIV/AIDS and this form of protesting that was evident in the 1990's and in the 2000's.[1] All across South Africa, people gathered to speak their minds on the crisis and folk music was one of the tools used to start discussions about HIV/AIDS. [1] From the 1990s to the early 2000's performance groups were founded all across South Africa, which was known as the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS crisis. [1] Furthermore, there were about 7 million people that were HIV/AIDS positive and 3 million people that decided to receive treatment for their diagnosis all throughout the country. [1]

Local reactions to the AIDS crisis[edit]

Khayelitsha Courthouse Protest 2002[edit]

The Khayelitsha Courthouse is located in Cape Town, South Africa where this region is considered as one of the highest reported regions of HIV/AIDS cases. [1] In 2002, there was a court case that was discussing how two women were seeking justice from the Khayelitsha Courthouse when both of them were raped by local pastor Thema Dumisami Mathibela, a figure that was highly respected within the Cape Town community. [1] The Treatment Action Campaign was also involved in the demonstrators efforts. [1]

There were instances where patients who tested positive for HIV/AIDS were also survivors of rape and sexual assault. [1] People had gathered to protest the need for safe sex practices and education about HIV/AIDS.[2] During the demonstrations, they let music groups and individuals perform and demonstrators distributed free condoms out to the crowds of people that had gathered. [2] The protests also included public health educators to promote safe sex practices and HIV/AIDS resources. [2] The songs that were performed during this demonstration were about safe sex practices and the experiences of living with HIV/AIDS and some of the songs had even included messages about wearing condoms.[2] However, there was some controversy surrounding these demonstrations and protest songs and that controversy that came from this crisis was from the older adult population who had pushbacks to the HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. [2] In some parts of the country, there was denialism about HIV/AIDS. [3] While some people were supportive of bringing awareness there were some that weren't. [3]

Performance groups involved[edit]

The Siphithemba Choir Group[edit]

The Siphithemba Choir Group is a group that was founded in 1997 in Durban, South Africa by the McCord Mission Hospital.[4] For a bit more context, the root word -ithemba translates to the word hope in English and it meaning orginates from the Xhosa tribe.[5]

For some background about the practice, the McCord Hospital was founded by Dr. James McCord who was a missionary of the American Congregational Church in 1909.[6] The choral group was later involved in providing a mental health resource for HIV/AIDS patients at the McCord Mission Hospital when about 70% of the patients receiving care were HIV/AIDS positive. [6]

Siphithemba's music had focused on folk music that had originated from the Zulu tribe that resided in South Africa during the colonialist era and sometimes some gospel music, which had an emphasis on Christian beliefs. [7] The type of folk music genre that they had done the most in their performances was called Maskanda which was a type of folk music that was performed by the Zulu tribe. [8] The Siphithemba Choir even rearranged some of the songs done by the artist Enoch Sontonga and even composed some of their own music and their songs had specialized in a call and response format where soloists and performers were allowed to improvise on some pieces of the music. [8] The Siphithemba Choir had performed at the Zimbalwi Lodge, which is located in Durban on July 29th, 2007 where the McCord Mission Hospital had organized a cocktail party and invited the group to come and perform for them. [8] They had decided to perform at this location because there were was an influential HIV/AIDS research expert who was a professor at Harvard University named Bruce Walker. [6] The Siphithemba Choir performed two Zulu tribe songs called Isiyalo and Ikhalaphi, which translate to Advice and From Whence the Cry in English. [8]

Music style and group controversies[edit]

Whenever the music group had performed in South Africa they used the drums in their music pieces. [6] However, when the choir was invited to perform at the Conference for Retroviruses and Oppourtunistic Infections in Boston, the event would not allow them to perform with their drums.[4] This controversy led to interviews with the McCord Hospital. [8] The Siphithemba Choir decided to incorporate drums into some of their pieces because it allowed for a more spiritual aspect of their music. [8] However, to some people the drum was believed to have represent a form of grassroots education, where some believed that it went against the religious values of the McCord Mission Hospital. [8]

The Thembeka Choir Group[edit]

The Thembeka Choir is a group that was founded in the early 2000's and the choir performed in Durban and their singers were all members that were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS who participated in fundraising and community events to bring awareness to this epidemic. [9] The choir had also focused on some pieces of gospel music and they also incroporated dancing and drums, which were traditional to the Zulu tribe.[10] Thembeka ended up touring all across the globe and contributed to fundraisers that helped South African hospitals treat people with HIV/AIDS . [10]

Music style and group controversies[edit]

The Thembeka Choir did however face backlash as this group focused on bringing awareness to HIV/AIDS through moral and ethical perspectives. [9] Just before the 1990s, Apartheid had ended in South Africa.[4] The choir's music was judged based on the way that their pieces were performed and there were a few instances where the Thembeka Choir was told that they weren't allowed to bring their instruments onto the stage. [10] When the choir performed in United States, they weren't allowed to use any of their instruments such as their drums. [10] Also, they weren't permitted to do their choreography during their numbers. [10]

The Sinikithemba Peer Support Group[edit]

The Sinikithemba Peer Support Group was founded in 1997 by the McCord Mission Hospital. [4][5] During the support group sessions, the singers and hospital staff would lead patients through prayers and other exercises. [4] At the McCord Mission hospital they gave this treatment options to patients before and after they were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. [5] They had even provided hospice care to patients and sometimes, they included the patient's family members during the support group sessions. [4] This group later became a choir and was known as the Sinikithemba Choir. [4]

Music style and group controversies[edit]

During the 1990s and early 2000s, there were some people that lost their jobs whenever their HIV/AIDS test results were made public in their place of work and sometimes, the group was seen as controversial for advocating for HIV/AIDS to be included back into the work industry. [6] On top of leading patients through prayers, the other exercises included many types of artwork such as bead making, which was incorporated into a finances unit that the support group had conducted. [11] These pieces of art were sometimes sold to give patients somesort of sustainable income. [11]

Notable people[edit]

Phumulani Kunene[edit]

Phumulani Kunene was the director of the Siphithemba Choir and along with another the conductor Xolani Zulu, Kuene decided to incorporate dance into the numbers that they wanted to perform. [11][8] During the performances Kunene let audience members join them on stage and dance along with the choir. [6] The choir director was interviewed when the drum controversy happened at the Boston convention back in 2007. [8]

Rehearsals would be led by him and the conductor in the city of Durban, where the choir would listen to a CD player and start rehearsing the songs that they wanted to perform. [11]

Mrs. Nonhlanhla Mhlongo[edit]

Mrs. Nonhlanhla Mhlongo is a medical social worker for the McCord mission Hospital that helped treat patients with HIV/AIDS and she eventually founded the Sinikithemba support group, which eventually became known as the Sinikithemba Choir. [4] Mrs. Mhlongo studied at the University of Zululand from 1975-1980 where she received training to become a social worker.[6] In college, she participated in the Black Conciousness Movement and after college she was hired by the McCord Mission Hospital.[6] Her mission to create the Sinikithemba peer support group and eventually she founded the Sinikithemba Choir. [4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Walker, Gavin Robert (April 3, 2018). "Walker, Gavin Robert. "'Our Songs Were Our Stones': Song and Struggle in the Treatment Action Campaign." Journal of Contemporary African Studies, vol. 36, no. 2, 3 Apr. 2018, pp. 175–190". Journal of Contemporary African Studies. 36 (2): 175–190 – via ESBCO Host.
  2. ^ a b c d e McNeill, Frasier G. (October 31, 2011). AIDS, Politics, and Music in South Africa (1st ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–25, 74–113. ISBN 9781139115735.
  3. ^ a b Nattrass, Nicoli (2012). The AIDS Conspiracy: Science Fights Back. New York City, New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 105–134. ISBN 978-0-231-52025-6.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Okigbo, Austin C. (April 2011). "PERFORMING BLACKNESS IN A SOUTH AFRICAN HIV/AIDS CHOIR". Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race. 8 (1): 241–251. doi:10.1017/S1742058X11000221. ISSN 1742-0598 – via Du Bois Review.
  5. ^ a b c Louw, Edwin Leonard (March 2013). The establishment and role of HOPE Cape Town in the fighting of HIV and AIDS in Cape Town, South Africa : a case study (Thesis thesis). Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University. Retrieved May 19, 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Okigbo, Austin C.; Ezumah, Bellarmine A. (October 6, 2015). ""Media Health Images of Africa and the politics of representation: A South African AIDS choir counter-narrative."". Journal of Asian and African Studies. 52 (5): 705–721 – via EBSCO Host.
  7. ^ Olsen, Kathryn (October 3, 2014). Music and Social Change in South Africa: Maskanda Past and Present (1st ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University Press (published October 3, 2011). pp. 1–19. ISBN 9781439911389.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Okigbo, Austin (2014). "Contesting Cultural Meaning in a Post-Apartheid South African HIV/AIDS Music Event". African Music. 9 (4): 54–70 – via JSTOR.
  9. ^ a b Black, Steven (September 13, 2019). Speech and Song at the Margins of Global Health : Zulu Tradition, HIV Stigma, and AIDS Activism in South Africa (1st ed.). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. pp. 143–166. ISBN 9780813597720.
  10. ^ a b c d e Briggs, Charles L. (2024). Incommunicable: Toward Communicative Justice in Health and Medicine. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-1-4780-2578-8.
  11. ^ a b c d Okigbo, Austin C. (August 3, 2016). Music, Culture, and the Politics of Health : Ethnography of a South African AIDS Choir (1st ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic. pp. 26–50. ISBN 9781498510110.
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