Every culture in the world has music and the evidence for music making stretches back through the historical record. Although the type of music we make and / or choose to listen to may differ, we can all relate to some form of musical experience, whether it’s joining a conga line with people we’ve never met before at a second-cousin’s wedding, or being part of a mosh pit at a live gig. We can therefore use music as a gateway to starting to talk about our similarities and differences and learning about people who we might think have nothing in common with us.

In the video below, Thanda Gumede talks about his experiences of how music has been used to bring people together, even in the face of imposed racial segregation of apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid was the racial segregation of peoples in South Africa, with the White minority holding the highest ‘status’ and native African people the lowest. Under apartheid, White people held political, economic and social power. Apartheid ended in the early 1990s, but the legacies of this racist system continues today.

Discussion prompts:

• What happened to some of the musicians who were using jazz music to break down racial segregation in apartheid South Africa?
  - What effects might this exile have had on them personally – think about practicalities, impacts on family, emotional impacts, etc
  - What effects might their exile have had on the people left behind?
• What impacts has music and being a musician had on Thanda’s life and life experiences?
  - In South Africa
  - In the UK
  Are there differences and similarities in these experiences?

Timestamp 2:00

Thanda talks about how, in Zulu and Xhosa cultures, music is also a form of oral history and how it is through music that his cultures’ histories are remembered and preserved. Are there similarities with this in students’ heritages? For example, in English culture, there are folk songs that tell of historical acts, and songs sung by the Victorian working classes that now provide us with an insight into their lives.

• What different musical styles or traditions do the types of music that students listen to draw on?
  - Where in the world did these musical styles or genres originate?
  - How did they spread to other parts of the world?

Timestamp 2:42

Thanda makes a point of how education goes hand-in-hand with the musical experiences he created for school children. In his performances he wears traditional Zulu clothes and as part of the experience he teaches the pupils about the importance of the different items of clothing and even the meanings of the colours of the clothes. He uses this education about traditional Zulu clothes, music and dance to start deeper conversations about his culture and enable students to learn about him as a person and the culture he grew up in and to challenge some of the stereotypes the students might have had.

Why is this educational aspect so important to him?

• Looking at the photos in the video showing Thanda wearing traditional Zulu clothes when engaging with school pupils. What might the pupils’ opinions of and views towards Thanda have been if he had not explained the cultural significance of the music?
• How has Thanda used music to navigate the different cultural and ethnic groups he has found himself performing in?

People are not just ‘where they come from’ or the ‘culture they grew up in’. We are all a mix of our heritage, our cultural upbringing, and our life experiences. Thanda talks about how his Zulu heritage has influenced his music, but he also uses a wide range of other life experiences, including the places he’s travelled to and the people he’s met to develop his work.

• Think of one of your favourite artists (they could be a musical or visual artist).
  - How have they used the following to influence their own work:
  Their heritage or cultural background?
  Their life experiences and?
  The work of other artists?

Thanda talks about how he has ‘sounded’ certain ways musically in order to fit with the musical genre or cultural identity of the group he is performing with.

• Can the students think of ways in which they act differently in different situations, or around different groups of people?
  - Are they ‘themselves’ when they do this? Are they acting, or are they displaying different sides or facets of themselves, which come together as a ‘whole’?
  - Does this differ according to the group or situation?
  - Can they identify situations where they feel comfortable, but other people in the group might have been uncomfortable?
  - What reasons might there be for this?

Timestamp 4:03
Thanda talks about a project with Opera North where he worked with different groups of people such as seniors in a care home and women ex-offenders. In the care home he talks about a range of residents from different cultural, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, but who all responded to his request for a musical performance.

• Does it matter if the residents cannot understand the words of each others musical performances?
  - Why / why not?
• Are there other art or media forms where we can connect with people even if we come from different ethnic, national or cultural backgrounds, or if we don’t share a language?
  - Why do you think this is?
• If you had the opportunity to meet Thanda, what would you like to ask him?

This last question can be used to identify both areas of commonality between individual students and Thanda, and also to foster respectful curiosity about someone who the students might not normally have learnt about had they not watched him speak in about his life and experiences in the video.

In the video below, Thanda provides more insight into the connection between music, education, poetry and dance in Zulu culture. This video can be used separately or in conjunction with the one above when thinking about how we connect with people who are similar to ourselves, and those who we perceive as different somehow.