Historical Notes on Neo-African Church MusicO. E. AxelssonKwanongoma College of Music, BulawayoINTRODUCTIONThe main aim of this paper is to give a briefhistorical outline of the musical acculturationprocesses which have taken place in SouthernAfrica since the early nineteenth century whenmodern Western colonial contact commenced,the effects of which not only are still at workbut also have become more accentuated andprofound. The emphasis will be on the rolethat the Christian churches have played, sincethey started their mission activities in Africain modern times.African musical idioms are by necessitycloser to the hearts of the Africans than ismusic of Euro-American origin. During thetime of Western colonialism, however, Euro-American music has been introduced and thenrepeatedly emphasized as being a music ofsuperior quality. This fact is apparent in theinitial stages of the Christian missionary ap-proach in Africa; but by following the differentstages in mission history one will see a slowprocess of change from almost complete rejec-tion of, or at least indifference to, indigenousAfrican music to its acceptance and in somecases its over-estimation at the present time. Thetendency to over-estimation can be seen in theway in which the popular terms 'africanization'or 'indigenization' in the present missionary ap-proach have come to mean isolation fromacculturation processes. In some of the presentchurch-music activities in Africa, an attitudeamong some missionaries of accepting composi-tions only by Africans and containing only pureAfrican musical idioms has emerged.Such an attitude will necessarily lead Afri-can music into isolation and stagnation, and itwill come to have only a curio value. In addi-tion, such a limited approach may also belabelled as being 'separatistic'; and in a South-ern Africa where segregation is at work, Ihave several times met the thought that AfricanChristians will also feel 'musical apartheid' ifAfrican musical idioms are pursued too pertina-ciously within the churches. As the peoples ofAfrica have accepted cultural traits and ideo-logies of Western origin, but changed them inmeaning and content to suit their own environ-ments, they must also be allowed to acceptEuropean musical idioms and change themaccording to their own concepts without thesuperimposition of neo-colonial attitudes.Therefore, I have called the present-day church-music activities an acculturation process, andit is quite justifiable to say that the presentdevelopments in some churches in Rhodesiarepresent a neo-African church music style inwhich the common characteristics of Africanindigenous music are ingeniously blended withWestern musical elements.In this context it is also essential to pointout that ethno-musicological research on theAfrican continent has to a large extent put anemphasis on two main aspects of African music:1. African music before the Western colo-nial period commenced; and2. African musical 'developments' throughthe superimposition of Western musicalinfluence.89In reference to the first, the common attitudehas been that African music before the Westernintrusion was 'the music of static or isolatedsocieties and that this music represented theearliest forms made by mankind or forms thatcould not have departed substantially fromthose used by early man'.1 In addition, musico-logists have often pointed to a particular musicand termed it the 'pure' and 'proper' form ofAfrican musical expression. All added idiomsin African music after the Western colonialperiod commenced have either been dis-regarded, or have been treated with a ratherprofound scepticism until very recent times.It is, however, necessary to treat Africanmusic and its different styles or different formsof expression during different times with moreobjectivity. Although Africa does not have a'written' history to the same extent as someother parts of the world, it still has a history,and it is illogical to believe that no changestook place in African music before the West-ern intrusion. As the societies changed due toinside or outside pressure, and changes of en-vironment occurred, so also the musical ex-pressions changed. 'So-called traditional stylesof African music may often reflect the pre-colonial diffusion of peoples and cultures inmuch the same way that the sounds of neo-African music reflects the influence of missionsand urban living.'2Thus, it would be a false assumption tobelieve that the indigenous music in Africahas been completely untouched by the in-trusion of foreign cultural traits, be it of pre-colonial origin or belonging to the Westernhemisphere. Furthermore, it would also be afalse assumption to believe that such foreigntraits have eradicated the African musicalidioms, although there may have been on thepart of Western colonialists and zealous mis-sionaries a wish for such a destruction, or atleast the isolation, of African music. The com-mon outlook among colonising Europeanpeoples has been to change the peoples on theAfrican continent to make them 'civilized'; andin the wake of the colonialists followed manydifferent mission societies, which took as theirmain task to convert and 'cultivate the savage'.Yet, African music has continued to beused, and instead of the old heritage being dis-carded, new elements have been added; gradu-ally neo-indigenous musical styles haveemerged 'as music whose roots are largely Afri-can and whose development certainly followsits own logic'.3 The new music has come tolive in juxtaposition with the pre-colonialmusic. This fact has been strongly emphasizedby the Africans themselves. A leading Africancomposer and musicologist in Nigeria, AkinEuba, says that, 'African societies can clearlyaccommodate a complex musical structurein which new idioms are simply added to theold ones'.4But due to the increased Western influenceit is no longer possible to speak about Africanmusic as a folk-music only. It is necessary todelineate the contemporary African music intoat least three major groups, such as (a) folk-music, which is largely the music least influ-enced by Western traits; (b) urban and popularmusic; and (c) fine-art music.The church-music activities in Africa whichhave taken place since approximately the endof the Second World War, and have since be-come more and more intensified in the conti-nuous search for a modern African identity inChristian worship and general fellowship,should, I suggest, be placed in the group offine-art music. But it is a form of fine-art musicwhich has much more of an embracingcharacter towards the receiving societies thanis probably the case with its Western counter-part, owing to the functional and communicat-ing values embedded in such African-styledmusic. There is no doubt that, 'The influence ofthe Christian church in Africa has producedsome of the most accomplished examples ofmodern African music. In recent years com-posers of African church music have increas-ingly used traditional elements in their music,and some of the most exciting experimentsin neo-traditional music have been carried outin the church'.5 With the exceptions of Weman'sextensive study, African Music and the Churchin Africa and Mbunga's Church Law and BantuMusic,6 no serious consideration so far seemsto have been given to this fascinating process.The subject, however, is vast, and in thiscontext it is impossible to cover more than afew general aspects. Nevertheless, I have ven-tured to give a very brief outline of the historicdevelopments and of the difficulties involved inbreaking the resistance, which has come mainlyfrom missionaries and from a few of the edu-cated and westernized Africans.904i > »f- ŁTHE BACKGROUNDFrom the early nineteenth century, Euro-peans came to Africa with a sense of imperialistmission and an outlook of almost absolutesuperiority, colonizing the continent not onlymaterially, but also spiritually and philoso-phically. During the initial mission process,which accompanied or followed the secularcolonization, the whole trend was to transplantEurope's concept of Christianity to the Africanenvironment, as wel] as imposing its own de-nominational divisions: 'Each denominationand missionary organization brought itscharacteristic denominational one-sidedness, itsown particular kind of Christianity.'7As a result of such an outlook the missionsocieties naturally organized the Christianworship along lines which were familiar tothem, and so the essential parts of the worshipfrom the 'home' church were transplanted:Gerade in Afrika ist die Gestaltung deskirchliches Lebens sehr oft die simpleImitation aus Europa order Amerikaeingefuehrter liturgischer Formen undVerbal tensweisen.8The reasons for such a one-sided outlook inthe mission approach seem to have had twodifferent motives.Firstly, the Protestant denominations wereextremely faithful to their own particular herit-age from the time of the Reformation and itsaftermath; and by spreading the traditions oftheir own particular denomination to the youngchurches in Africa, it was hoped that a deepersense of universal unity between them and theold churches in Europe or America would befelt.Secondly, when Protestant missions startedon a larger scale during the nineteenth century,the African continent was then spoken of asthe 'Dark Continent' having no culture worthyof consideration.9 Thus, the only possiblemethod of Christian teaching and fostering wasto introduce the Christian ideas and traditionsin a Western manner: 'Missionaries have com-monly assumed that Western civilization andChristianity are two aspects of the same giftwhich God has commissioned them to offer tothe rest of mankind.'10Thus in respect of church-music, the Euro-pean outlook was dominant; Christian music,by necessity, had to be Western, as Africanmusic was unintelligible to the European earand regarded as inferior and pagan." The useof such music then, could not be encouraged,but had to be firmly resisted, because of therisks of leading the newly converted Africanback to the heathen and 'sinful' society.12The bans so introduced by the missionsagainst many activities of the traditional life,and the demand on the African Christian tobreak totally with his own background andheritage, meant, at least for the first Christiangeneration, an up-rooting from the familiarsociety and a transformation to foreign one,where social, political, economic and religiousaspects were not inseparable as in his ownsociety:The conclusion is that if you break up thesocial structure of the individual, you des-troy his roots and he dries up spiritually.Yet it seems this is what the Church hasbeen doing all the time. African Christiansare sociologically wretched beings with adivided personalty that is neither here northere.13It must, however, be strongly emphasizedthat the initial mission approach outlined abovewas not due to the Christian faith as such, butto the understanding which the nineteenthcentury Europeans had of the Christian faith.As the Western civilisation was ultimately re-garded as built on Christian principles, Europeat that time was also regarded as the only truecivilisation and culture. Therefore, nobodyquestioned that adaptation of Christianity alsomeant adaptation of Western culture at large:'We bring you a message which had given thenations of the West their success in the historyof the world and their superior culture andand political organisation.'14CHANGES OF ATTITUDEIn the twentieth century criticism of theformer approach slowly emerged, owinglargely to the progressive, although pater-nalistic, attitude of some few missionaries, whodevoted much of their time to anthropologicalstudies of the peoples with whom they worked.H. A. Junod, a missionary from Switzerland,who worked in South Africa at the turn of this^century gave two reasons for the necessarychange in mission approach.91Firstly, missionaries of the twentieth centuryhad profited from the sciences of mankind,and so, 'from a more profound study of thenative soul [they] have learnt to distinguishbetter between elements which are frankly badand reprehensible (such as the ideas of sorcery),and the praise-worthy aspirations indicated bycertain rites.'15 Secondly, the ideas of evolu-tionism, already clearly discernible during thelate nineteenth century, affected the outlook ofthe missionaries more profoundly:Science has shown that primitive and semi-primitive peoples are passing through aphase of development through which ourfathers also passed . . . These pagans areour brothers whose growth has been delayed,brothers still wrapped in the mists of earliestinfancy; but already they are waking andcommencing their forward march.Missionary teaching [having acceptedsuch an approach] will rightly seek points ofattachment in the past, and will thus be-come more living and intelligible. Christian-ity will no longer be a crowd of white men'sdogmas, to be accepted unreflectively. Thenative will understand that revealed truthis in harmony with the best elements inhis ancient creed, and he will assimilate itmuch better. For the missionary himself,the study of the pagan system will be in-vestigated with a wholly new interest . . .He will no longer be the theorist teachingthe ideas of a superior race, but the elderbrother guiding his younger brethren to-wards the hill of holiness, where the Fatherbids all his children gather.16Later Edwin Smith expressed ideas alongthe same lines and he hinted at some practicalsuggestions to solve the problems of imposedforeignness in the young African churches.Christianity could not be 'rooted to thesoil' unless it gave the receiving peoplespossibilities of expressing their faith in afamiliar way.17 From this time and onwardsthe acceptance or rejection of an African ex-pression of the Christian Faith continued to bediscussed at innumerable missionary confer-rences, but not until recently, when the Africansthemselves have taken over more and more thedirect leadership of their churches, have prac-tical results been clearly discernible.Another attitude, which may have playedan important role in the change of the mis-sionary approach, must also be considered here.The racial segregation introduced in SouthernAfrica during the nineteenth century affectedmany societies; and this tendency of the Euro-peans was met with a reaction from the sideof the Africans through the emergence of themany independent church movements. Theyspoke the motto: 'Africa for Africans'. Lastly,the nineteenth century mission approach hadbeen more a teaching and preaching approach,while the liturgical aspects had been neglected,probably due to the contemporary pietistictrends in Europe and America. The separatisticchurch movements, however, proclaimed asignificant emphasis on ritual, thereby givingthe functional aspect, also in music, its naturalplace in worship.18EFFECT ON CHURCH MUSICThese changes of attitude in the generalmission approach had direct effects on themusic in worship. Although Hornbostel's articlein 1928 on African music mainly deals withethnomusicological aspects, yet, it must havegiven missionaries interested in music somehints on the approach towards music in Africanchurches; for he stated that Christian Europeanmusic could not be a substitute for Africanmusic for the simple reason that:it has not originated and grown within[them. Therefore, Africans should be en-couraged] to sing and play in their ownnatural manner, that is to say, in the Afri-can manner. To what extent one can bebroadminded in this respect, as far as theChristian church and school are concerned,I am not competent to judge.19One of the first missionaries to raise hisvoice in discontent over the Western manner ofsinging in the churches in Africa was Fr A. M.Jones, working at Mapanza in Northern Rho-desia. His main criticism against the Westerntunes had two different and essential aspects,which had already been pointed out by Horn-bostel. Firstly, the indigenous language seldomor never complied with the rhythmical metreof the Western melody: 'We sing hymns withthe metre all wrong and actually come toaccept them as normal things.'20 Secondly, thetonal patterns of the indigenous languages never924I*1*4 Afit the European tunes: 'Therefore if we useany European tunes we have to throw thespeech-tones to the winds. We have to force theAfrican to distort his own language so cruellythat it is no wonder that on occasions hesimply cannot do it.'21Due to the initiative taken by Jones incommencing experiments with African churchmusic with the assistance of an African by hisside, others made similar attempts in otherparts of Africa; nevertheless, clear signs of pro-gress were not discernible until after the endof the Second World War. Experiments inAfrican church music were mainly attemptedwithin the Roman Catholic and Anglicanchurches in West and Central Africa. Somearticles during the late 1940s and early 1950sappeared in the African Music Society's News-letter, in which the results of such attemptswere revealed and discussed.When finally African music started to beintroduced into the Christian worship, how-ever, a most astonishing problem arose. ManyAfrican Christians did not seem to wish tohave their own music in the church. The reasonfor such opposition can be understood onlyby appreciating the impact of the initial mis-sion approach. African indigenous music hadbeen condemned, perhaps mostly because of itsconnection with pagan worship: 'The blackman himself has not infrequently been taughtto misunderstand the religion of his ancestorsand consequently its religious music, so it comesnow as a surprise to him to learn that theirbeliefs can be studied fairly and even withsympathy.'22 Missionaries had not understoodthat there are certain musical differences be-tween religious and non-religious music, andhad taken little account of music of a purelysocial and entertaining character. Furthermore,African music could not, it had been assumed,reach the heights of European musical artistry.Everything was doomed. In this manner theAfricans had been taught to despise their ownmusical heritage, and because of the long anddeep infiltration of their culture by the missionsocieties, the young churches in Africa becameproud of the 'Western guise' and cherished it.But as mentioned previously, from the1940s more and more literature has been pub-lished, mostly in the form of journal articles,giving details about the development of a newapproach in church music in African churches.It would go beyond the scope of this paper toconsider them all; suffice it to mention themore important recommendations and experi-ments.Briefly, two different approaches seem tohave prevailed. On the one hand there is therecommendation of a complete break with theold tradition of Western hymnody and liturgicalmusic, and a creation of new music withinthose fields, written and composed by Africans.Although such an idea was presented ratherearly in the debate, there were no practical re-sults of it until the 1960s, at least in the area ofSouthern Africa.On the other hand there was a morecautious approach with recommendations of(a) adaptation of African indigenous tunes ofa secular kind and with no connection withAfrican religion and worship; (b) constructionof 'African chants', based on the model ofGregorian chants and fairly often recommendedto be in parts instead of in unison (either inparallel two-part harmony or according toproper Western four-part functionalityprinciples), and using what was termed 'Africanfree rhythm'. Of these recommendations, theadaptation method and the construction of'African chants' are the ones that have beenmost followed. When studying the approachestowards African music in Christian worship,we will meet these ideas over and over againright up to the present decade.ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHAs regards the main trends of indigeniza-tion of church music in Africa, there is nodoubt about the importance played by theRoman Catholic Church. This is especiallyevident in the rich output of 'African Masses'of different origin from around 1940 onwards.For nearly two thousand years the mostessential music of the central parts of theRoman Catholic liturgy has been the Gregorianchant. This fact has been frequently em-phasized, and the second Vatican Council ofthe early 1960s plainly stated that, 'The Churchacknowledges the Gregorian chant as properto the Roman liturgy: therefore, other thingsbeing equal, it should be given pride of placein liturgical services.'23 Partly due to its signi-ficant antiquity, and partly due to its origin93in the eastern and southern countries aroundthe Mediterranean, the Gregorian chant hasnot been considered to be a pure Europeanmusical style, but has been regarded as posess-ing an old, and in a way, a universal Christianmusical expression, which branched in all direc-tions from its original area with the expansionof Christianity.24TIi us the Gregorian chant became part andparcel of the Roman Catholic music in Africa,where it was commonly met with acceptanceand satisfaction by the Africans, owing to thesimilarity in tonality and in singing style be-tween the ancient ecclesiastical music and theindigenous African music.25 As long as thedivergences between certain tones and semitonesare partly or completely disregarded, such anassumption of similarity cannot be denied. Itmust also be rememebred that those divergencesbetween tones and semitones Š dissimilar fromthe Western tonal system Š can only be prac-tically and truly measured in instrumentalmusic. Hence, with the considerable flexibilityof the human voice, coupled with the African'sability to imitate, the performance by Africansof Gregorian chant most often results in arelatively true reproduction of such music.In respect of the common vernacularhymns, the practice of the Catholic Churchin Africa has not been different from the gene-ral rule of other mission societies: the hymnodyhas consisted of transliterations of Westernhymns and fitted to Western tunes, thus creat-ing distortion of the tonal patterns and rhythmsof the indigenous languages.26In all their undertakings, the clergy andlaity of the Roman Catholic Church have beendependent upon Papal Instructions from theHoly vSee laid down during different stages inthe history of the Church. Such dependence hasalso applied to the mission approach. Forexample, as early as 1659 the Sacred Congrega-tion of the Propaganda sent out an instructionin which was said: 'In no way and under nopretext should the missionaries try or persuadethe peoples to change their rites, customs andmanners, except those that are only opposed toreligion and morals'; and in 1939 Pope Pius XIIwrote: 'Respect for the particular genius ofeach race is the guiding star by which themissionaries should conduct themselves, andon which they should fix their attention con-stantly in their apostolic march'.27Such instructions compelled Catholicmissionaries to adopt a more cautious missionapproach than has sometimes been the casewith the Protestant mission societies. Due tosuch directives, missionaries also realised fairlyearly the necessity of having African music asthe idiom for a sound musical and Christianexpression in worship. Thus, from the 1940s,the question of indlgenization was broughtmore and more to the fore by several Catholics,clergy and laity alike.The early indigenizing attempts, however,were not met unchallenged. Many missionariesobjected to an African musical expression inworship, and isolated objections from educatedAfricans were also raised, inspired by the samereasons as have already been noted within theProtestant mission societies. African music wasnot regarded as sufficiently artistic andspiritual.28In spite of the objections, however, in-digenization proceeded although slowly, mainlydue to a cautious approach in most attempts.The similarities, as indicated above, betweenplain chant and African traditional music be-came the tools to bridge the gulf of differencein conception. The Gregorian chant was re-garded as a model, to which African churchmusic should adapt itself.The first perceptible results came fromCentral Africa. Tracey records an AfricanMass composed by Ba Joseph Kiwele in 1949and called 'Missa Katanga'; and he furthernotes that similar attempts were made furthernorth at Brazzaville.29Another attempt during the early fifties bythe Roman Catholic Church in the Congo,which has come to be known in Europe asone of the most famous examples of Africanchurch music, was the 'Missa Luha'. Throughthe close co-operation between a gifted Africanmusician, Joachim Ngoi and Fr Guido Haazen,the whole Mass, built acording to adaptationprinciples, became a blend of Western in-fluence and African indigenous musical ele-ments. All sections of the Mass are derivedfrom traditional Congolese folk-music butelaborated by Ngoi and Haazen, and this hasresulted in a rather ingenious rhythmic, har-monic and polyphonic texture.94Owing to the indigenous musical activitieswhich took place here and there within theRoman Catholic Church, and which as a wholegave significant and positive results, Pope PiusXII sanctioned them more clearly by the PapalInstruction 'Musicae Sacrae Disciplina' of 1955,which was the first of its kind; in dealing withthe Catholic mission areas, the Instructionmade clear that there was no longer merely awish for adaptation of secular African tunes,but a desire for a new music similar to theindigenous music. In other words, Africansshould be encouraged to compose new musiccontaining an African idiom, and this certainlyleaves room for an accultural process.30This trend was confirmed and accepted inthe Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s,where it is stated that:In certain parts of the world, especiallymission lands, there are peoples who havetheir own musical traditions, and these playa great part in their religious and sociallife. For this reason due importance is tobe attached to their music, and a suitableplace is to be given to it, not only by wayof forming their attitude towards religion,but also when there is question of adaptingworship to their native genius . . . Therefore,when missionaries are being given trainingin music, every effort should be made tosee that they become competent in pro-moting the traditional music of thesepeoples, both in schools and in sacredservices, as far as may be practible.31RHODESIAN EXPERIENCEIt has been necessary to give this back-ground in order to follow and understand thesimilar attempts which have taken place inRhodesia since about 1954. The church musicactivities, which took place in West and CentralAfrica, had their echo in Southern Africa, butat a rather later stage. As there is, to myknowledge, no written evidence of the promo-tion of African music before 1954, this must betaken as the the starting date for such activi-ties in Rhodesia.These activities were not co-ordinated andwere experiments by individual churches in theinitial stages, both in Rhodesia or elsewhere inAfrica, and for this reason it is necessary todeal with the material in a somewhat denomina-tional manner. The activities of three churchesin Rhodesia will be briefly outlined: theEvangelical Lutheran Church in Rhodesia(E.L.C.R.), sponsored by the Church of SwedenMission (C.S.M.); the Methodist Church spon-sored by the American Methodist MissionBoard and the Roman Catholic Church. In-cidentally, it should be noted that successfulresults have been achieved only in Shonasociety. Although attempts have been madealso in Ndebele society, no results of any majorimportance have yet occurred; the reason forthis disparity between the two major Africangroups in Rhodesia is probably of a sociolo-gical kind but space does not here allow forconsideration of this phenomenon.Before 1960 most churches in Rhodesiaseemed to have neither the resources nor thespecial interest to start approaches of theirown, although the musical developments andother indigenous attempts in other parts ofAfrica were followed with interest. True, therewere discussions of indigenization at confer-ences within each church, or together withothers, but no practical results on a largerscale seemed to evolve from them. The factwas that Rhodesian churches continued in theirconservative manner to use hymns and litur-gical music of pure Western origin; and theproblems of rhythmic accents and tonal in-flections of vernacular words, indicatedpreviously, remained unsolved.The Evangelical Lutheran ChurchIn 1954 the Evangelical Lutheran Churchin Rhodesia had a visit by one of the leadingchurch musicians in Sweden, Dr H. Weman.He was then the organist and director of musicat the arch-diocesan cathedral of Uppsala.During his visit in Rhodesia and elsewhere inAfrica his main interest was naturally turnedtowards the church music in use in the 'sister-churches' of the Church of Sweden Mission.He came into close contact with Western musicin African Christian worship, which he des-cribes as 'compact four-part improvized con-gregational singing',32 as well as with theeveryday folk-music in the African villages.Furthermore, he noted that the liturgical musicin use in the Evangelical Lutheran Churchwas commonly of a poor quality and that noregulations or recommendations seemed to95direct the clergy and congregations in thechoice of the music. The melodic material ofthe liturgy was mainly according to the SwedishMissal of 1897 which by that time was to avery large extent outdated in Sweden, and themelodies were used in many different manners.A missionary in the church once expressed theview to me that there were almost as manyliturgical musical styles as there were priests.33The different characteristics of the two musicsheard led him to question the exclusion ofAfrican folk-music from worship, and to initiateextensive studies in African music.On the recommendation of Weman afterhis return from Africa late in 1954, the Churchof Sweden Mission formed a special committee,which was given the assignment of drawingup plans to utilize African musical potentialin the worship in the African 'sister-churches'.34Shortly afterwards requests were brought for-ward from all the Lutheran churches in Africasponsored by the Church of Sweden Missionthat Weman be made available for a periodof time in each church in order to pursue theplans worked out by the committee.35Thus a commission was given to Wemanby the Church of Sv/eden Mission to make ajourney to the 'sister-churches' in Africa withthe task of encouraging a more africanizedmanner of singing in worship. As can be seenthis action was not ultimately based on theobservances reported by Weman, but first andforemost based upon the request which camefrom the churches. The journey took place inautumn 1956 and lasted to spring 1957; fourmonths were spent in South Africa and twomonths in Rhodesia.In his report to the Church of SwedenMission after the completion of his commissionin Africa, Weman drew attention to the mainaim of the work, which was to investigate andtest the possibilities of an introduction of aliturgical music based on the characteristics ofAfrican folk-music.36 The idea, so commonlybrought forward during the 1940s and 1950s,especially by missionaries interested in thedevelopment of African church music, thatthere is a certain resemblance between theGregorian style and the African folk-music, wasfurther developed by Weman. His report, how-ever, was not in favour of a direct usage ofthe ecclesiastical modes without modifications.It seems fairly obvious then that Weman hadtaken special notice of the methods used bythe Roman Catholic Church in West andCentral Africa, but as regards the tonality con-cept he seemed to be willing to accept a moreclose relationship between the ecclesiasticalmodes and sonic African 'tonalities'.37 Havingsuch an approach, he believed that acculturalprocesses were possible in the creation of neo-African church music, and he dearly empha-sised the necessity of the liturgical functionsin the music as well as the necessity for anaesthetic attitude.38As the Christian churches from their earliestdays frequently made use of the Psalter,Weman found that the best of introducing hisideas of indigenization was to make use ofthe Psalms. The idea of antiphonal and res-ponsorial singing, so predominant in the musicof the Church, strengthened his views that hewas on the right road, as African musical stylesare mostly antiphonal or resposorial in charac-ter. Furthermore, he argued that the free rhy-thm found in Gregorian chant is similar to the'African free rhythm'.39Hence, with the Catholic use of theGregorian chant as a model, Weman arguedthe possibilities of creating African 'psalm-tunes' from indigenous songs, which resembledany of the ecclesiastical modes. Through theextraction of the melodic 'Urlinie' from severalAfrican traditional melodies, recorded pre-dominantly in South Africa, he constructedthree different 'African psalm-tunes'. In ordernot to break too much with the common andcherished custom of Western four-part singingin worship, the 'psalm-tunes' were harmonizedaccording to Western harmonic functionalityprinciples.Before describing further the results ofWeman's pioneer work in Southern Africa, itis necessary to bring forward some points ofcriticism. There seems to be no doubt that theidea of a certain resemblance between some ofthe ecclesiastical modes and African tonalitycan hold true in a few cases, but the questionstill arises whether it is the whole truth. InWest Africa, Carrington and others had, duringthe forties and fifties, experimented with thecreation of new tunes based on the tonal pat-terns of the spoken indigenous languages, hadmade them in pentatonic fashion similar to theGregorian chants and had performed them ina responsorial manner.» vv M* Vvrl96I -i VSuch an approach, however, does not con-tain conspicuous African musical elements,mainly due to complete lack of rhythmicvitality in such melodies. The concept of 'Afri-can free rhythm', advocated by Weman andothers during that time as being an Africanmusical element of priority has not to myknowledge been satisfactorily explained.41 Inthe Gregorian chanting style 'free rhythm'would mean the word-accents which appear atunequal distance in the melodic flow. Further-more, those accents arc subservient to themelody. In African music the rhythm seldomseems to be subservient. Instead, as the under-lying factor to the melody is the rapid andregular pulsation, which, in its turn, is groupedinto certain invariable and repeated rhythmicpatterns. Rycroft says in connection with hisanalysis of a West African solo song accom-blished by a musical bow that, 'It is temptingat this stage to dismiss the piece as being aclear case of 'free rhythm'. Repeated attentivelistening, however, establishes a definite thoughcomplex formal scheme within which unequalconstituents are loosely but ingeniouslyblended.'42 Tn a similar manner Carrol admitsthat 'free rhythm' in the Yoruba chanting maybe related to a slow handclap or beating of thegong.43 Furthermore, by chanting on a tuba-note, which would be the case with Weman's'African psalm-tunes', the tonal structure ofthe indigenous languages will be disregardedto a certain degree, although it can never havethe same consequences of distortion as theadaptation of vernacular texts to Western hymntunes.These few notes of criticism, however, mustnot conceal the necessity and the real and far-reaching advantages of Weman's approach.Without his initial and thorough-going effortsto bring a certain musical style into the Evan-gelical Lutheran Church in Rhodesia, theliturgical music as well as the hymnody wouldhave continued in decline.The direct advantages of the introductionof the 'psalm-tunes' seem to be the following.Firstly, there is a natural 'down-drift' motionin all three of them. As such the melodicmovement is typically African in character; allthe melodies composed by Weman and basedon the 'psalm-tunes' are highly singable bycongregations. Secondly, by chanting in freerhythm according to the Western manner, therecan be no faulty word accent. With good leader-ship the singing may be performed very fluently,in spite of the lack of a vital rhythm. Thirdly,the antiphonal or responsorial usage is highlyapplicable to congregations, as this singingtechnique is the most common technique inAfrican vocal music. Lastly, the melodies areshort in structure, and this is why they areeasily grasped and learnt.As can be seen from the historical data,Weman definitely played the role of a pioneerworker in Southern Africa in the process ofindigenization of church music. He also openedup more possibilities for accultural musicalprocesses through making use of some of themost characteristic musical elements of bothWestern and African origin. His ultimate aimwas to get Africans to create their own music,but the time at his disposal was too short, andthe time was not even ripe as ideas of in-digenization of church music had not as yetcome to be generally and widely accepted inRhodesia. Finally, an aspect of greatest import-ance was pursued by Weman, namely thatAfrican music must be treated for what it reallyis and with due respect: 'an artistic medium,which proceeds according to its own rules,though these rules differ at some points fromthose known in the West.'44 In other words,the common Western tendency to stamp Afri-can music as inferior or 'primitive' should beeradicated. And not only that, for in present-ing such a thought he also indicated that Afri-can music is governed by certain rules, andthat those rules should be studied, learnt, andthen taught by Africans and others in orderto build up concepts of African musicology asdistinctive from Western musicology.The immediate effects of Weman's shortstay in Rhodesia were limited, but his activitygave sufficient material to get the liturgicalmusic in the Evangelical Lutheran Church inRhodesia working in a more conformed and dis-ciplined manner. K. T. Bergman, born in Rho-desia, and working as a Church of Swedenmissionary in the educational field of thechurch, continued these activities and the newmusic that was composed was encouraged inall congregations. Through church music fes-tivals and rehearsals with congregations beforeor after the Sunday services at different places,Bergman's devoted work met with sincere ap-preciation and the new melodies introduced97in the liturgy became more and more estab-lished.Indigenizing attempts were also encouraged,but the resources within the Evangelical Luther-an Church in Rhodesia were not sufficient andBergman had many other essential duties toattend to; therefore a request from the churchto the Church of Sweden Mission resulted inother visits by Weman, first in 1967 and thenin 1969.At that time church music activities hadalso started within the Roman Catholic andMethodist churches, as will presently be seen,and there was no musical material by Africancomposers available to Weman, which he in-troduced into music courses run in 1967. Theresponse from the choir participants and thecongregations was very positive, and it seemedas if the time was ripe for African composersto emerge also within the Evangelical LutheranChurch in Rhodesia. This wish, however, wasonly partly realised but an atmosphere hadbeen created through the introduction of Afri-can church music, which was to be fruitful ata later stage. Weman had also changed hismethod of composing, probably owing to directcontact with and influence from the RomanCatholic and Methodist new church music. Hismusical output this time was more 'africanized'in character; he tried to create music withmore intense rhythm, and he adhered moretruly to the tonal patterns of the spoken Shonalanguage. It must also be stressed that all hiscompositions were created for the sole purposeof encouraging African to do the same, andso to build up their own church music re-sources.The desired emergence of African com-posers within the Evangelical Lutheran Churchin Rhodesia finally came true in 1969, whenWeman returned for a fourth time to Rhodesia.During his four months' stay, five churchmusic courses were held at different places,and each course lasted for a week and endedwith a Sunday Mass, in which the results ofthe course were put into practice at theirappropriate places within the liturgy. Themain aim in all the courses was to encouragethe participants to compose. As the Africancomposing technique is quite different fromthe Western one, in its great attachment toimprovization, Weman tried to encourage theparticipants by giving them a great number ofshort music formulas Š some of them rathersimilar to the ecclesiastical modes Š whichthe participants were requested to improvizeupon. Furthermore, he stressed the neccesityof adherence in general terms to the tonalpatterns of the language and the rhythmiccharacter of indigenous African music. In thechoice of texts for the compositions, thePsalms were recommended.During the first workshop held at Masase,West Nicholson, in January 1969, two primaryschool teachers presented their first attempts.45The compositions were at once tried in church,and were received with great pleasure by thecongregation. From this time the barriers werebroken down and many new compositions byAfricans have been added to the first two. Afair number of African Christians, especiallyteachers, have shown great musical gifts, andhave come to be more and more established ascomposers and church music leaders in theirown congregations. At the time of writing thisarticle, Evangelical Lutheran Church com-posers in Rhodesia have created between 60and 70 hymns and Psalms which are presentlybeing transcribed and edited, and will shortlyappear in a songbook called Imbirai She ŠDumisani Nkosi (Sing to the Lord Š Praise theLord).The Methodist ChurchThe initial and devoted efforts in SouthernAfrica by Weman in 1957 were soon followedby attempts in other churches in Rhodesia.Whether such activities were a result ofWeman's pioneer work or a follow-up of thechurch activities which had taken place inother parts of Africa is rather difficult to de-termine. Nevertheless the Evangelical LutheranChurch in Rhodesia is mainly confined to oneparticular geographical area, compromising theBelingwe, Gwanda and Beit Bridge districts,and all Weman's activities in 1957 took placeonly in that area, and to it is safe to assumethat the activities which commenced in theMethodist and Roman Catholic churches fromaround 1960 had received encouragementsfrom outside Rhodesia. Furthermore, a numberof mission conferences during the 1950s hadbrought in the new concept of africanization,which seems to have challenged most missionsocieties to commence activities along suchlines.* V-V-> -<-1* 1* -*4'98In 1960 a trained musician and musico-logist, Robert Kauffman, was specially assignedby the American Methodist Board of Missionsto Rhodesia for a period of five years in orderto encourage the use of indigenous music inchurches and schools. His first two years werealmost fully devoted to language study andmusic research within Shona society, andthe three following years were more or less adirect application of the findings of his re-search.46 In the African congregations of theMethodist church in Rhodesia there was inexistence from about 1940 a laymen's organisa-tion called the Wabvuwi, which had developedan interesting adaptation and assimilationtechnique in the singing of Western hymnstranslated into the vernacular. Although thetunes were all of Western origin they had beenspontaneously elaborated by the Africans andas a result sounded almost purely African instyle. When Kauffman came in 1960 he madean overall and general study of their musicalstyle and came to the conclusion that, ''Wabvuwimusic gives an indication to one direction inwhich future church music in Africa is moving'.He further stated that if accultural processestook the same lines and 'were as effective as ithas been with Wabvuwi music, there is more tobe gained than lost in the process'.'17 However,the most interesting aspect of Wabvuwi musicalactivities is that they seem to have emergedwithout any specific pressure from outsidesources such as from missionary influences. Assuch the organisation may be compared withwhat has taken place in many of the independ-ent churches of Rhodesia, which also deservedetailed music research.As the adaptation style already existed inthe Methodist church, Kauffman's initialattempts to promote new African church musicwere along such lines. But as adaptation alwaysinvolved setting a new text to an already exist-ing indigenous secular melody, difficul-ties almost always arise in balancingsuch texts to available tunes, due to differenttonal patterns occurring in the new text asdifferent from the tonal patterns of the oldtexts on which the melody might have beenbased. Thus, Kauffman suggested modifiedadaptation techniques which briefly were:(a) original secular songs to be used as a pointof departure for something new, i.e. slightchanges, particularly in the melodic flow;(b) the use of a particular musical style, i.e.its form, mood, and rhythm to make somethingnew which is similar.48The two approaches were recommended totalented musicians in the Methodist church;and during annual 'Arts Workshops' of a weekor so in length, which Kauffman put on fromI960, the participants started to present suchcompositions. Fairly early in the developmentof such workshops, participants moved furtherand further away from the direct adaptationtechnique and ultimately composed vocal musicv/hich was genuinely their own Š a processwhich in fact was exactly what Kauffman hadhoped and strove for.It was due to the idea of workshops thata new African church music emerged in Rho-desia. From 1960 to 1968 such courses werearranged and run by the Methodist church,but invitations were sent to all churches inRhodesia and members from the RomanCatholic and Lutheran churches started toparticipate at a fairly early stage. Thus, thecourses had more of an ecumenical characterthan a Methodist approach.Kauffman also played an important partin the formation and establishment of anorganization called 'All-Africa Church MusicAssociation'. The aim of the association wasto collect ideas and publish the results of thepromotion of new church music in Africa, andact as the channel of communication betweencountries and churches in Africa in all mattersrelating to church music and liturgy. Suchan undertaking, it was hoped, would give thepromotion of church music a more profoundimpact on the Christian societies in Africa.However, political developments after 1965hindered the Association in its contact with itsmany members in other African countries.In order to prevent the decline of theAssociation, Kauffman's successor as director,John E. Kaemmer, recommended each parti-cipating country to establish national or region-al church music associations. In Rhodesia thistook place in 1968 in a somewhat modifiedform when the 'Ecumenical Arts Association'was founded in Bulawayo. In this organisationthe idea of africanization has been widened toencompass as much as possible of Africanculture in Christian worship as four different99creative arts are promoted: music, drama, artand creative writing.Through the direct initiative, then, of theMethodist church since 1960, and the activitiesof the Ecumenical Arts Association since 1968,quite a large number of new hymns have beencomposed and come into fairly frequent use inmany of the churches in Rhodesia. Many ofthe hymns have been compiled in two song-books entitled Ndwiyo dzeChechi dzevu(Church music of the soil), and the first onealso appears in a music edition. In additiona few records have been published.49The Roman Catholic ChurchAlmost simultaneously with the commence-ment of Methodist church music activities, theRoman Catholic Church embarked upon thesame idea. In early 1960 a Swiss missionarypriest and musicologist, Fr Joseph Lenherr,came to Rhodesia and was given the assign-ment of advancing indigenous music in Catholicworship. As a general background to his workhe had all the activities which had taken placeearlier in other parts of Africa, and he alsocame into contact with Kauffman's work at arather early stage. The approach used byLenherr was similar to Kauffman's and latergave very positive results. It included thefollowing steps.501. A rich collection on tape of traditionalShona music was made and this was followedby an extensive study of the general features,techniques and forms used in the musiccollected.2. During the time of collection Lenherr triedto find potential composers among the musi-cians he met, who could later be of help increating new tunes. Those potential composerswere mainly primary school teachers.3. The composers were not given any formalmusical training before they started to compose.Such an approach was due to the belief thatthe more musical training they were given Šwhich of necessity would be based on Westernmethods and thought Š the more would suchtraining limit their capacity in spontaneouscomposing along African idioms. In this respectLenherr differed rather profoundly from theapproach taken by Kauffman, who encouragedtheoretical musical training during his courses.4 The only limitation on the freedom of thecomposers was that, due to the Catholic litur-gical tradition, the texts were fixed. Those textswere mainly taken from the Scriptures,especially from the Psalter.After a time, a few of the composers cameup with new tunes, which were immediatelytried in the congregations and at courses whichwere frequently held. The educated Africans,however, reacted strongly against the newtunes when they were introduced in 1962. Onthe other hand, in the rural areas the samemusic was almost at once accepted and spreadvery fast.Soon after these initial attempts, Lenherrleft Rhodesia for a considerable time, but themusical activities were continued through theleadership of an African musician and com-poser, Stephen Ponde. When Lenherr returnedin 1966 he could record the following progress:(a) The cause of the indigenous church musichad been taken up by educated andilliterate Christian alike and made theirown.(b) The body of ca. 40 new church songscomposed in 1962. although at first badlydistorted partly because of insufficientintroduction, had become establishedtradition in liturgy. Practical use hadadded Western harmonies to parts ofsongs, and brought about an occasionalemployment of instruments (drums,rattles, mbira). Even dancing to suchtunes could be encountered amongChristians when they were sung outsidethe church building.(c) The main composer [Stephen Ponde] hadestablished himself within the churchcommunity, even outside of the district(d) Songs, composed between 1962 and 1966,show greater sophistication in musicalstructure . . .51After Lenherr's return to Rhodesia in 1966,church music activities within the RomanCatholic Church have been of a tremendousbreadth and have encompassed the wholechurch area in Mashonaland. In 1969 Lenherrhad more than ten gifted composers aroundhim, and all have contributed considerably by* V100their output of new church music. Throughfrequent music courses at different places with-in the area of the church, and through aconsiderable number of records, the new musichas spread with enormous speed.An important point of comparison mustalso be made here. The music output from theMethodist initiative has tended to be mostlybased on the creation of new hymns, whichhas very often resulted in new compositionsof rather complex structure, and as such notreally singable by a whole congregation. In theRoman Catholic Church, on the other hand,the approach has been towards a direct litur-gical function of the music with completeparticipation from all church-goers. Because ofthis direct functional approach, the music hadto be composed in such a manner that congrega-tional participation could be envisaged. In thisrespect almost all new music by Catholic com-posers has been fully successful as the congrega-tional participation is now more active thanever before. This is probably due to the oftenremarkable and ingenious simplicity of thesongs.CONCLUSIONIn the output of church music by Africancomposers in Rhodesia from 1960, a few gene-ral points regarding accultural processes mayfinally be summed up here. In regard to Afri-can common musical characteristics the follow-ing idioms are most often present in the newmusic:1. The responsorial manner of singing.2. The general 'downdrift' in melody.3. The adherence to the tonal pattern of thelanguage, especially when necessary forthe understanding of the thoughts ex-pressed.4. The polyrhythmic structure based onequal and rapid time units, and groupedinto certain invariable and repeatedrhythmic patterns.5. The parallel motion in multipart music,especially in fourths and fifths, but fairlyoften also in thirds.6. Contrapunctal motion, especially whendifferent text lines are used for differentsung parts.In addition to these basic and conspicuousAfrican musical idioms there are elements ofWestern origin:(a) Adherence to a more Western tonalityconcept within the diatonic system; and(b) Extension of harmonic feeling in multi-part music by addition of thirds.In other words, a musical acculturationprocess is at work in which the African com-poser has ingeniously blended his own musicalconcept with elements from Euro-America andmade them his own. In such a way an Africanmusic has emerged in a new dress, bringing tothe fore the immense artistic value of Africanmusic in general which is fully worthy of ourappreciation.REFERENCES>J. H. K. Nketia, 'History and the organisation of music in West Africa', in Essays on Music and History inAfrica, ed. K. P. Wachsmann, Evanston, Northwestern Univ. Press, 1971, 3.zj. Blacking, 'Music and history in Vendaland', in Essays on Music and History in Africa, 187.3J. S. Roberts, 'African pop music: Recent developments', Africa Contemporary Record', Annual Survey andDocuments, 1969- 1970, ed. G. Legum and J. Drysdale, London, Africa Research, 1970, C 251."A. Euba, 'Music adapts to a changed world', Africa Report, 1970, IS, viii, 24.slbid.sH. Weman, African Music and the Church in Africa, Uppsala, University of Uppsala, 1960 (Studia Missiona-lia Upsaliensia No. 3); S. B. G. Mbunga, Church Law and Bantu Music, Schoeneck-Beckenried, (Neue Zeit-schrift fiir Missionswissenschaft, 1963, Supplement No. 13.?B. G. M. Sundkler, Bantu Prophets in South Africa, 2nd edit., London, Oxford Univ. Press, 1961, p.296.eE- Viering, Togo Singt ein Neues Lied, Erlangen, Evangel Lutheran Mission, 1969, p. 245. As regards theChurch worship, it is also interesting to G. Parrinder, Religion in Africa, London, Pall Mall, 1969, p. 144;'Church worship also followed European patterns. Liturgies have been transliterated into African languages, butfar too often the tunes used have been those of Victorian hymnody. Since most African languages are tonal, andSankey has produced clashes and even gibberish.'9E. A. Asamoa, 'The Christian Church and African heritage', International Review of Missions, 1955, 44, 292.>°S. B. G. Mbunga, 'African traditional music inspires and touches at emotional depths', Target, 1975, iv(Music Supplement).101"J. E. Kaemmer, 'African music and its significance for the Divine Service', in 'Report on the Consultation ofAfrican Church Music held by the Christian Academy at Roodekrans, December 1967', Johannesburg, ChristianAcademy in Southern Africa, 1967 (mimeo), p.57: 'When Europeans first came to Africa they found theycould not make head or tail of African music, so they came to the conclusion that it was heathenish noise.' Seealso G. Parrinder, 'Worship in Protestant missions', International Review of Missions, 1946, 35, 190: 'too oftenwe have taught them, openly or by implication, that "pagan" music is necessarily bad, or at any rate un-civilized.'*2j. Shaffer, 'Experiments in indigenous church music among the Batetela', African Music, 1954-7, 1, iii, 39:'From the very earliest beginnings, as far as the author can discover, a strict ban was placed on all forms ofnative music, musical instruments, and rhythmical devices which were feared would encourage the peoplein their old practices.'isAsamoa, 'The Christian Church and African heritage', 299.i«K. Heim, 'The message of the New Testament to the non-Christian world', International Review of Missions,1928, 17, 134.isH. A. Junod, 'God's ways in the Bantu soul', ibid., 1914, 3, 96.islbid., 96, 106.i?E. W. Smith, The Shrine of a People's Soul, London, Edinburgh House Press, 1929, p.45.isSundkler, Bantu Prophets, p.296: 'Our analysis of the activities and ideology of Independent Zulu Churcheshas inter alia revealed an emphasis on ritual as characteristic of these organizations, which is an importantintimation of the true interpretatio Africana of the Christian message.'>sE. M. von Hornbostel, 'African Negro music', Africa, 1928, 1, 60, 62.z°A. M, Jones, 'Hymns for the Africans', African Music Society Newsletter, 1948-53, 1, iii, 8.zilbid., 9.2zMbunga, Church Law and Bantu Music, p.22.zsThe Documents of Vatican II, ed. W. M. Abbot and J. Gallagher, London, G. Chapman. 1966, p.172 (ch. 6,art. 116).2*Mbunga, Church Law and Bantu Music, pp. 19-20.2sK. Carrol, 'Yoruba religious music', African Music, 1954-7, 1, iii, 45. cf. also L. M.arfurt,Musik in Afrika,Munich, Nymphenburger, 1957, p.87: 'Afrikanische Musik und Gregorianischer Gesang sind Verwandte, naheVerwandte sogar. Und wenn wir daran festhalten, dass der Gregorianische Gesang der alteste und vornehmsteGesang der Kirche ist, duerfen wir alle mit Freude, die Afrikaner sogar mit Stoltz feststellen, dass die schwar-ze Menschkeit uns in ihrer Musik eine vornehme Schwestermuse der Gregorianischen Kunst lebendig und jungbewahrt hat.'zeCarrol, 'Yoruba religious music', 45.27Quoted in S. Amaladasan, 'Sacred music in the service of mission liturgy', in Liturgy and the Missions, ed J.Hofinger, London, Burns & Oates, 1960, pp.222, 231.zeBr Basil, 'The dilemma of Bantu church music', African Music, 1954-7, 1, iv, 36-7.2sH. Tracey, 'Recording tour 1949', African Music Society Newsletter, 1948-53 1, iii, 35.3°Papal Encyclical, 'Musicae Sacrae Disciplina', 1955, printed in Herder-Korrespondenz, Freiburg, 1955-6, 10,423.siTTte Documents of Vatican II, pp. 172-3.32H. Weman, African Music and the Church in Africa, Uppsala Studia Missionalia Upsaliensia No. 3, 1960,p.10.sslnterview with Mr. K. T. Bergman, Belingwe Tribal Trust Land, 1969.3-»Church of Sweden Mission Archives, Uppsala, Mission Board Minutes, 28.V.1954, No. 556, para.154.aslbid., 17.ii.1955, No. 559, pp. 51, 53.selbid., 31.X.1957, No. 569, p. 271, para. 238.S'Weman, African Music and the Church in Africa, p.153.sBlbid., p.151.Łsalbid., p.152."°O. E. Axelsson, 'African Music and European Christian Mission', Uppsala University, unpublished M.A. thesis,1971, pp.54-5.tilbid., pp. 23-9."zD. Rycroft, 'Tribal style and free expression', African Music, 1954-7, 1, i, 24."sCarrol, 'Yoruba religious music', 46."Weman, African Music and the Church in Africa, p. 129."sAxelsson, 'African Music and European Christian Mission', p.73.46R. A. Kauffman, 'Multipart Relationships in the Shona Music of Rhodesia', University of California, LosAngeles, Ph.D. thesis, 1971.«7R. A. Kauffman, 'Hymns of the Wabvuwi', African Music, 1958-61, 2, iii, 35.*sR. A. Kauffman, 'Beginnings in African-style church music', All-African Church Music Association Journal(mimeo), 1966, 2-4."sBy the Church Music Service, Rowa School, P.Bag C 7319, Umtali, Rhodesia.5°J. Lenherr, 'Advancing indigenous church music', African Music, 1966-70, 4, ii, 33-9.lbid 38.102