Creative thinking in Africa: Tensions through change

JOURNAL OF THE MUSICAL ARTS IN AFRICA VOLUME 9 2012, 23–38 Creative thinking in Africa: tensions through change Minette Mans P O Box 3492, Windhoek, Namibia e-mail: mans@iafrica.com.na Abstract Research on creativity is a relatively recent phenomenon in Africa. Following the many changes that have impacted upon Africa in the past century, tensions have emerged between traditional and contemporary interpretations of creativity. This article will reflect on some common indigenous views of creativity, particularly in music and dance in sub-Saharan Africa. The traditional authoritarian style of schooling, brought to Africa by various colonial administrations, caused distortion in predominant values in African cultures. Authoritarian teaching did not encourage creativity, questioning or deviation from the norm, and has had a devastating impact on intellectual, artistic and practical creativity across the continent. Currently, sites of contestation lie in the demands of ‘new’ education. This article explores ways in which creative music and dance navigate the currents that surround the encounters between indigenous traditions and the contrasts of post-colonial innovation. The uncertainties engendered by such encounters are factors that currently limit maximum creative development on the continent. Introduction Creativity is a subject that has been receiving much attention for decades in many parts of the world. In Africa this might be the case too, but there is a dearth of printed literature available by African writers on musical creativity. This article investigates ideas on creative thinking on a broad sub-Saharan continental basis, taking full cognisance of the dangers of generalisation. Despite the knowledge that there are about 1 000 distinct ethnic groups in Africa, each with their differences, I take the liberty to generalise since: This diiculty is reduced by the recognition of Africa as comprising twelve cultural areas or geographical territories within which inhabitants share most of the elements of culture such as related languages and similar ecological conditions, economic, social, ideological and social systems. (Oehrle & Emeka 2003:40) Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa is co-published by NISC (Pty) Ltd and Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group http://dx.doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2012.736144 © 2012 NISC (Pty) Ltd ISSN: 1812-1004/ EISSN 2027-626X 24 MINETTE MANS I have attempted to find resources from different parts of Africa, but the focus – based on the literature – is mainly on western Africa and southern Africa. The term creativity can be interpreted in diverse ways. Its multiple complexities and subtleties within the even greater diversity of African contexts can only be hinted at in this consideration of the issue. This article investigates some existing conceptions of creativity in a broad overview of African research and literature on the subject, particularly those that relate to music and dance. The thrust of the article follows recent trends that focus on the social situatedness of creativity. An attempt is made to investigate the prevailing thinking on creativity and to speculate on how history might have affected perceptions of creativity in Africa. This highlights the multifaceted functions and interpretations on which people draw aesthetically and creatively in their musical expression (Finnegan 2003; Oehrle & Emeka 2003; Fakier & Waghid 2004; Beeko 2005; Nzewi 2009; <Agawu 2007>; <Anku 2007>, <Vallejo 2007>; Kenny 2008). While I refer briefly to international thinking on creativity, the focus of this article is on African research and literature. Views on creative thinking, an aspect of creativity Solving everyday problems is a key element of the creative thinking process. But, as Albert Einstein argued, our thinking creates problems that the same kind of thinking will not solve, hence, the need for creative thought (Fakier & Waghid 2004:57). The word ‘creativity’ contains an embedded meaning of producing something, creative being the opposite of destructive.1 Other terms that are commonly linked to creativity in different measures include: adaptability, innovation, change, originality, out-of-the-ordinary, individuality, divergence, novel and imaginative. Creative thinking, however, is but one form of general thinking,2 and occurs in different measures and qualities in the thoughts of different people. The level of creativity can be seen as a point on a scale ranging from imitative repetition to the completely original or innovative. Creative thinking is a process of thinking, and at the same time also perception about the quality of the outcomes of the thinking. Whereas critical thinking is generally analytical, convergent, objective and linear, creative thinking is often generative, divergent, subjective and associative. Nevertheless, the two ways of thinking often alternate in our everyday thinking patterns. Thinking about creative thinking is not new and has puzzled philosophers, psychologists and educators for centuries. Elliot (1998:224) suggests that the traditional concept of creativity is firmly embedded in the idea of creating something new and that this is a condition for being creative. Alternatively, Elliot links the new concept of creativity with getting novel ideas and making something of them (1998:229) or, as Mattimore suggests, 1 Unfortunately, there are also destructive uses for the products of creative thinking. 2 ‘General thinking’ refers to the entire broad spectrum of common thinking processes. CREATIVE THINKING IN AFRICA 25 making surprising and original connections between seemingly unrelated elements (Mattimore 1994:vii). Thus the new concept of creative thinking values the ability to be imaginative, with unconventional or divergent thinking. Related to this ‘new concept’ above, Craft’s (2005:55) description of everyday creativity as a form of constructive learning is a step closer to African interpretations of creativity. Craft’s everyday creativity involves: acts of questioning and challenging, making connections and seeing relationships, envisaging what might be, exploring ideas while keeping options open, as well as reflecting critically on ideas, actions and outcomes. This applies in the musical arts as well as to other activities. Webster (2002) sees an important part of developing musical creative thinking as the ability to hear musical possibilities without the actual presence of the sound – being able to ‘think in sound’. Active listeners need to hold musical structures in memory as a work unfolds. Composers need to imagine sound combinations. Performers/improvisers must have a target performance in mind. Music teachers must help students gain this ability to hear music in their heads and manipulate these sounds in increasingly more abstract ways. (Webster 2002:19) As Burnard (2006:367) reminds us, there are many pathways to the development of musical creativity, including engagement with traditional or innovative practices, through expressive or exploratory improvisation, and through participation in socially mediated processes. Most of these involve being able to ‘think in sound’. However, the overruling idea in much of the existing literature is that creative thinking – in music as elsewhere – is the production of something new (to the creator), in other words, innovation and originality. In this article I explore these evolving contemporary interpretations of creativity within a very broadly defined time-frame in Africa, contrasting pre-colonial with post-colonial expectations. I have tried to avoid any idealised suggestion of traditional communities of the past, and have drawn on implied and explicit statements of values in Africa as displayed in musical practice. Indigenous interpretations of creativity in Africa A spate of recent publications on creativity in Africa indicates that this subject is beginning to receive the attention it deserves. The concept of creativity in Africa is not fundamentally different to that of the rest of the world. Solving a (musical, conceptual or practical) problem or challenge, finding a solution, remains the driving force behind creative thinking. However, processes, attitudes and outcomes of creative actions display certain unique features. As elsewhere, creativity in Africa is both an individual and a cultural phenomenon. Psychologists Mpofu et al. (2005:478) point out from empirical research that Africans in several countries consider creativity to derive from at least five components, namely: thinking styles, personality, motivation, environment and the confluence of these attributes. Confluence is the convergence of multiple components needed for creativity to 26 MINETTE MANS occur (Sternberg & Lubart 1999:10). My discussion distinguishes broadly between creative thinking styles and processes, creative personalities, creative outcomes and the domain of creativity. As a major sub-Saharan African form and source of creative expression, the musical arts serve as the point of departure here.3 Creative thinking styles and processes No matter how talented one is, one has to start from somewhere […] It’s like music, when you hear it, that’s when you see that you have your own way of doing it. (Dominic Benhura, Zimbabwean artist, quoted in Ngara 2008:13) A common African and African-Islamic interpretation of the creative musical process is that the New emerges out of the Old as an extension of the past into the future (Tiérou 1992; Mpofu et al. 2006; Mans 2009). The existence of stable, recognisable sonic templates (archetypes) facilitates communal and individual creativity through variation, improvisation, extension and redefining of content, as implied by ‘new concept’ above. Tiérou (1992) refers to composition of dance as being based on two principles: ‘explore’ (digging deeply into the existing) and ‘exploit’ (finding innovative ways of using the basic material). Locke refers to this as the re-working of well-known patterns and making new combinations of pre-existing material (Locke 2009). ‘Inventive borrowing’ from intercultural exchanges is also common. Access to the existing body of knowledge is a condition for creativity, and is relevant to the creative outcome. Beeko emphasises the creation of something new, thus reinforcing the ‘old concept’ of creativity. Hence creative (Akan) persons choose, select and appropriate from the available resources and so transcend cultural boundaries and become musically distanced from the ordinary (Akan) person (Beeko 2005:128). He further explains that the concept of musical creativity amongst Akan musicians in Ghana involves the capacity to create whole or partial musical ideas. And the criteria for assessing these new ideas, as well as accepting them to be new, are that they should be original and should not have been heard before, at least within the community. (Beeko 2005:117, emphasis in original) However, while ideas might emerge from an individual, many creative processes in traditional African societies are fundamentally communal in ethos and practice, and have emerged from life experiences interpreted by creative individuals. This does not mean that a musician cannot serve as his/her own audience and evaluator, but implies that music in most parts of Africa are essentially communal in purpose and practice. Cross-stimulation 3 ‘The musical arts’ needs to be conceptualised as a singular, for its integrated phenomenality, or as Nzewi puts it ‘a symbiosis of music, dance, drama and motive material arts in indigenous African conceptualisation’ (Nzewi 2009:132). CREATIVE THINKING IN AFRICA 27 among expressive modalities (especially instrumental music and dance) illustrates the communal ethos, so that, for example, a dancer’s action may inspire a musician’s response, which evolves into a new musical idea. Language play (poetry) drives melodic invention in song, or instrumental music derived from vocal music (Onyeji 2006; Locke 2009), making language tone and rhythm integral to form and meaning in musical creativity. Creative musical processes4 are said to arise in three different forms: (i) inspirational, which might emerge out of dreams or sudden inspired thoughts and often relate to a spiritual awareness in the African sense of ‘extra-cognitive’; (ii) logical or ideational, where the composer(s) sets out to create a specific work in an appropriate style by sharing ideas, combining (blending) separate fragments or adding on material in layers to create a new whole that might, or might not, be initiated by an individual idea; and (iii) a spontaneous or impulse mode, where a musician or dancer improvises new ideas (Nzewi 1991; Mans 2004; Beeko 2005; Ngara 2008). Nzewi (1991:102) suggests that spontaneous creativity is ‘determined by spontaneous contingent factors of traditional musical creativity which could be musical, emotive and/or contextual.’ Iyer affirms that improvisation plays an important role especially in oral musical traditions, and that this, combined with the function of groove, makes alternative notions of musical form possible <Iyer>. The frequent presence of play in music and dance further contributes to and facilitates spontaneous creativity and innovation. Ngara’s study on Shona stone sculptors indicates that artists tend to use a metaphor of creative vision, i.e., ‘releasing the spirit in stone’ (Ngara 2008:12), as a paradigm consistent with their spirituality-centred wisdom. Such metaphors express the artists’ meaning constructions of their mode of experience, and reflects the dynamic complexity of creativity. Complex cultural and personal beliefs that inspire passion, confidence and creative intuition are involved (Ngara 2008:12). Nzewi adds that indigenous African cultures account for creativity in the musical arts in terms of the feminine – giving birth to sonic reality. Certain indigenous terminologies discuss expert musicianship as ‘mother’ musicianship,5 and the key instrument that directs an ensemble and undertakes more extensive improvisation as a mother instrument (drum) (Nzewi 2007:309). Ethnomusicology has shown that indigenous musical creativity demonstrated a firm attachment to purpose. The circumstances that demanded performance demarcated the values and ensuing aesthetic for a specific music. Innovation was only acceptable in as far as it remained aesthetically functional. Thus, while African musicians share the belief that creative ideas should go beyond the traditional musical templates and bring some sort of excitement, innovation and refreshment into the system, new musical ideas typically must be of benefit to the community, and bear spiritual, aesthetic and socio-cultural values (Nzewi 2007; Mans 2009). 4 Beeko, in his doctoral dissertation of 2005, has written extensively and compellingly about concepts of creativity among the Akan people. In this paragraph I have borrowed extensively from his description of creativity amongst the Akan. 5 And yet many African musicologists and practitioners also refer to master musicians. The notion of creativity as feminine and skill as masculine has not been fully investigated or argued. 28 MINETTE MANS Furthermore, stories, languages and metaphors provide many indications that within communities, trust and openness build a collective creative resonance and flow as a result of the field effects of collective consciousness, an idea expounded in Kenny’s research (Kenny 2008). Because the making of mistakes and trying again is inherent in the act of creating, a nurturing environment allows for the pursuit of creative ideas, and is less threatening and encourages persistence – a prominent African value. At the same time, the communality of creative processes ‘does not deny individual agency; rather, it provides a forum for the performance of individuality through the enabling but also critical mechanisms of social interaction’ <Agawu 2007>. Creative processes in these African contexts are thus driven by communal ethos, aesthetic values and functional needs. Creative personalities In indigenous Africa, the perception of what constitutes a creative person is determined as much by social as individual factors. Quite commonly, musical creativity and abilities are thought to be a divine gift and as an inherited ability that runs in musical families. Within this frame, certain personal tendencies – aptitude, capacity and production – lead to creative musical or other ideas. Mpofu et al. (2005) found that Africans consider creative people to be innovative and adaptive in their thinking; they are considered to have a personality orientation characterised by imaginativeness, unconventionality and openness to new experiences, to have a high sense of personal agency or motivation and to be willing to take risks. These attributes closely resemble those identified and described in Kaufman and Sternberg (2006), Czsikszentmíhalyi (1996, 1999) and Craft (2005). But, Mpofu adds: being creative stems from decisions to express values important to individuals or their communities. Africans also consider the environment critical to the development, display, and recognition of creativity in persons […] learned through social influences or education in a supportive environment. (Mpofu et al. 2005:478, my italics) Thus creative potential is typically framed by culturally acceptable features. While certain aspects of creative behaviour are innate, culturally acquired creative behaviour is learned through experience and knowledge of culture, and can be attributed to environmental influences. Creative people in Akan thought are generally regarded as mediators, intermediary figures, and are seen to be accountable to both the Creator ( b adeε) (divinely gifted) and the community in which they live (Beeko 2005:118).6 They are a source of dynamism and inspiration, even as they pursue novel desires, show daring and a tendency to override cultural inhibitions and conventions. However, they remain able to express and integrate aspects of themselves into the cultural scene (Beeko 2005:121). In other words, accepted norms for creative personalities are bound by certain socio-cultural constraints. 6 Beeko’s thoughts are echoed by Saether (2003) in describing a jali’s creativity. CREATIVE THINKING IN AFRICA 29 Creative outcomes (compositions) Orality inculcates creative spontaneity. (Nzewi 2006:52) Musical composition is a process where aspects of ‘knowledge building’ are applied as creative thinking <Bereiter & Scardamalia 2003>. This process of musical composition involves a focus on improving an idea or solving a (musical) problem, using the full range of available strategies and resources to develop something of value to the community. The creativity applies to the thinking activity that leads to innovation, and to the quality of outcomes <Munro 2006>. The created product must have certain culturally acceptable characteristics, and if the innovation moves too far from known cultural templates, it will initially be unacceptable (Hanna 2003). In indigenous traditions musical templates and societal rules formed boundaries within which there existed a certain freedom for making variations, improvisations and extemporisation. Since all newly created music is derived from earlier musical knowledge and experience, it is understandable that Akan traditional musicians working within the constraints of the artistic parameters of the culture, consciously and subconsciously generate new ideas as they reproduce, reconstruct, reorder, and reinterpret the existing musical elements through their creative processes, and as a result bring about innovation in the tradition. These innovations are a necessary factor for sustaining the tradition, and for making it relevant to every period. (Beeko 2005:117). Dance and music in Africa tend towards circular forms, which echo the circularity of life cycle, philosophical thought, social practices and design preferences, i.e. construction.7 There is a belief in a cycle of creation that exhibits as a never-ending process of creativity. Composers have described this as a manifestation of the spiritual that develops in the natural world. Compositions therefore continue to be subjected to refining processes (Beeko 2005). Circularity should not be interpreted as a roundabout repetition, rather as patterns of circles that intersect, or form a chain, or spiral outwards from a central circle. Visualise a lacework of circles, if you like, where a creative person would begin in one circular field (perhaps an ostinato) that may be expanded upon, or lead to a movement expression in another or more than one circular field. Circularity is compellingly illustrated in Anku’s explanation of the creative-performative field of the master drummer of West Africa <Anuku 2007> . The drum ensemble consists of two basic concepts – the background ostinato concept and the master drum concept. The background ostinato consists of ‘concentric circular rhythms, each with its peculiar orientation to the regulative beat of the time cycle and thus revealing staggered entry relationships astride the regulative beat’ <Anuku 2007>. A representation of the master drum ‘reveals a complex interlocking super-structure of the fundamental circular concept’ as a succession of ordered rhythmic 7 See discussions by, for example, Tiérou (1992) and Anku <2007>. 30 MINETTE MANS manipulations regulated by the common timing principle of the time cycle <Anku 2007>. Hence, there is an interlocking of circles within and over circles. Composer-performers (such as master drummers) are thought to possess the ability to divinely discern and creatively generate the ‘hidden’ melodies from texts given in dreams or visions (Nzewi 2007; Mans 2004; 2009; Idamoyibo 2011). Hence Beeko suggests that composing may be seen as a two-dimensional process in which the vertical dimension is the realisation of melodies from the texts (‘discerning’ and ‘generation’), and the horizontal dimension is the ‘putting together’ and ‘blending’ of different phrases of ideas (Beeko 2005:125). Innovation and adaptation work together in the composing process. Domain of creativity in society Czsikszentmíhalyi (1999) proposes a systems approach to the study of creativity, taking political, cultural, social, religious, psychological and other factors into consideration, since a creative action will affect the thoughts and feelings of members of that culture. ‘If creativity is to retain a useful meaning, it must refer to a process that results in an idea or a product that is recognised and adopted by others’ (Czsikszentmíhalyi 1999:314). Hence, for a thought or product to be considered creative, it must be judged as such by people according to their criteria and values – in Africa as elsewhere. To understand the influence of cultural differences on creativity, Lubart suggests creation myths as possible prototypes of creative thought (1999:341). Because society encourages (or discourages) certain forms of creativity (Lubart 1999:342), the judging of creativity takes place according to people’s conceptions of what qualifies as creative or innovative. It relies on cultural and personal bias, training, education, past experiences and personal values. P’Bitek said: It is only the participants in a culture who can pass judgment on [the creative work]. It is only they who can evaluate how efective the song or dance is; how the decoration, the architecture, the plan of the village has contributed to the feast of life. (P’Bitek 1986:37). From Lubart’s and P’Bitek’s statements we can deduce that musical creativity relies on interaction between composer-performer and onlooker-participants, in addition to internal communication within the composer himself. In indigenous Africa, then, creativity is a product of social systems that evaluate an individual’s products. The onlooker-participants are the connoisseurs who judge whether the performance meets their aesthetic standards. The functional aesthetic (public approval) marks musical arts appreciation (Nzewi 2009), because onlooker-participants are the norm in indigenous Africa. Thus the reaction is part of the creative-presentational process. It feeds back into the creative performance. However, to be socially accepted, creative ideas need to be appropriate in terms of intended purpose. Traditional musicians play significant roles in their societies, even where these roles and their outcomes are not purely musical (Saether 2003; Beeko 2005).8 They 8 Beeko describes Akan musicians, while Saether describes Gambian music situations. CREATIVE THINKING IN AFRICA 31 make material, social, institutional and spiritual contributions to their societies, and their creative sensibilities bring about various forms of innovation. The capacity to bring about change arises partly out of the practice of collaborative forms of creativity, where groups consider relevant ideas and imagine alternative scenarios. Ewe drummers, for example, see their creative task as linked to meaningfulness and an awareness of communal expectation. But, says Agawu <2007>, this does not diminish individual creativity, as the soloist is encouraged to continue exercising and improving skills. Kenny (2008) suggests that group creativity increases as members develop field effects of collective consciousness that support the emergence of collaborative creativity. Clearly musical practice and creativity are activities embedded in socio-cultural contexts. The creative activities of children are influenced by family, community and society. Within their interactive social spheres of family and friends, children learn and share music that already exists within the cultural repertoire, but at the same time share their play with improvisation and change. This is a creative activity that emerges from membership within various social and cultural units (Campbell 2002; <Dzansi-McPalm 2002>; Burnard 2006) and, coming full circle, one that inspires creativity in adults (Locke 2009). Agawu suggests that the only firm constraint placed on the exercise of the imagination, framed as it is by social values, is that creativity has a human dimension, that it be meaningful within the expressive modes that define us as a community. To accept a communal constraint is to accept a certain measure of ethical responsibility for what one produces musically; it is to give rein to a communicative impulse that acknowledges an always-already connected ideology. <Agawu 2007, emphasis in original> Elders often discourage changes initiated by youths, if the young people are deemed to be unskilled, lacking in knowledge or disrespectful of established institutions for expressive culture, such as hereditary lineages (Locke 2009). Creativity is also framed by gender role expectations, where men are expected to demonstrate their creativity in certain fields and women in others. For example, the creative focus of Igbo women is on social relations, the moral development of the young, propagating family virtues and social harmony (Onyeji 2004), and that of !Kung men on healing performance (Lubart 1999). Furthermore, cultural expectations influence the style and frequency of creative actions. Ruth Stone <2007> found that the Kpelle people, for example, expect new songs all the time, and thus some songs are short-lived. There is ready adoption of songs from neighbouring communities in a process of borrowing, changing and perpetuating through the addition of elaborations of melody, rhythm and text. Since the foregoing are statements about indigenous and traditional interpretations of creativity in Africa, and since creativity is embedded in social realities, questions should be raised about the current state of affairs. 32 MINETTE MANS Square schools and round pebbles Little has been written about the subtle, but devastating, effects of education during the colonial period on creativity amongst indigenous Africans. Unnoticed, the importation and unchallenged acceptance of European-style schools generated a pernicious influence. Under colonial influence, rectangular school buildings and classrooms arose, with oblong windows and doors, furnished with desks arranged into lines. Less concrete was the linear conceptualisation of European education that formed a stark contrast with the essential circularity of African knowledge systems, aesthetics, forms of innovation and creative works. Linear conceptualisation broadly refers to thinking processes (like mathematical reasoning, where each step follows the other to reach a foregone conclusion); to linear progress through numbered year ‘standards’; to achievement rankings from first to last; to straight rows of benches and lines of scholars at schools. Throughout, there is the presence of straight lines. No circles, no sharing, no visual communication with peers. This contrasted with rural indigenous ways of conducting serious discussions and musical performances in circles; of musical forms that are circular; buildings that are often circular or arranged in other-than-straight lines; of communal compositions; of knowledge-sharing and awaiting community judgment on new ideas (Agawu 2001; Tiérou 1992; Nzewi 2003; <Anku 2007>). Dominating the front of the classroom was a (usually male) teacher employing an authoritarian mode of education. Having emerged from a supportive community-based system of learning and innovation, the teacher found that the indigenous collective knowledge framework and shared support system of community dropped away from under his feet. Where a community could share knowledge, the teacher now had to know everything. No wonder he clung to the textbook and brooked no argument, since the inherent weakness of his position could so easily be revealed! Creativity found fallow ground in this environment. In addition, the new African elite often measure success in life by the distance they have moved away from their indigenous culture (Ngara 2007). ‘Western music education […] as practiced in African schools, has hitherto placed little emphasis on improvisation’ and facilitating creativity (Kongo & Robinson 2003:95). Individualism replaced collectivism in classrooms. Imagine some of the adjustments. The ‘best’ result was valued. Helping others with an answer was cheating. Imported curricula ignored indigenous knowledge, while differentiated ‘subjects’ were introduced as ‘real’ (as opposed to ‘useless’) knowledge. Creative thinking was expected to conform to Eurocentric values, but paradoxically bred conformity and lack of confidence in African forms of problem solving and innovation. The inherent tension between a communal way of living and an individualistic way of schooling began breeding a deep sense of insecurity amongst schooled Africans. Thus were minds effectively colonised. Music outside of schools, fortunately, has shown itself to be resilient. Colonial African musical innovations took root mainly in the commercial musical industry. What started off as direct imitations of foreign jazz, military bands, big bands and classical music, were CREATIVE THINKING IN AFRICA 33 transformed in the mid-twentieth century into inimitable African-Western blends such as Congo’s OK Jazz, Ethiopia’s Imperial Body Guard Band, South Africa’s kwela, marabi and jive bands, and Nigeria’s early high-life. By using (colonising) existing foreign or imported forms and instruments, African musicians found their way into the world media and demanded that notice be taken of them. This impelled the music industry forward into a broad divergence, where some today build on global music ideas (Soweto String Quartet, opera singers, hip-hop groups, pop singers, Sadé, jazz bands), while others choose to seek and expose their musical creativity through their own indigenous sounds and forms (e.g. Salif Keita, Miriam Makeba, Ayub Ogada, Aster Aweke, Abdel Ali Slimani, Oumou Sangare). In post-colonial Africa people, ideas and resources move around at a rapid pace. However, a glance at schools – mediated as they are by national policies – will reveal that change has been slow to reach them (Nketia 1999; Flolu & Amuah 2003; Samuel 2006). Still too often dominated by inadequately educated authoritarian teachers and entrenched individualistic systems, schools are the site of new tensions between ‘economic development’ and renaissance-like rediscovery and revaluation of African thought. Since societies and people are themselves caught up ‘in-between’9 (liminal) cultural spaces and periods, tensions develop between collective traditional values and contemporary global ones. Arts allow individuals to frame their worlds creatively, but even in 2011 only a few schools practise value-laden arts creatively within the curriculum.10 This means that the social and spiritual values inherent in musical practices and contents are generally ignored in favour of ‘theoretical’, structural and historical aspects of music. Often socio-political environments also discourage notions of difference in favour of nationalism. But to maintain a critical distance from the state as well as vitality of intellectual creativity, it is important to maintain a certain cultural embeddedness. Taban Lo Liyong has stated that African writers [have] had to find a new way of dealing with African issues. We need a new literary movement of extra-decolonisation of Africa from African dictators. Let’s produce that ideology first and it will have its activists. We have been running away from African culture into European culture for so long. No philosopher in Africa can claim to say ‘I am a philosopher of African philosophy’. <Taban Lo Liyang 2005:1, my emphasis> But slow deterioration of the value-based communal creative system has left a kind of vacuum, where musicians are left wondering whose ideas and values they need to exploit, reproduce and transform. Since many musicians emerging from contemporary education favour a Euro-American view of creativity, they emphasise the freedom to be self-critical, to uphold different views, to believe in the diversity – even perversity – of the individual voice in preference to the collective voice. This evinces a fundamental adjustment of values, 9 See Bhabha 1994. 10 Outside of the curriculum there is often active, child or community-initiated music and dance. 34 MINETTE MANS away from or alongside indigenous values. In the past the ‘ambiguity of orality’ lent itself readily to adaptability, subversion, dilution, appropriation and exploitation, according to Lwanda (2009). Now contemporary musicians need to reaffirm their cultural connections to exploit these characteristics. How will we choose the way forward? One of the ways in which issues of creativity can be addressed is in arts education. Considering the way that values in musical practice impact on performance, creativity and appreciation seems apt, as was illustrated above. For example, educators can reconsider the African foundations of creativity. Whereas indigenous musical arts were ‘institutionalized to transact psychical wellbeing of both the individual and the human collective, thereby infusing basic morality and group consciousness in social conduct’ (Nzewi 2009:132), contemporary musicians tend to be seduced by the glamour and rewards of the competitive music industry, a negative in his view. However, youths often challenge traditions and the views held by elders. Thus Locke (2009) (in Ghana) notes that musicians whose identities are invested in traditional music hold negative attitudes towards younger musicians who are doing popular music, based on the view that the pop musicians do not have a solid foundation and have not ‘paid their dues’ by mastering traditional repertoire. There is a feeling amongst traditional musicians that the pop musicians are dependent on European instruments and are ‘just making a noise’ rather than playing music that is meaningful. Their emphasis on meaning is significant. In other arenas, too, theatrical performance troupes stimulate new works, but the reception of these newly created works (and styles) is highly contested by older audiences, who may find that the creations lack beauty, or are too dissimilar from the traditional idioms on which they are modelled (Locke 2009). While urban African youths relate fully to the hits of contemporary music, an age gulf emerges, with older populations turning to musics that they were familiar with in their youth – jazz, Western classics, or indigenous traditions. To bridge this divide, it seems that a rediscovery and re-valuation of sociomusical meanings and values are needed – of indigenous traditions as well as contemporary music. This could provide insight that allows young people to make informed decisions regarding their preferences. Key principles for a slippery subject It seems obvious that for creativity in African communities to be reinvented in a contemporary indigenous fashion, some key principles need to be identified. One such principle is the notion of arts in the service of society. In this sense, musical creativity is a fundamental humanising factor (Ezeigbo 2009; Nzewi 2009), and research into group and individual composition is needed. Research on existing musical archetypes (or templates) and their perceived value links in societies might also yield exciting results. CREATIVE THINKING IN AFRICA 35 Research questions can be asked about the relation between values and composition. For example: • How much value is placed on innovation as opposed to continuation, retaining what is important? • Who (in a culture) are the persons generally encouraged to bring about changes? • How ought innovations and changes to be brought about, and brought to the attention of others? • How can creative persons be assisted to see what Mhlahlo (2009) calls ‘synergies between the present, past and future’? Educational reform in musical arts seems crucial. Nzewi (2009) states emphatically that pedagogy needs to be integrated with a spirituality-centred wisdom to liberate and decolonise the mind from the imposed notions of racial difference and individualism. Programmes that develop young people’s creativity and self-expression can be effective in strengthening other key life skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, communication, respect and teamwork. This could have a wide-ranging long-term effect on creativity in general. One link between contemporary education and indigenous African education lies in establishing a collaborative domain in the classroom. This can prevent mere reproduction of traditional materials. Collaborative and creative learning have much to do with generativity (Craft 2005:56). Both the generative and exploratory processes are important in creative education, which can be viewed as an explorative, generative endeavour. A critical dialogue is needed between learner and educator, who are both constantly searching for truths in order to clarify their understanding of the solutions to the problems being raised. In this critical dialogue Fakier and Waghid (2004:60) believe that all individuals should be freely allowed to express justifiable opinions – clearly a challenge for teachers in many schools in Africa. Musicians need to (re-)learn how to draw on known elements and apply them in new situations or configurations to create a fresh treatment of musical materials (Onuekwusi 1997). One could even go so far as to say that musicians could consider rediscovering an interaction with knowledgeable beings in dreams (ancestors, teachers) as these interactions can stimulate creative processes, no matter the specific musical outcomes. However, where religious views forbid this (e.g. Eritrea and other north Africa states), the links between religion, musical arts, spiritual wellbeing and creative thinking can be explored. In A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, author Daniel Pink (2006) indicates that the future belongs to a different kind of mind – creators and empathisers, pattern recognisers and meaning makers – and that these people will reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys. Clearly, the circularity and communality of African traditions have something unique to contribute. One can only hope that musicians and educators in African schools will soon realise their role in enabling this crucial and inimitable facet of being fully human. 36 MINETTE MANS References Agawu, V K (2001). ‘An African understanding of African music.’ Research in African Literatures, 32(2):187–194. ——— (2007). ‘The communal ethos in African performance: ritual, narrative and music among the Northern Ewe.’ Trans-Transcultural Music Review, 11. <www.sibetrans.com/trans/index.htm> accessed 11 December 2008. 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