MIAF to train participants at 2020 instrument building workshops

The overall objective of the IBR programme is to encourage the formalisation and professionalisation of instrument-making and repair in Africa, especially in relation to indigenous African instruments. 

Now in its second iteration, the programme aims to train young people to make instruments while providing online tutorials to a wider audience across the continent. More importantly, the training is aimed at enabling instrument makers to train other instrument makers in their respective communities. This year’s focus instruments are the mbira and kamale ngoni.

This year's programme will culminate in a concert on Heritage Day (24 September) featuring prolific musicians Morena Leraba, Buhlebendalo and Sibusile Xaba. The concert will be streamed live on Music In Africa’s Facebook page at 6pm CAT (4pm GMT).

The workshops will be facilitated by experienced instrument makers Farai Machingambi and Joe Ntsako Makhanza, while the participants will include instrument makers, music teachers as well as traditional and contemporary musicians who have a keen interest in learning how to create authentic African instruments. The participants were selected across South Africa after an open call for applications was made by the MIAF in March this year. 

The first edition of the IBR project was held in South Africa in 2016 when participants from across the African continent took part in a series of intensive training sessions, where they were equipped with the skills to build their own instruments – namely the marimba, dulcimer guitar and umakhweyana. Since then, many of the participants have gone on to make and sell their own instruments, or train others in an artisanal practice that is being lost to modernisation and mechanisation.

The Music In Africa Instrument Building and Repair project is funded by the National Lotteries Commission (NLC). It is implemented in partnership with Siemens Stiftung, Goethe-Institut and Kaya FM.

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