A composers' search for an African identity: The development of Mzilikazi Khumalo's compositional style

Abstract

ABSTRACT Questions of identity have profoundly shaped art music in Africa, where the communal ethos of music-making contrasts with Western notions of individual authorship. Within this landscape, the contributions of Mzilikazi Khumalo were long marginalised under colonial and apartheid frameworks that restricted recognition of Black composers. His work, however, stands as a vital expression of cultural resilience and intellectual agency. This study investigates Khumalo’s compositional methodology to understand how his music reflects and reconstructs African identity within choral and theatrical traditions. It asks: How does Khumalo’s compositional practice integrate African linguistic and cultural structures into Western art-music traditions, and how can this model inform contemporary practice-led composition? Adopting a qualitative and practice-led methodology, the research analyses Ma Ngificwa Ukufa (1959) and Izibongo zikaShaka (1981) through score and recording study, while situating insights from Khumalo’s approach within the author’s own creative portfolio. The study is framed by Bhabha’s theory of hybridity, Ng?g? wa Thiong’o’s decolonisation, and Mugovhani’s cultural nationalism. Findings show that Khumalo’s music mirrors isiZulu speech prosody, employs call-and-response and cyclic forms, and incorporates non-functional harmonic idioms rooted in amahubo and bow music. Building on this legacy, the author’s compositions—such as The Tale of Somagwaza and Echoes in the Snow—extend Khumalo’s principles into orchestral and mixed-media contexts. In doing so, the study demonstrates that African linguistic and cultural logics can generate new compositional pathways within global art music, contributing to the decolonisation and transformation of South African composition.