The Aesthetics of African Participatory Music Making Through the Eyes of Utu: An Alternative Approach to Music Education

The theorisation of music and music making in most African Indigenous Communities has for a long time been the prerogative of anthropological and ethnomusicological inquiry, predominantly framed by Western hegemonic knowledge structures (Murungi, 2011, African musical aesthetics. Cambridge Scholars Publishing). This chapter offers a theoretical and methodological ruption by exploring the aesthetics of music and music making through the eyes of an alternative philosophical approach emanating from East Africa called Utu. It is a Kiswahili word describing the essence of being and becoming human by participating in life. The chapter will explore two principles – relationality and connectivity – as the foundation of creative endeavour. These will inform why and how music and music making in most Kenyan Indigenous Communities (KIC) is an aesthetic of life. This means that music encounters are not only a reflection of life but are in fact life (Nketia, 1984, The World of Music, 26, 3–28). It is argued that (1) the acknowledgement of already existing relationships within an encounter, (2) the effective creation of stable connections between entities or participants and (3) the validation and affirmations of the outcomes of the music encounter provide a relevant theoretical foundation for creativity and music education. This ruption from an ‘aesthetic in life’ (endorsed by most current mechanistic education practices) to an ‘aesthetic of life’ opens new creative and emergent possibilities for not only music education but broader educational futures.