De-neocolonizing the South African Music Education: Selective Transformation

In the context of South Africa’s National Development Plan, a crucial aspect of the overarching transformation agenda faces a significant crisis. Post-independence, many African nations, including South Africa, grappled with the challenge of equitable resource distribution, wealth sharing, land reform, education transformation, and power dynamics with their former colonial rulers. South Africa, with its relatively young democracy, confronts numerous hurdles concerning land reform, resource allocation, educational reform, and the integration of indigenous knowledge into its educational framework. Amid these challenges, transformation emerges as a key strategic terminology employed by the democratic government to readdress historical inequalities and foster harmony among its diverse population. This chapter examines the potential of technology as a transformative force in advancing the pedagogic playability and manufacturing processes of indigenous instruments for music education, with a particular focus on its capacity to facilitate the integration of this education into school curricula. Despite calls for the decolonization of higher education systems, the educational landscape remains one of the least transformed spaces in South Africa.