"At the sources of the Nile"

creative writing as a tool to work on student’s colonial views

Authors

Keywords:

Postcolonial studies, Ethnomusicological teaching method, Performative ethnography, Image of Africa, Creative writing

Abstract

This article describes the experiences with an ethnomusicological teaching method from the field of performative ethnography in Germany. In a creative writing process students are asked to develop a fictional ethnography of a people group ‘at the sources of the Nile’. Based on the corpus class room discussions are carried out to deconstruct the students’ ‘image of Africa’ and to thematise postcolonial theories. The author describes the project design and gives an evaluation of the outcomes of four applications of the project at different German institutions for higher education. It shows that the students have consistent stereotypes of African cultures and its musics that are mainly generated by the German media and international movies. Feedback of the students and critical reflections lead to the question how it is possible to discuss colonial stereotypes and racist world views in ethnomusicological teachings without reproducing it at the same time.

Author Biography

  • Nepomuk Riva, Dr, University of Hildesheim

    Nepomuk Riva studied musicology and theology in Heidelberg and Berlin. His dissertation is a study on the written and oral traditions of Cameroonian church music which was part of the Graduate School “Schriftbildlichkeit” at the Freie Universität Berlin. Later on he worked as a research associate at the Humboldt University in Berlin and also worked at the University of Music, Theater and Media in Hanover on a project about the representation of Africa in the history of European music. At the Center for World Music, Nepomuk Riva is the coordinator of the SDG Graduate School. Since his own teaching experience in Cameroon and South Africa, he has been particularly enthusiastic about intercultural exchange through mutual learning. For many years, Nepomuk Riva has also worked as a freelance editor for various German television companies and production companies and has linked field research with documentary film projects.

Capa do periódico Música em Contexto, volume 12, número 1, dezembro de 2018

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Published

2018-12-20

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2018)

Section

Artigos

License

Copyright (c) 2018 Música em Contexto

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

“‘At the Sources of the Nile’: Creative Writing As a Tool to Work on student’s Colonial Views”. 2018. Música Em Contexto 12 (1): 115-23. https://periodicostestes.bce.unb.br/index.php/Musica/article/view/23570.