Abstract

This ethnomusicological study develops an interdisciplinary approach to muchongoyo music and dance heritage in the lives of the Ndau people in Zimbabwe, and investigates ways that this heritage can be safeguarded, adapted and combined with other Indigenous economic activities for sustainability. The study brings together a wide range of secondary sources to present an original history of Zimbabwean music and dance. Its theoretical framework draws on recent interactive directions in ethnomusicology that seek to engage culture bearers as collaborators in ethnographic fieldwork. It builds an original hybrid methodology that combines complementary approaches, perspectives, methods and procedures of conventional ethnography and applied ethnography with Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies. A conventional ethnography is first carried out, providing a thick description of muchongoyo as mutambe (social event). Following this, applied ethnography is advanced by developing a concentric model of festivalisation based on the practice of nhimbe (collaborative work) as an element of ubuntu/unthu (communitarianism). This model is developed and adopted to adapt muchongoyo and other aspects of Ndau culture, notably, Indigenous medicines, traditional beer, local agricultural products and cuisines, for community development through cultural festival tourism. The applied ethnography leads to the implementation of a novel intervention: a multi-faceted muchongoyo cultural festival. This festival, designed to empower participants with critical capacities of self-reliance, identifies a crucial role for culture-bearers in sustaining Ndau heritage for sustainable development. Overall findings of the study highlight the dynamic role of living heritage in promoting sustainability and contribute to hybrid methodological approaches in applied ethnomusicology. Critically, they propose concrete ways of addressing UNESCO goals for the promotion of sustainable development and safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.