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Conference Reflection
Get PDFThis paper reflects on the University of Johannesburg Art Therapy Conference, held in July 2023, focusing on themes of social justice and professionalisation within the arts therapies sector. The author critically examines the intersection of race, coloniality, and professionalisation in the field of arts therapy, particularly in the African context. Drawing on insights from the conference, the reflections highlight the persistent challenges faced by minoritised practitioners and service users, who remain underrepresented and underserved within the profession. The professionalisation of arts therapies is critiqued for perpetuating inequalities, alienating marginalised groups, and reinforcing colonial power dynamics. The paper also explores the tension between altruism and economic necessity in the work of arts therapists, underscoring the exploitation and undervaluation of their labour. Building on Kim Berman\u27s editorial, these reflections call for greater inclusivity, cultural sensitivity, and the dismantling of systemic barriers within the arts therapy profession. Our role in this ongoing dialogue and action is crucial as professional colleagues and peers in the arts therapies sector. The conference\u27s discourse offers a platform for us to collectively work toward a more equitable and socially just practice of arts therapy in Africa and beyond
Integrating Arts Therapies in Zambia: A Reflection on Psycho-Spiritual Cultural Dispositions and their Potential for Healing
No full textThe arts therapies, including music, art, dance/movement, and drama therapy, offer a promising pathway to integrating Zambia’s rich cultural and psycho-spiritual traditions into its healthcare system. Rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems, Zambia’s artistic and spiritual heritage aligns seamlessly with the principles of arts therapies, which emphasise self-expression, emotional regulation, and communal healing. Historically, Zambian healing practices have utilised music, dance, and visual arts as tools for spiritual connection and social cohesion, highlighting their potential for addressing contemporary mental health challenges.
This paper explores the cultural and historical relevance of arts therapies in Zambia, identifying opportunities for their integration into the healthcare system. It reviews existing literature, establishes theoretical frameworks, and examines case studies that highlight the feasibility and impact of arts-based interventions. The paper also addresses barriers such as resource constraints and societal perceptions of mental health, proposing actionable policy recommendations and pathways for implementation. By fostering collaboration between local practitioners and the international arts therapy community, Zambia can establish culturally responsive, sustainable interventions that preserve its cultural legacy while contributing to global discourses on mental health
Exploring music therapy in the life of the batonga of Mazabuka Southern Zambia
Get PDFDissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2019.The use of music for healing is ubiquitous in every human community. Music Therapy, however, as the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional, may not share the same pervasive prevalence in human society. This study explored how a culturally-sensitive music therapy process may be designed among baTonga of Mazabuka, particularly in relation to the participants’ existing understandings of masabe (musical healing ritual) Participants' perceptions of musical healing rituals of masabe were explored through focus groups, as well as, if the participants were amenable, to the use of musical healing rituals. We then designed a music therapy session together. The participants expressed delight at their involvement in the study as it communicated interest in their lives. The study affirmed their worldview and how that could be incorporated into wellness responses associated with their community. The study found that baTonga rely on musical healing rituals as they are aligned to their relational cosmology and accommodates their perceptions of wellbeing. BaTonga ritual music is rich in symbolism and imagery. Because buTonga personhood might be experienced at the intersection of the individual and the community, and at the intersection of the individual, the community and the natural environment, this study found that music therapy here would benefit from drawing on ecologically-informed community music therapy approaches. A music therapist’s role in buTonga may be seen similarly to how the role of a mun’ganga (an afflicted shamanic healer) is perceived in the community. The study argues that there is indeed a place for culture-centred, culturally sensitive and inclusive anti-oppressive music therapy among BuTonga. This research study contributes to the ongoing conversation about evolving meanings, theories, approaches and practices of music therapy.MusicMMusUnrestricte
The Emotional Labour of Translations and Interpretations in Music Therapy Research and Practice
No full textLanguage is a natural human system of conventionalised symbols with precise meanings that allows people to express and communicate their innermost thoughts and feelings, sensibilities and subjectivities, and carry out several social roles. Each human constellation develops a language suitable to the lifeworld. The diversity of languages is something to be celebrated, except when language is used as a tool for dominance. While the power of the English language is well recognised, the burden of using the English language by non-native English speakers and the expectation to use English in daily professional interactions are rarely examined in music therapy. Some people have written varied narratives of their encounters with power and language in this issue. This article, however, focuses on the labours of translations and interpretations in accommodating the dominant English language in music therapy research and practice. Using anecdotes and data from my postgraduate research, I demonstrate how the balance of power in the dominance of English in music therapy scholarship benefits the first-language speakers of the English language at the logistical and emotional expense of non-native English speakers
Es waren einmal Geschichten: Eine Feier der schwarzafrikanischen Folklore
No full textEach culture appears to have the phenomenon of storytelling. In some cultures, storytelling has taken the form of writing. While writing is an amiable enterprise, freely spoken stories have an import that cannot be capture in words on a piece of paper with ink. In most traditional Africa, we are faced with a clash of cultures, evidently resulting from the continent\u27s colonisation. We sit with the push for literary advancement. Academic advancement has added permanence to some of our folklore. What we lose in such progress is the plasticity of artful storytelling. While Africa is as such striding towards physical archiving of stories in books partly due to rapid urbanisation and social changes, most of the continental culture continue to gather around a fire for tales that answer mystical questions of origin why we are here. The purpose of this paper is to honour those stories and story holders. Apart from situating myth and story, this paper is a pure celebration of my heritage. I am celebrating the interrelation of music and musical tales. My early initiation into musical legends influences how I encounter music therapy as folklore. If music therapy were folklorist in Africa and similar cultures, participants would benefit from more than the medicalisation of music, but the imaginal\u27s swell provides sound grounding for all being.In jeder Kultur scheint es das Phänomen des Geschichtenerzählens zu geben. In einigen Kulturen hat das Geschichtenerzählen die Form des Schreibens angenommen. Während das Schreiben ein liebenswertes Unterfangen ist, haben frei gesprochene Geschichten eine Bedeutung, die sich nicht in Worte auf einem Stück Papier mit Tinte fassen lässt. Im traditionellen Afrika sind wir mit einem Zusammenprall der Kulturen konfrontiert, der offensichtlich auf die Kolonialisierung des Kontinents zurückzuführen ist. Wir haben es mit dem Drang nach literarischem Fortschritt zu tun. Der akademische Fortschritt hat unserem kulturellen Erbe eine gewisse Beständigkeit verliehen. Was wir bei diesem Fortschritt verlieren, ist die Plastizität des kunstvollen Geschichtenerzählens. Während Afrika als solches auf die physische Archivierung von Geschichten in Büchern zusteuert, was zum Teil auf die rasche Urbanisierung und den sozialen Wandel zurückzuführen ist, versammelt sich der Großteil der kontinentalen Kultur weiterhin um ein Feuer, um Geschichten zu erzählen, die die mystischen Fragen nach dem Ursprung beantworten, warum wir hier sind. In diesem Beitrag geht es darum, diese Geschichten und ihre Träger*innen zu würdigen. Abgesehen von der Verortung von Mythos und Geschichte ist dieser Beitrag eine reine Feier meines Erbes. Ich feiere die Wechselbeziehung zwischen Musik und musikalischen Erzählungen. Meine frühe Einführung in musikalische Legenden beeinflusst, wie ich der Musiktherapie als Folklore heute begegne. Wäre die Musiktherapie in Afrika und ähnlichen Kulturen folkloristisch, würden die Teilnehmenden nicht nur von der Medikalisierung der Musik profitieren, sondern die Musik wäre vielmehr, über den Schwellwert des Vorstellbaren hinaus, eine solide Grundlage allen Seins
Editorial: Psycho-Spiritual Practices in Arts Therapies in Africa and the Global South
No full textThe late Zulu sangoma and keeper of African wisdom, Credo Mutwa, once reflected on a profound moment of healing that challenged his understanding of therapeutic intervention. Having exhausted Western medical approaches to address his psychological distress following a violent attack in 1937, it was his grandfather, a man dismissed by missionaries as an ‘ungodly heathen’, who ultimately restored him to health (Mutwa, 1964). This experience led Mutwa (1964) to question why those dismissed by missionaries as ‘ungodly heathens’ possessed healing knowledge that Western medicine lacked. This poignant reflection encapsulates the central tension that this special issue of the South African Journal of Arts Therapies seeks to address
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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