Dr Boudina McConnachie

BMus, PGCE, RULS, MMus, PhD

Boudina McConnachie (PhD, MMus, BMus, PGCE, RULS) is an African musical arts activist with aparticular interest in indigenous musical arts pedagogy, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, soundscapes and ecomusicology. She co-ordinates various music education courses through the Rhodes University Education department and is integrally involved in the learning and teaching programme at the International Library of African Music (ILAM). Boudina completed her undergraduate music degree majoring in African music (uhadi and mbira) and classical flute and was a music teacher at a government school in the Eastern Cape for over ten years. She completed her masters specialising in Indigenous Knowledge and copyright and her PhD (funded by the NIHSS) in African music curriculum development.Boudina has written two textbooks, Listen and Learn, Music Made Easy (2012) and My Music, My Classroom- Umculo Wam, Iklasi Yam (2016) and various journal articles. She has produced many educational podcasts including the series Songs of the Ocean (2022), African Music Activists (2021) and Afroloops (2019/2022). In addition, she has reviewed articles for international journals, presented at conferences across the globe and has actively contributed towards the development of the African Musical Arts curricula at several universities in South Africa. Boudina is currently the Principal Investigator for the Africa Multiple Cluster project Approaches to African Sonic Pedagogies and is the HOD of the Rhodes Department of Music and Musicology.

Boudina is currently supervising 8 PhD students and 5 Masters students. Her current graduates include the internationally recognized timibila performer, Venancio Mbande Junior and the South African jazz vocalist Natalie Rungen.

Publication Record

McConnachie, B., T. Makamure, P. Mathebula, B. Mavuso, H. McCarthy, & Y. Ntshakaza.
Forthcoming Chapter. Podcasting as a teaching and learning intervention. Reimagining South African
Higher Education, African Sun Media.

McConnachie, B. In press. Social Cohesion and Indigenous Arts Education in South Africa. A Nation
Divided? Assessing and Analyzing Social Cohesion in South Africa, edited by Justine Burns and Arnim
Langer, commissioned by U.C.T. and UK Leuven, Cambridge University Press.

Porri, F., McConnachie, B., Van der Walt, K., Wynberg, R., & Pattrick, P . 2022. Eco-creative nature-
based solutions to transform urban coastlines, local coastal communities and enhance biodiversity through the lens of scientific and Indigenous knowledge. Cambridge Prisms: Coastal Futures, 1, E17. DOI:10.1017/cft.2022.10

McConnachie, B., 2021. Copyright complications and consequences at the International Library of
African Music, Rhodes University: A case study. South African Music Studies, 41(1), pp.183-197. ISSN
2223-635X

McConnachie, B. 2021. Social cohesion through sonic intervention. Ritualized belonging: Musicing
and spirituality in the South African context, edited by June Boyce-Tillman; Liesl van der Merwe;
Janelize van der Merwe, pp. 161-177. Peter Lang Books, Oxford. ISBN 978-80079-584-6 (print) 978-1-
80079-646-1 (ePub)

Watkins, L., Madiba, E. and McConnachie, B. 2021. Rethinking the decolonial moment through
collaborative practices at the International Library of African Music (ILAM), South Africa.
Ethnomusicology Forum, pp. 1-20. Routledge.DOI: 10.1080/17411912.2021.1938628

McConnachie, B., 2021. Reshaping our musical values: decolonising teaching and curricular
frameworks in the Eastern Cape. Ethnomusicology Forum, pp. 1-12. Routledge. DOI:
10.1080/17411912.2021.1930090

McConnachie, B. 2018. Reshaping our Musical Values. SASRIM 2017 Conference Proceedings. Edited
by Mareli Stolp and Mia Pistorius.

McConnachie, B. 2018. Bruinders, S. 2017. Parading Respectability: The cultural and moral aesthetics
of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa. A Review. African Music
Journal, 10(4), pp.197-198.

McConnachie, B. 2017. The Changing Faces of Aawambo Musical Arts. Minette Mans. 2017.
Switzerland: Basel Afrika Bibliographien. 56 bw figures (photographs, sketches), 24 transcriptions,
glossary, bibliography, index, 188pp. African Music: Journal of the International Library of African
Music 10 (3), pp. 175-177.

McConnachie, B. & G. Walwyn. 2016. Basic Part-time Marimba Band Reading Guide. COPA,
Johannesburg.

McConnachie, B. & G Walwyn. 2016. Basic Part-time Marimba Band Theory and Aural. COPA,
Johannesburg.

McConnachie, B. & G Walwyn. 2016. Basic Part-time Marimba Band Practical. COPA, Johannesburg.

McConnachie, B. 2016. My Music, My Classroom. Grahamstown, South Africa: ILAM.

McConnachie, B. 2013. Listen and Learn – Music Made Easy. Grahamstown, South Africa: ILAM.

McConnachie, B. Siaka, an African Musician, 80 minutes, DVD. An African Brass Band, 72 minutes,
DVD. Author and Producer-Director: Hugo Zemp. African Music: Journal of the International Library
of African Music 8 (2), pp. 125-127.

McConnachie, B. 2008. Salungano! Salungano. A Review. African Music: Journal of the International
Library of African Music 9(1).

McConnachie, B. 2007. “Poetry and Languid Charm: Swahili Music from Tanzania and Kenya from the
1920s to the 1950s. A Review” in African Music: Journal Of the International Library of African Music
8(1), pp. 132-134.

Coetzer, B. 2005. Langarm in and around Grahamstown: the dance, the social history and the music.
Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa, 2(1), pp. 70-83, DOI: 0.2989/18121000509486702

Coetzer, B. 2005. Coysan-the Langarm Experience: An Analysis of a Langarm Exhibition at the
Grahamstown National Arts Festival 2005. Annual Congress of the Musicological Society of Southern
Africa, University of Cape Town, pp. 25-27.

Coetzer, B. 2005. Langarm in Grahamstown: The dance, the social history and the music. Papers
presented at the 18th Symposium on Ethnomusicology 2004. Edited by Andrew Tracey. ILAM,
Rhodes University, Grahamstown.

Fellowships, Bursaries and Awards

Future Professors Programme (FFP) Cohort 3 2023-2024

Teaching Advancement at Universities (TAU) Fellowship Cohort 3 2021-2022

Recipient of the Alty Award Rhodes University 2017

Recipient of the NIHSS SAHUDA PhD Scholarship 2015-2016

Recipient of the SARCHiE Post Graduate Part-time Scholarship 2014

Recipient of the NRF Postgraduate SAMAP Bursary 2007/2008

Awarded the NRF Prestigious Scholarship for Masters Studies in 2006/2007

Recipient of the Rhodes Masters Degree Scholarship 2006

Recipient of the ILAM Post Graduate Scholarship 2006/2007

Awarded the Rhodes University Prestigious Award Bursary for 2006/2007

National winner of The Journal of Musical Arts in Africa ethnomusicology writing competition 2005