Richie Andile Musambasi
Richie Andile Musambasi
Short Bio
Richie Andile Musambasi is a Zimbabwean ethnomusicologist, marimba clinician, composer, and PhD candidate in the Department of Music and Musicology at Rhodes University. His research explores audio-visual pedagogies, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and culturally responsive approaches to teaching African marimba in higher music education. As Director of the RUmband (Rhodes University Marimba Band) and founder of the Accent Marimba Camp, Musambasi has trained hundreds of young musicians across Southern Africa through performance, workshops, and community music education. His work is dedicated to preserving and reimagining indigenous African musical traditions by integrating oral pedagogy with contemporary educational practice. A passionate performer and educator, Musambasi continues to compose, arrange, and teach marimba and mbira music while advocating for the recognition of African musical knowledge as a vital component of decolonial music education.
Project Description
The project explores African musical knowledge as a tool for world-making, highlighting multiplicity, relationality, and reflexivity through marimba, mbira, percussion, and storytelling. Drawing on Shona and Xhosa musical traditions, the work investigates how oral and embodied knowledge can be transformed into performative and multimedia forms, bridging indigenous epistemologies with contemporary and digital practices.