Physical Description:

.3 l.f.: 3 video tapes (VCH-0227A-C)
 

Dates:

October 1998
 

Provenance:

The original video tapes were created by Gerhard Kubik and Moya Malamusi et al in February 1993 and again in July and August 1997. Three original tapes were filmed during the first trip (the locations are listed below), and three more tapes were filmed in the later trip. The Center copied the six tapes onto three VHS videotapes for deposit in October, 1998.
 

Biographical Sketch:

Gerhard Kubik is affiliated with the Centre for Social Research of the University of Malawi. He has repeatedly conducted research projects on African music in Malawi and other countries of Africa. He is the author of several books and numerous articles in scientific magazines on topics related to African cultures and languages. Since 1974 he has performed with Donald Kachamba, the last surviving representative of kwela music in southern Africa.

Moya Aliya Malamusi, who performs and lectures with Dr. Kubik, is an oral literature researcher who completed a three month recording survey of oral literature in southern Malawi with the assistance of the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany. He has performed with Donald Kachamba since the age of seven.

-- from notes on a Donald Kachamba tape (q.v.) of kwela music donated by Dr. Kubik in 1991
 

Scope and Content:

This collection of video tapes (VCH-0227A-C) consists of demonstrations of instrument making and performing; performances of other musicians in private and public settings; and various travel scenes, en route and at their destinations. These scenes include, from the first trip, Vienna, Austria; New York City; Philadelphia; Kent State University; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Memphis, Tennessee; and New York City again. The second trip includes scenes in Vienna; Chicago; Bloomington, Indiana; Murfreesboro; Bell Buckle, Tennessee; Memphis; Clarksdale, Mississippi; and Chicago again. Some of the highlights include performances on mouth bow, five-string banjo, Hawayani guitar, harmonica; a performance by a street musician; a singing performance by Malamusi's children, and a percussion accompaniment to a video game by one of them; the telling of a folk-tale; a street evangelist; various artists at the Bell Buckle Cafe; various artists at the Clarksdale, Mississippi Sunflower Blues Festival.
 

Location:

Audiovisual materials are filed by format and tape number.
 

Related Materials:

Accessions 92-054 and 93-017 include video tapes, audio tapes, and photographs of lectures that Kubik and Malamusi conducted at MTSU. African Guitar, in the video collection of the Center, is accessible through the university's online catalog. Two books by Gerhard Kubik can also be found through the online catalog.