SOURCES FOR WRITTEN AFRICAN CHILDREN'S SONGS

Adzinyah, Abraham Kobena & Maraire, Dumisani & Cook, Judith
  1986 Songs from Ghana and Zimbabwe, Danbury, Ct.: World Music Press.
   Some singable songs, some simplified, many built on Western harmony

Amoaku, W.K.
  1971 African  songs and rhythms for children: a selection from Ghana. Mainz: B. Schott's Söhne. Orff Schulwerk applied to African tradition, with instrumental arrangements.

Blacking, John
  1965 Venda children's songs. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University.
Traditional songs of Venda children and their context, South Africa. Accurate, copious, extensive analytical text. Some of the songs are easy, some not so.

Bokwe, John Knox
  1922 Amaculo aseLovedale. Lovedale, South Africa. Tonic solfa, SATB.
Mostly religious and school songs, some with accompaniment by Bokwe in Western style. Includes the four 'hymns of Ntsikana'.

Brouckaert, Liz
  1990 Songs sung by South African children. Cape Town: Grassroots Educare Trust.
   Mainly 'school'  songs, i.e. built on Western harmony, some semi-traditional.

Cock, Susan & Wood, Marilyn
  1995 Spot on songbook: songs and rhymes from Africa. With cassette. Johannesburg: Penguin Books SA. In USA: Viking Penguin, New York. Good collection of 36 children's songs in South African languages, incl. English and Afrikaans, some composed, some traditional.

Dargie, David
  1988 Xhosa music: its techniques and instruments with a collection of songs. Cape Town: David Phillips. Book and audio cassette. Thorough, accurate treatment, most songs rhythmically difficult, but well repays study.

Gibbins, Clarence W.M.
  1946 An African song book. Pietermaritzburg: Tarbot & Mitchell. Tonic solfa and staff. Zulu 'school' songs, some traditional.

Gunzburg, Claudine
  n.d. Kusasa sivuka - In the morning we wake up. Cape Town: Saayman & Weber. Mainly 'school' songs.

Jones, A.M.
  1959 Studies in African music. London: Oxford University Press. 2 vols. Major opus on African music. Songs from Ghana and Zambia transcribed in both vols, mostly but not all difficult, along with extensive pages of drum music.

Jones, A.M. & Kombe, L.
  1952  The Icila dance, old style: a study in African music and dance of the Lala tribe of the Northern Rhodesia [Zambia]. Cape Town: Longmans Green for African Music Society, Roodepoort. An early and accurate description of an African drum dance, with its song and drum patterns.

Kazadi, P.C.
  1972 The characteristic criteria in the vocal music of the Luba-Shankadi children [Congo-Kinshasa]. Tervuren, Belgium: Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale.

Makeba, Miriam
  1971 The world of African song. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.

Many of Makeba's well-known songs, transcribed in Tin pan alley style, rhythm over-simplified, African words spelled in American style.

Mohapeloa, J.
  n.d.  Unpublished 4-part songs. SATB, transcribed into staff c.1983 by Jonathan Edwards, Waterford-Kamhlaba School, Mbabane. Hand-written. Songs in the South African SATB choral style by possibly the best known Sotho composer.

Nketia, Kwabena
  1962 African music in Ghana. Accra: Longmans. One of the first books by the leading African ethnomusicologist, contains several songs.

Nompula, Yolisa
  1989 Xhosa indigenous children's songs in theTranskei. M.A. thesis, Univ. of  Transkei, South Africa. Music transcriptions?

Rycroft, David
  1976 Say it in Siswati. London: School of Oriental and African Studies. A language course, with appendix giving a useful collection of traditional songs.

Rycroft, David & Ngcobo, A.B.
  1979 Say it in Zulu. London: School of  Oriental and African Studies. A language course, with appendix giving a useful collection of  traditional songs.

Seeger, Pete
  n.d. Bantu choral folk songs. Transcribed into staff from Williams and Maselwa "African folk songs" (see below). Published in USA, publisher? Xhosa songs, some Southern Sotho, mostly traditional. and well-known. Book is missing.

Ter-Morshuizen, & Weinberg, P.
  1984 Singa linga longa. Cape Town: Maskew Miller. Eclectic collection of children's songs, a few traditional.

Tracey, Andrew
  ms.  I.L.A.M., unpubl mss., from Zimbabwe, S. Africa, etc. Small collection of mixed songs. (On special request only)

Tracey, Hugh
  1967  The lion on the path. 3rd edition published by Andrew & Paul Tracey, (originally London:

Routledge & Kegan Paul) 23 traditional animal folk stories from Zimbabwe, 2 from South Africa. Many have songs which are transcribed in the book and have been performed frequently in schools, sometimes dramatised. Not difficult. N.B. Also available in USA from Paul Tracey, 340 Las Casas Ave, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272-3306..

Via Africa Panel (L. Schoeman, L. Pruneau, S. Vilikazi)
  1996 Music can be fun: Sub Standards A and B (Grades 1 and 2): Introduction to class music in lower primary schools with songs in English and Zulu, Via Afrika, a division of the National Education Group, Pretoria. A practical, teaching-oriented collection of 51 songs, each with full suggestions for class use, arranged into weeks with weekly revision. Staff and tonic solfa.

Weinberg. Pessa
  1984 Hlabelela mntwanami: sing my child. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
A good collection of the actual songs sung by Zulu children near Pietermaritzburg, some in traditional Zulu style, some in 'school' style.
  n.d. Zulu children's songs. M.A. thesis, UNISA. Same as above.

Williams, Michael
  1995 The orphans of Qumbu and other South African operas for young people. Isando: Heinemann. Book and audio cassette. The songs are to be learned from the cassette and are not transcribed in the book.

Williams, H.C. & Maselwa J.N.
  n.d. African folk songs. St. Matthews College, South Africa. Tonic solfa.
A ground breaking early (c.1947) collection of Xhosa songs, mostly traditional and well-known, some Southern Sotho. (  in photocopy)

See also
AFRICAN MUSIC, Journal of the International Library of African Music, 1954 to date. Index available from ILAM, R5.00