Joyce Jenje Makwenda

Ethnomusicologist

Born and bred in the bustling township of Mbare, Joyce Jenje-Makwenda is a renowned ethnomusicologist. Her exact year of birth is 1958.

Since 1984 she has carried out research and interviews on early urban culture, music, politics, education, religion, media, fashion, taboo, sexual and cultural issues and women’s histories in Zimbabwe. She continues to tackle Zimbabwean culture and township music through novels.

She traces the origins of township/urban music and how it has evolved over the years to be what it is today. A mother of four and a grandmother, she has been very instrumental in promoting the rights of women and the girl child and addressing the trials and tribulations women face in society.

Her most popular writing — Zimbabwe Township Music — which is a celebration of old age popular music, which evolved in the colonial urban setting, has become the main text on the history of music.

Joyce’s research on township music and her novels have been a fulfilment of her childhood dream and are a timeless and rich source of the evolution and development of music that has uniquely characterized Zimbabwe. She traces the effects of foreign music on early urban settlers from as far back as the 1930s. The other book “Gupuro” is about traditional divorce and the dilemma of a token payout.

Her book Usenzeni highlights the pain, sorrow and problems that see three generations of women stand up to be counted and claim their space in life. Besides tracing the growth and development of urban music, Joyce explores other topical issues that affect women through her informative books.

Joyce’s interest in documenting the development of township music was influenced by the knowledge of music performances that her father David exhibited under him attending the various shows back then.

David became fully abreast with the music and musicians of that time, information that his daughter Joyce gleaned from him. This soon became the back-borne and launching pad for Joyce’s quest to research township music and subsequently the writing of the very informative book – Zimbabwe Township Music.

Today many music historians and music students including researchers rely heavily on books written by Joyce, particularly those in search of knowledge about how the development of music Zimbabwe panned out. — NACZ.