The aim of this thesis is to explore Namibian music and dance, to gain understanding of the character of different practices and through this, to provide teachers and learners in schools with materials suitable for use in the new arts curriculum in Namibia. In order to motivate the need for indigenous cultural materials, a brief historical background to Namibian arts education is sketched, highlighting the effects of colonialism on cultural identity and the separation of music from dance in education. In gathering examples of indigenous music and dance it became clear that for these practices to retain a measure of integrity in schools, new ways of thinking about performance in schools would be required. This leads to a discussion of an approach summarised within the term ngoma, which refers to holism, communality and orality among other things. It is suggested that music/dance as ngoma has a positive contribution to make to Namibian arts education. To support this suggestion in a practical way, I explore the indigenous traditions used to educate and socialise young people. Argumentation follows regarding possibilities of preparing teaching-learning materials in a manner appropriate to Namibian circumstances. A breakdown of diverse characteristics of indigenous music and dance is done in order to help the teacher identify and comprehend the individual characters of Namibian performances. In this way teachers should be better prepared to utilise the examples of music/dance events that follow. Various events are contextualised, described, transcribed and analysed with suggestions for use in the classroom. Finally the ngoma approach, the principles of Basic Education in Namibia, and the new arts syllabi are brought together by investigating some of the possibilities of music and dance as ngoma in schools. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1997.

This study is a contextual analysis and evaluation of the Arts-in-Culture curriculum at Ongwediva College of Education. Arts-in-Culture is one of the core subjects in the Basic Education Teacher Diploma (BETD)’s Broad Curriculum. At colleges such as Ongwediva, Caprivi and Rundu, student teachers study Arts as a core subject, while at Windhoek College of Education it can be studied as either a major or a core subject. In this study, I have raised some questions: Why is it that at Ongwediva College, the status of Arts-in-Culture is still low in comparison to other curriculum subjects like sciences and languages? Do student teachers and teacher educators fully understand how to assess the subject? Is the syllabus open for everyone? Is the learning environment conducive to offering the subject? Do the syllabus; learning environment, teacher educators and student teachers promote the goals of education for all? This study first gives the historical background of the subject. The background is of a diverse nature, namely African Indigenous Arts education, Black Arts education under the missionaries, Black Arts education under the South Africa Regime and Arts Education in the current Namibian reform dispensation. Second, the data collecting methodologies of this study are discussed. This includes how I collected information, who I contacted to collect this information, the tools I used to collect data, when and where I used them, why they were used and how they were used, the difficulties or problems I encountered and what I have learned about myself during the process. The third part of this study is the analysis of my findings from the participants interviewed and the fourth is how I have tried to link these different sections together. The last part of the paper is my conclusion.