Dr Sazi Dlamini (third left) with winners and representatives of the NIHSS Book, Creative and Digital Awards. Music Lecturer Shares Book, Creative and Digital Award
UKZN Music Lecturer Dr Sazi Dlamini was a member of a five-man team which won the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) Book, Creative and Digital Award.
Other members of the team were Mr Neo Muyanga, Mr Sumangala Damodaran, Professor Jürgen Bräuninger and Professor Ari Sitas.
They received the award valued at R60 000 for their work titled “Insurrections in the category Best Musical Composition/Arrangement”.
Insurrections is a collection of 12 compositions and is the product of a poetry-music collaboration about the relationship between word, voice, expression and sound around shared social and political concerns between India and South Africa.
The awards honour and celebrate outstanding, innovative and socially responsive scholarship and creative and digital contributions that advance the humanities and social sciences fields.
CEO of NIHSS, Dr Sarah Mosoetsa, said: ‘The awards are a platform to laud outstanding contributions to the humanities and social sciences through scholarly and creative work.’
Said Dlamini: ‘I am pleased my team and I have been recognised for our work. Getting this award also showcases the importance of creative Humanities collaborations. I hope that this will generate further collaboration opportunities and follow-ups to advance humanities and social sciences fields.’
Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Humanities at UKZN, Professor Cheryl Potgieter, said: ‘As Deputy Vice-Chancellor, I am proud of the work of Dr Sazi Dlamini and Prof Jürgen Bräuninger. We also recognise their ongoing commitment to nurturing emerging young talent and in so doing contributing to UKZN’s ongoing project of re-imagining and decolonising the humanities and the social sciences.’
Acting Dean and Head of the School of Arts, Professor Donal McCracken, added: ‘The announcement that Sazi Dlamini and Jurgen Brauninger have won the NIHSS award in the Best Musical Composition/Arrangement category is excellent news and very well timed, coming as it does when we have just appointed a new head of Music at UKZN and are embarking on a major recurriculation exercise. Music has a long tradition of excellence at the University and the award reaffirms that the Discipline is moving forward successfully.’
The Insurrections project, which began in 2010 as a conversation between South African poet Sitas and Indian singer Damodaran, first involved the creation of an interactive, collective poetry text between Sitas and Pitika Ntuli from South Africa and Sabitha TP and Vivek Narayanan from India.
The music happened in three remarkable sessions. An encounter in Delhi early in 2011 between Damodaran, Muyanga, Dlamini and Susmit Sen, provided the first soundscapes in Susmit’s studio.
This was followed up in Durban between Bräuninger and Dlamini, in Delhi by Sumangala Damodaran, Tapan Mullick and Pritam Ghosal, and in Cape Town by Malika Ndlovu, Tina Schouw, Brydon Bolton and Ari Sitas. There was also a Durban encounter which involved all the South African participants and Damodaran.
They also featured at various Poetry Africa Festivals, hosted by the College of Humanities’ Centre for Creative Arts.
Melissa Mungroo and CCA