The next UCT Inaugural Lecture, scheduled for Wednesday, 28 August 2024 at 17:30 SAST, will be delivered by Professor Dizu Zungula Mzikantu Plaatjies under the title “My journey”. Plaatjies has been instrumental in a resurgence of musical bow appreciation through his teachings at the University of Cape Town and other institutions. He is not only a master bow player, but also a master bow maker who’s innovative musical spirit has led him to create some very interesting instruments. Plaatjies states: “Although I grew up in ‘urban times’, my journey into the art of the bow started at the knee of my rural Mpondo mothers and aunts. This journey has taken me far away from these early formative interactions. However, the impact of their artistry and wisdom on me has not waned. It has provided sustenance and solace throughout my career as performer, instrument builder, educator and mentor. Perhaps now is the time for me to reflect on aspects of the past and also contemplate what the future holds.”

Professor Plaatjies heads African Music Performance at the South African College of Music (SACM) at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Plaatjies is one of South Africa’s leading traditional artists and cultural historians of African Music. He is the founder and leader of the music group Ibuyambo and the founder and former leader of South Africa’s globally celebrated traditional group, Amampondo, who recorded and toured locally and internationally in the 1980s and 90s. The son of a traditional healer, Plaatjies’s upbringing in Lusikisiki, a rural part of Mpondoland in the Eastern Cape, immersed him in Mpondo culture and traditions.  His ability to revive, revamp and communicate old cultural practices and teaching methods has led to countless teaching and performance engagements locally and abroad. 2024 marks Plaatjies’s 32nd anniversary as a member of the UCT staff, and it is also the year he will retire from the institution.