Welcome To

AFRICAN
Musicology Institute

Sounding Africa's Wisdom Across Borders.

A Bi-National

CONTINENTAL
Institute

A partnership between the University of Venda (South Africa) and Kabarak University (Kenya), advancing African musical scholarship as a knowledge system.

Explore AMI → AMIDS Doctoral School

Our

SACRED
Mandate

African music is a knowledge system, not an object of study — and we do not apologise for it.

Explore AMI → AMIDS Doctoral School

Centrepiece

AMIDS
Doctoral School

Africa's first dedicated doctoral school for African music, performance arts, and creative heritage.

Explore AMI → AMIDS Doctoral School

About the Institute

Africa-Based, Africa-Led
For African Music

The African Musicology Institute (AMI) is a continental research and doctoral training institute, hosted at the University of Venda (South Africa) and Kabarak University (Kenya) under a bi-national partnership that began with a 2022 Memorandum of Understanding. AMI was legally constituted at UNIVEN in 2025 and launched in November of that year.

AMI proceeds from the premise that African music is a knowledge system, not an object of study, and does not apologise for it. Our mandate is to advance African musical scholarship, train doctoral researchers across Africa and the diaspora, and build the institutional infrastructure the discipline needs to operate at continental scale.

Led by Founding Director Prof. Madimabe Geoff Mapaya (UNIVEN) and Prof. Mellitus Nyongesa Wanyama (Kabarak), AMI is already operating — not only planned. Forty-five founding adjunct professors are formally appointed, joint doctoral supervision is running, and UNIVEN has allocated R51.7 million for base infrastructure, phased across 2026 to 2028.

"To be the premier global centre for African Musicology research, innovation, and documentation, anchored on African soil, speaking to the world."

— AMI Vision Statement

Principle 01

Indigenous Knowledge at the Centre

African philosophies, languages, and analytical methods are interpreted within their own contexts, not through colonial lenses.

Principle 02

Music as Lived Experience

Music is treated as an essential component of African thought, social structures, and daily life — not an isolated aesthetic object.

Principle 03

Disciplinary Decoloniality in Practice

Curricula, research agendas, and publication strategies are designed to displace colonial categories, not merely critique them.

Core Strategic Pillars

Three Pillars,
One Continental Vision

Research, Publication & Conferencing

The Biannual African Musicology Conference, UNIVEN Press journals and book series, and postdoctoral fellowships driving disciplinary decoloniality in practice.

Teaching & the AMIDS Doctoral School

A full qualification suite from Higher Certificate to Doctorate, centred on AMIDS — Africa's first dedicated doctoral school for African musical knowledge.

Community Activation

The UNIVEN Annual African Music Festival, resident ensembles, and formal partnerships with royal leadership across the Vhembe District.

AMI delegation with the Mphaphuli Royal Council, Vhembe District — the kind of partnership the Community Activation pillar enacts.

Visionary Leadership

Founding Directors,
Shared Vision

Prof. Madimabe Geoff Mapaya

Founding Director, AMI · Director, AMI-UNIVEN

University of Venda · ORCID 0000-0002-2444-3645

Prof Mapaya is a South African scholar whose work spans music, African philosophy, epistemology, and higher-education leadership.

Prof. Mellitus Nyongesa Wanyama

Director, African Musicology Institute (Kabarak)

Kabarak University · Doctor of Music, University of Pretoria

Prof Wanyama is a highly respected scholar of African music, culture and arts education whose influence spans universities and cultural institutions across the continent.

View Full Executive Board →

Flagship Institutions

The Museum, the Festival,
the Podcast

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Museum of African Music

Thohoyandou, Vhembe District — a world-class sound archive, exhibitions, and a 250–350 seat theatre modelled on MIM Phoenix.

African Arts & Cultural Festival

An annual two-day festival at UNIVEN each Heritage Month, pairing academic lectures with cultural celebration and headline performances.

The AMI Podcast

AMI's official media mouthpiece — scholar interviews, cultural influencer dialogues, and live webcasts across six programme formats.

Centrepiece Programme

AMIDS Doctoral School

Africa's first dedicated doctoral school for African music, performance arts, and creative heritage. Students register at their home institutions across Africa and simultaneously at UNIVEN as non-fee-paying associate doctoral students.

Explore AMIDS →Doctoral Pathways

8
Doctoral Programmes
Three core degrees AMIDS confers directly — PhD, DMA and DProf — plus five interdisciplinary tracks.
4
Research Units
Dedicated units supporting the doctoral school's research infrastructure and supervision capacity.
65
Target Year-5 Students
The doctoral cohort AMIDS is building toward across its first five years of operation.
R22M
Target Year-5 Revenue
Projected annual revenue for AMIDS by Year 5 of operation.