DATE: 27/28 July 2024
VENUE: ST DOMINIC'S CATHOLIC SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, GAUTENG PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA
BACKGROUND TO EDUCATION AFRICA'S MARIMBA PROJECT
Education Africa was established in 1992 with the aim of creating Poverty alleviation through Education. Our varied programmes creatively focus on improving educational and cultural enrichment opportunities for South Africa's most vulnerable populations with an aim of impacting whole communities. Some of these programmes include: a nationally accredited Early Childhood Development training programme for teachers; a high-performing low fee independent school, Masibambane College, in Orange Farm, and our multi-dimensional Marimba Project, consisting of our Marimba Hubs - an after-school music programme, our Live & Virtual International Marimba & Steelpan Festival, Sounds of Celebration social cohesion concert and the Alumni Internship Programme. Annually, our ongoing programmes reach an average of 3 300 individuals directly that primarily reside in township areas throughout the Gauteng, Northern Cape, North West, and Mpumalanga provinces as well as thousands more who participate in or attend our annual Sounds of Celebration concert and International Marimba & Steelpan Festival. Education Africa has 25 Marimba Hubs and 12 Preschool Marimba Hubs with over 2000 learners participating on a weekly basis during school terms in our programme.
Education Africa launched The International Marimba and Steelpan Festival in 2012 to create an awareness world-wide of the educational value of marimba playing and to create an international platform for our marimba and steelpan players in South Africa to perform on. As we are dedicated to giving our young children in South Africa the opportunity to travel and mix with young people from other parts of the world, we are hoping to develop our already extensive international network even further through this International Festival. The Festival, which has become one of the largest festivals of its kind in the world, takes place annually in Johannesburg over a period of two days. It is fully inclusive and also caters for people with disabilities - blind, deaf, intellectually and physically challenged - as well as people from all walks of life. Over a period of two days, marimba and steelpan bands get together to take part in various competitions divided into age sections and various categories. In addition to these competitions there are guest performances and hands-on interactive demonstrations. Over 2000 musicians participated in the 2023 Festival, making it the largest festival of its kind in the world.
SOCIAL COHESION IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE WORLD
Social Cohesion is the cornerstone of what we do in all Education Africa's projects and in particular in our Marimba Project. It drives us and motivates us to make a difference in our country and in the rest of the world. Young people are encouraged to play music together and interact and share knowledge through all our programmes and nowhere is it more evident than at the International Marimba and Steelpan Festival.
WHY STEELPANS AND MARIMBAS?
Many steelpan players play marimbas and vice versa and while the two types of instruments are totally different in layout, design and sound they complement each other beautifully when played together in ensemble. Steelpans as well as marimbas are played in many schools in South Africa as well as all around the world and it is wonderful to bring these two diverse traditional instruments together at our Festival.
VIRTUAL INTERNATIONAL MARIMBA & STEELPAN FESTIVAL
Due to COVID-19 we created a Virtual Festival to temporarily replace the Live Festival to enable our beautiful Festival to continue. As a result, we made new contacts and friends around the world and are excited to have added a hybrid element to our Live Festival. If you are an international band or South African band that cannot travel to the Festival please consider entering our Online Categories to share in the magic of marimba and steelpan playing.
