HE'S known as an award-winning pianist, sangoma and a lecturer.
Now he has added "doctor" to his title.
Jazz musician Nduduzo Makhathini is now a doctor. He graduated with a PhD in music from Stellenbosch University on Monday, 27 March.
Nduduzo told Daily Sun that he's happy to have finished his doctorate.
“It’s quite a lot honestly, but I feel when you’re already a sangoma, being a doctor is a downgrade.
But I was doing it for other artists. I’m trying to make it a possible route for musicians to consider school as a fellow to the practice of music,” Nduduzo said.
"I also teach the concept, so I wanted to produce this option. I know some people are caught between being a practitioner and a theorist. I’m trying to argue that you can do both,” he said.
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He said the journey to finally graduate was filled with highs and lows.
“I had to figure out research questions, and methodology and to go through various promises and defend the work. I think more than anything, what was great was seeing ideas I thought I had in my head take a different shape through my research method. That was the most fascinating part,” he said.
“My paper explores improvisation within the South African jazz context and how it could be understood in due cosmology. And the cosmology is a consideration of the bantu world, to think creatively about African studies through jazz."
Nduduzo, who is also a sangoma, said he tried to bring the two worlds together through his academic paper.
“There was a lot of fighting because my paper speaks from the indigenous African paradigm. Which has been excluded in this space.
“I had to fight a lot of battles to say how do we make these systems visible. For instance, presenting concepts such as ngoma, mamlambo and ubizo in the academic space,” he said.
The musician said his wife, kids and mum are proud of him.
“It’s important to think about the people around you because, in the moment of celebrating, we forget the other people who make it possible. My wife is an artist and scholar, I got a lot of support which you need in these battles of academia.
“My mum too. I’m surrounded by these powerful people including my daughter. My son is there too and I’m thankful. Both my supervisors were female too, so I was surrounded by that energy,” he said.
