Poverty, neglect, drug abuse, and violence make up the lot for many young people who are caught in the spiral of deterministic school dropout and unemployment. In these townships violence and insecurity plague unabated, the most vulnerable victims are children and adolescents. (…) A bleak and desolate plain, agitated by wind and dust.” It is with these words that South African novelist Roger Smith describes the Cape Flats, the neighborhoods of Cape Town (South Africa). “ The place where we had left behind all those who were not white in the apartheid era. In July 2019, the Steenberg High School Orchestra performed brilliantly in public on the occasion of the French July 14th celebrated in Cape Town.ĪAD Fund and Musiquelaine have just renewed their partnership for the next three years.

In 2017, the orchestra’s young musicians received new equipment.

Therefore, the integration of this young population, often stigmatized and marginalized in South Africa, helps to fight against school dropouts and to facilitate their access to jobs. Township Orchestra allows young underprivileged South Africans from the Cape Flats neighborhood to get to grips with jazz and traditional South African music in the school. The 13 years of age musicians were personally given an instrument, funded by AAD, that they will learn to play.

This program support the Steenberg High School’s orchestra, directed by the famous trumpeter Ian Smith. AAD created a partnership with the association Musiquelaine in 2013 in develop the Township Orchestra Project.

Township music south africa