African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance (AJPHERD) Volume 20(2:1), June 2014, pp. 426-438. Dinaka/kiba: A descriptive analysis of a Northern Sotho song- dance performative compound M.G. MAPAYA University of Venda, Private Bag X5050, Thohoyandou 0950, South Africa. E-mail: geoff.mapaya@univen.ac.za (Received: 25 February 2014; Revision Accepted: 24 May 2014) Abstract A disjuncture in the description of persists between practitioners of the genre, deemed custodians of Northern Sotho culture, and some scholars. Drawing from extensive fieldwork and consultation of literature from established scholars, this article presents a descriptive analysis of the dinaka/kiba song-dance performative compound. It does so by looking into the constituent elements of the genre, particularly its attendant nomenclature, instrument playing techniques and the technology used in instrument making. It was found that by investing in unravelling the deep lying philosophical underpinnings, as well as gaining insight into the functions of genre, chiefly embedded within the attendant indigenous languages systems, a contextually sound and accurate description of the genre is possible. This article, therefore, apart from challenging a few misrepresentations surrounding scholarly definitions, seeks to provide a practitioner-informed, analytical and comprehensive definition of dinaka/kiba as a song-dance performative compound. Keywords: Indigenous music, African drumming, African performance, African folklore, African dance. How to cite this article: Mapaya, M.G. (2014). Dinaka/kiba: A descriptive analysis of a Northern Sotho song-dance performative compound. African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance, 20(2:1), 426-438. Introduction The concept dinaka or kiba refers to a particular Northern Sotho musical genre. The genre takes its name from either of its two main features; dinaka (reed pipes) and kiba (the big pulse-keeping drum). Kiba is also known as sekgokolo (a round object). The two nomenclatures are used interchangeably. Like most mmino wa setšo (indigenous African music) genres, dinaka is a song-dance performative compound. It draws its character from live reed-pipe ensemble playing on the one hand and meletse (dance choreography) on the other. The dinaka ensemble is made up of mothaba (regiment of reed pipes) typically involving more than twenty baletši (instrumentalists) who employ the hocket techniques (Nketia, 1962; Arom, 1976) to produce layers of harmony-like sounds. The performative philosophy of dinaka could be likened to that of tshikona, a similar cultural expression of Vhavenda (Mugovhani et al., 2013), or indlamu of amaZulu (Ngema, 2006) or muchongolo of Vatsonga (Hlungwani, 2013). Rationalised