Good Things · 12 hours ago

Yonela Mnana: “Music Education Should Not Be a Luxury”

Born blind in the Eastern Cape, South African jazz pianist Yonela Mnana experienced the world through sound long before he learned music formally -- and now he spends his days ensuring other children have the same chance. Several days each week, he teaches at the Morris Isaacson Centre for Music in Soweto and the Ezibeleni School for the Physically Disabled in Thokoza, where he has guided students to consistent competition success despite limited resources and where many find not just instruction but "home." His conviction is simple and unyielding: "Music education should not be a luxury. It should be something every child can access, regardless of disability or background." Yet even as he pursues doctoral research on South African jazz piano traditions and challenges audiences to experience "Jazz in the Dark" -- sometimes blindfolded, learning to listen as he does -- Mnana says society remains more focused on his blindness than his music. In a world obsessed with what can be seen, he has built a career teaching people how to truly hear.