Sophiatown, Johannesburg, South Africa - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Sign of South African jazz musician Yonela Mnana's exhibition
2. Various of Mnana talking to woman
3. Various of Mnana walking into room, getting on stage, sitting by piano
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Yonela Mnana, jazz musician (starting with shot 3/ending with shot 5):
"My master's was generally on acknowledging South African pianists as a movement because I was studying a phenomenon. This time I want to study the aesthetics of it, the actual music, and to understand what it means to actually be a solo South African pianist, what kind of roles are we assuming as we receive and react to the music."
5. Various of Mnana playing piano
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Yonela Mnana, jazz musician (starting with shot 5/ending with shot 7):
"South African music is amazing. People have been original, and I suppose sometimes being secluded as well, kind of like worked out for us in a sense that they used the music to express what was happening in the country. And jazz itself, like I'm saying, as an agent of freedom. has been able to catapult South Africa at least musically."
7. Various of Mnana playing piano, singing
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Yonela Mnana, jazz musician (starting with shot 7):
"Jazz means a lot of different things. It's a feeling. It's a level of freedom as well, but it's a level also of awareness. And I like it because it gives me a sense of urgency and of agency that I can actually react and act upon in terms of on different expressions."
9. Various of Mnana performing

A blind South African jazz pianist and singer has recently earned a doctoral scholarship through the Arts Research Africa (ARA) project for his great talent and charity work.

Yonela Mnana, the jazz musician whose music is familiar with South African audience, was born blind but is now showing that there are no limits to the human mind.

With a bachelor's and a master's degree in music from Wits University in his country, Mnana has now been awarded a scholarship to complete his PhD degree through the ARA project, which is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation base in New York, USA.

"My master's was generally on acknowledging South African pianists as a movement because I was studying a phenomenon. This time I want to study the aesthetics of it, the actual music, and to understand what it means to actually be a solo South African pianist, what kind of roles are we assuming as we receive and react to the music," said Mnana.

South Africa has produced a rich ensemble of jazz artists. Musical greats like Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba who used their voices to fight against the dark days of apartheid have been inspiring artists like Mnana over the decades.

"South African music is amazing. People have been original, and I suppose sometimes being secluded as well, kind of like worked out for us in a sense that they used the music to express what was happening in the country. And jazz itself, like I'm saying, as an agent of freedom. has been able to catapult South Africa at least musically," said Mnana.

Mnana also hopes that his PhD study will enable him to bring greater insight into the art form.

"Jazz means a lot of different things. It's a feeling. It's a level of freedom as well, but it's a level also of awareness. And I like it because it gives me a sense of urgency and of agency that I can actually react and act upon in terms of on different expressions," he said.

Apart from spreading his talent in concert halls, Mnana also teaches music to physically disabled children in Katlehong Township of Johannesburg, and works with choirs and community projects as well.