Mercédès Pavlicevic (1955-2018), an international music therapist, along with Kobie Temmingh, pioneered the music therapy program at the University of Pretoria, which debuted with a master's degree program in 1999. She noted the differences in longstanding traditions and other ways of viewing healing or music. A Nigerian colleague felt "that music in Africa is healing, and what is music therapy other than some colonial import?" Pavlicevic noted that "in Africa there is a long tradition of music healing" and asked "Can there be a synthesis of these two music-based practices towards something new?... "I" "am not altogether convinced that African music healing and music therapy are especially closely related" added. But I am utterly convinced that music therapy can learn an enormous amount from the African worldview and from music-making in Africa - rather than from African music-healing as such."