CRC 1472 Transformations of the Popular, Subproject C05
How does popular music negotiate the legitimacy of political violence, and how do political actors refer to violence in musical practices? South Africa’s historical struggle against the racist system of Apartheid and the country’s vibrant music scenes make it a highly suitable case through which to explore how musicians, activists, politicians and wider audiences negotiate uses of political violence in and through popular music.
The project centers on a couple of key questions:
More concretely, we follow songs through time by analyzing (archival) recordings, videos, and written documents; observe protests, concerts and party-political events; and interview activists, musicians and politicians. Thereby we continuously develop an initial sample of musics, created on the basis of available academic literature and cultural production on the topic. Thus, besides iconic South African freedom songs, the sample includes examples of “Bubblegum” disco-pop, Kwaito and other musics, especially those responding to post-1994 political wrongs, such as the state’s organized abandonment of large parts of the South African public or the Marikana Massacre. Unlike before 1994, these wrongs – causally tied to former colonial and Apartheid social exclusions that are exacerbated under today’s neoliberal capitalist conditions – seldom engender acts of transnational (musical) solidarity today.
For more information follow the link.
The project is part of the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) “Transformations of the Popular” at the University of Siegen.
The CRC is funded by the DFG, Germany’s major self-governing organization for science and research.
Prof. Dr. Katharina Inhetveen
Principal Investigator
Chair of General Sociology I
Dr. Anna Schwenck
Research Associate Germany/ South Africa (Postdoc)
Rebekah Brand-Marais
Research Associate South Africa
Lukhanyo May
Research Associate South Africa
Ben Verghese
Research Associate South Africa
Sebastian Zahn
Student Assistant
African Music Archives (AMA), Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
AOM (Anthropology of Music), Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
Bembeya Archive for the Music and Cultures of Africa / Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bender