Zimbabwe’s Politics of Violence as shown in Music from the Liberation Struggle to the Post Independent State
Keywords:
political violence, music, culture and Zimbabwean politics.Abstract
The paper is an exposition on how violence is/ (has been) inherent in Zimbabwe’s political struggles. This violence is shown through music. The paper shall look at the songs that were sung during the liberation struggle that are in Pongweni’s Songs That Won the Liberation War. In the post independent state songs by the MDC choir and the Mbare Chimurenga Choir shall be analyzed. Content and discourse analyses shall be used as methodological tools to analyze the music. Although violence during the liberation struggle could be seen as constructive in Fanonian terms, this paper notes that the culture of violence did not die and continued into the post independent state, and has become unrefreshing. The paper will conclude by noting that Zimbabwe’s music shows that the culture of violence in politics seems to be so embedded and that it will take a drastic paradigm shift in the political landscape to have any corresponding transformation in Zimbabwe’s musical thrust.
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References
• Amuta, C. (1989). The Theory of African Literature: Implications for Practical Criticism, London, Zed Publications.
• Bere, W. G. (2008). Urban Grooves: The Performance of Politics in Zimbabwe’s Hip Hop Music, UMI Microform, Ann Arbor MI
• Chirere, M., &Mhandu, E. (2008). Songs that won the liberation struggle and poems that grapple with the war and its aftermath,Muziki: Journal of musical research in Africa 5:2, 271-283, DOI: 10.1080/18125980902798573
• Swarns. R. L. Zimbabwe’s Novels of Reckoning: Writers explore Despair and Violence Under Black Rule,Mazwi: A Zimbabwean Journal, ISSN 2042-9126, (accessed on 02/07/13).
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