Mapping the beat, beating the map : the religious work of Hip Hop, Reggae and Kwaito in South Africa
Master Thesis
2003
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University of Cape Town
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In a post-apartheid, recently democratised South Africa African identity is constantly being negotiated within the media, the political sphere, and a variety of cultural expressions. Firstly, I explore the ways in which the popular musical forms of Hip Hop, Kwaito and Reggae in South Africa are contributing to the forging of a global African identity which challenges Eurocentric conceptions but also inserts an implicit response into recent debates about the limitations of an essentialist, Afrocentric paradigm. Secondly, I argue that the construction of this identity can be located within an interpretative framework that examines how popular music is engaged in a kind of religious work. Historically, musical expressions emerging out of the diaspora as well as from the continent have been media for retaining and reformulating African religion and culture under conditions of extreme social upheaval. Scholars such as Jon Michael Spencer have argued that the religious aspect of black music is informed by the need to be liberated from an oppressed mentality and therefore liberation needs to be regarded as a religious activity, an alternative spirituality which challenges existing socio-political values. Musical expressions such as Hip Hop, Reggae and Kwaito can be understood as creative transpositions of indigenous African religion within the context of a worldview informed by the supernatural power of the spoken word, the production of a sacred sonic space, and the advancement of what Hip Hop scholar Nelson has referred to as a "combative spirituality."
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Bibliography: leaves 80-88.
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Donne, R. 2003. Mapping the beat, beating the map : the religious work of Hip Hop, Reggae and Kwaito in South Africa. University of Cape Town.