scholarly journals Locating the nihilistic culture within Zimdancehall in contemporary Zimbabwe

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-74
Author(s):  
Kudzai Mabuto ◽  
◽  
Umali Saidi ◽  

A fusion of the Caribbean, African American and Zimbabwean music genres into the infamous glocalized Zimdancehall music has dulled the significance of other traditionalist Zimbabwean music genres. Dancehall culture has caused much controversy in Zimbabwean society, being blamed for the country’s increase in crime, violence and believed to encourage misogynistic attitudes among Zimbabwean youths through its negative themes. Using appraisal and dramatism theories the article shows the existential crisis the youth in Zimbabwe face due to economic as well as other social forces and thus align themselves to rather destructive misogynistic behaviours which somehow characterises contemporary Zimbabwe. Established in the article is the extent to which language used in Zimdancehall music is socially charged as well as globalized thus influencing youth feelings, emotions and behaviors. The article analyses lyrics of selected songs as well as makes references to selected musical videos from Zimdancehall artistes such as Soul Jah Love, Winky D, Lady Bee and Killer T as prominent artists revealing what has come to be considered contemporary ‘ghetto culture’ within popular culture in Zimbabwe. It is further argued that Zimdancehall has come to shape, inform behaviors, perceptions and aspirations of the Zimbabwean youth largely due to its nature of production as well as dissemination.

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (Fall) ◽  
pp. 238-254
Author(s):  
Alaina S. Davis ◽  
Wilhelmina Wright-Harp ◽  
Jay Lucker ◽  
Joan Payne ◽  
Alfonso Campbell

Author(s):  
Jane Caputi

The proposed new geological era, The Anthropocene (a.k.a. Age of Humans, Age of Man), marking human domination of the planet long called Mother Earth, is truly The Age of the Motherfucker. The ecocide of the Anthropocene is the responsibility of Man, the Western- and masculine-identified corporate, military, intellectual, and political class that masks itself as the exemplar of the civilized and the human. The word motherfucker was invented by the enslaved children of White slave masters to name their mothers’ rapist/owners. Man’s strategic motherfucking, from the personal to the planetary, is invasion, exploitation, spirit-breaking, extraction and toxic wasting of individuals, communities, and lands, for reasons of pleasure, plunder, and profit. Ecocide is attempted deicide of Mother Nature-Earth, reflecting Man’s goal to become the god he first made in his own image. The motivational word Motherfucker has a flip side, further revealing the Anthropocene as it signifies an outstanding, formidable, and inexorable force. Mother Nature-Earth is that “Mutha’ ”—one defying translation into heteropatriarchal classifications of gender, one capable of overwhelming Man, and not the other way around. Drawing upon Indigenous and African American scholarship; ecofeminism; ecowomanism; green activism; femme, queer, and gender non-binary philosophies; literature and arts; Afrofuturism; and popular culture, Call Your “Mutha’ ” contends that the Anthropocene is not evidence of Man’s supremacy over nature, but that Mother Nature-Earth, faced with disrespect, is going away. It is imperative now to call the “Mutha’ ” by decolonizing land, bodies, and minds, ending rapism, feeding the green, renewing sustaining patterns, and affirming devotion to Mother Nature-Earth.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-172
Author(s):  
Michael Witter

The Caribbean has experienced an overlapping and interconnected series of challenges, including economic, social, and environmental, which pose an existential threat to the region. This article focuses on the nature of this threat as it evolved before and during the pandemic crisis. Under neoliberal globalization, Caribbean economies transformed themselves rapidly into service providers, most having resorted to developing a tourism sector, while some moved into oil production. In all cases, traditional agricultural exports declined with the loss of protected markets where they earned preferential prices. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the Caribbean’s existential crisis and revealed the inextricable links among the environment, economy, and public health. This article focuses on these links and suggests a way forward for public policy in the short, medium, and long term.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-210
Author(s):  
Michael Leo Owens

Charge: As Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird note, collectively more than 80% of African Americans self-identify as Democrats according to surveys, and no Republican presidential candidate has won more than 13% of the Black vote since 1968. This is true despite the fact that at the individual level many African Americans are increasingly politically moderate and even conservative. Against this backdrop, what explains the enduring nature of African American support for the Democratic Party? In Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior, White and Laird answer this question by developing the concept of “racialized social constraint,” a unifying behavioral norm meant to empower African Americans as a group and developed through a shared history of struggle against oppression and for freedom and equality. White and Laird consider the historical development of this norm, how it is enforced, and its efficacy both in creating party loyalty and as a path to Black political power in the United States. On the cusp of perhaps the most consequential presidential election in American history, one for which African American turnout was crucial, we asked a range of leading political scientists to assess the relative strengths, weaknesses, and ramifications of this argument.


2018 ◽  
Vol 118 (12) ◽  
pp. 2302-2310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Wrobleski ◽  
Elizabeth A. Parker ◽  
Erin Hager ◽  
Kristen M. Hurley ◽  
Sarah Oberlander ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 194
Author(s):  
Molly Molloy

This last work of author/compiler Craig Martin Gibbs joins his other unique discographies from the same publisher—Black Recording Artists, 1877–1926: An Annotated Discography (2012) and Calypso and Other Music of Trinidad, 1912–1962: An Annotated Discography (2015)—to provide detailed access to the legacy of African American and African music from the earliest years of sound recording. As noted in the front matter, Craig Martin Gibbs died in October 2017.


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