Thomas “Mukanya” Mapfumo and Songs of Protest in Colonial and Post-Independence Zimbabwe

This bibliography covers scholarship on selected protest songs of the musician Thomas “Mukanya” Mapfumo (b. 1945) that were written in colonial and postcolonial Zimbabwe. In keeping with the Marxist cultural theoretical orientation that is evident in research on this subject, the organization of these entries traces the sociopolitical engagement of Mapfumo’s songs that reflect praise and dissent during the Second and Third Chimurenga wars of political liberation, respectively. Discourse on Zimbabwe’s economic challenges has positive and negative interpretations. Mamdani 2005 and Bond and Manyanya 2002 (both cited under General Overview) state that the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) inherited an economy that had already suffered due to pre-independence policies. Dossa 2007 (under General Overview) argues that development is meant to perpetuate Western dominance. Manjengwa 2007 (under General Overview) blames the ruling party’s top-down approach in implementing development programs. The first section of the bibliography analyzes the songs “Pfumvu paruzevha,” “Kuyaura,” “Chiruzevha chapera,” and “Tumira vana kuhondo,” which Mukanya composed to express the experiences of Zimbabweans during colonialism. Zimbabweans’ way of life was disrupted and Mukanya mirrored this cultural upset through protest songs. The songs resonated well with the ideology of the ZANU-PF. Soon after independence, Mapfumo sang celebration songs (“Zimbabwe” and “Rakarira jongwe”). The second section examines protest songs penned after independence (“Varombo kuvarombo,” “Ndiani waparadza musha,” “Musatambe nenyika,” “Disaster,” “Corruption,” “Mamvemve,” “Maiti kurima hamubvire,” “Chauya chauya,” and “Ndangariro”). The scenario deteriorated due to alleged misgovernance by the ruling ZANU-PF elite, a situation that attracted Mukanya’s criticism. The bibliography traces how the transition of ZANU-PF from heroes to villains is portrayed through Mukanya’s music. During the armed struggle, Mapfumo sided with the liberation war movement. This changed after independence, and Mapfumo allegorically poses questions pointing at the empty promises ZANU-PF leaders made to uplift Zimbabweans’ standard of living. Mukanya sang about the contested land redistribution in Zimbabwe. Consequently, Mapfumo was stalked by state repressive agents until he fled to live in exile in the United States in 2000. He yearned for Ubuntu philosophy, nationalism, and unity. People may differ ideologically, but they ought to accept one another as a nation. This fosters positive peace, which Zimbabweans have yearned for over four decades. Mapfumo wants people to be economically empowered. He has been incarcerated before and he is fearless. Chimurenga music is a voice for the downtrodden masses. Mukanya’s songs that have explicit political messages were banned from airplay by the government. Mapfumo has remained united with the people he is fighting for despite living in exile. Mapfumo uses music to complain about the people’s suffering. He bears memories about Zimbabwe that remain engrained in Chimurenga music in the backdrop of ZANU-PF hegemony. He has called for free and fair elections because Zimbabweans have a right to choose leaders, but election results have been contested since 2000.

Song Translation Analysis as a Means for Intercultural Connectivity

In an increasingly interconnected and globalised world, the need for cross cultural understanding is greater than ever before. Exploring and analysing songs from different cultures can be an effective ‘entry point’ into learning about the nature of other peoples and societies lives and for developing a sense of ethnocultural empathy. Protest songs can provide a lens for intercultural analysis, especially for understanding minority or subcultural perspectives. Translating songs into different languages makes these works more accessible to a broader cross-section of people. We present translations of protest songs, two from Indonesian to English, and one from English to Indonesian. We discuss the respective importance of meaning and poetics in making song translations. Strict adherence to song rhymes is a challenge for translators and one which may impede meaning. The optimal approach depends on the format in which the translation is likely to be presented. Fluency in the target language, rather than the source language, is more helpful for successful translation. Finally, we make some recommendations about the usefulness of intercultural song (text) translation analysis and intercultural awareness.

1. Music in the moment

This chapter focuses on music’s existence in real time. On the printed page, music is a series of notes fixed in the same relationships for all time. But as played and heard, music is a world of ‘endless movement, not discrete “forms” but continuous “forming”’—a world of lived experience that expresses human relationships in their most essential, stripped-down form. The chapter discusses the role of improvisation in both jazz and classical music, and the relationship between knowledge and practice as illustrated by historically informed performance (HIP); it also considers music’s ability to bring about social bonding and the political significance it acquires from this, whether in national anthems or protest songs.

The Theology of Richard Allen’s Musical Worship

This chapter examines the role music may have played in Bishop Richard Allen’s struggle for African-American liberation from slavery, and empowerment as full participants in church and state affairs. It begins with a broad survey of music in American and British abolitionist efforts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, including two hymns of Allen’s own composition, to provide context for Allen’s engagement with music. In comparison to such protest songs, the hymns Allen selected for his hymnbooks were not overtly political. Nevertheless, the theology of music they represented resonated with socio-political significance, coalescing around three key themes: musical worship as (a) a means for conversion and a telos for the Christian life; (b) a bridge between heaven and earth; and (c) a reflection of, and aide to, the formation of community and ecclesial unity.

The Hybridity of South African Working-Class Literature

In this chapter I present an overview of the most prominent trends in South African working-class literature from the beginning of the 20th century until 1994. Since its emergence, South African working class was a heterogeneous formation which encompassed diverse ethnicities, both of European and non-European origin. Each of them created its own literature and culture, using various languages, incorporating traditional elements and means of expression, and merging them with borrowed foreign discourses and literary devices belonging to the repertoire of socialist literature that had been created mostly in the Soviet Union, the USA and other European countries. Consequently, South African working-class literature can be conceived of as conglomerate of heteroglot hybrid forms and manifestations of a subversive counter-discourse of protest literature. The forms presented here include writings of European socialists commenting on South African situation, novels utilizing the Jim goes to Joburg plot pattern, drama incorporating the Soviet socialist realism and references to the Afrikaans farm novel, Afrikaans folk tunes functioning as protest songs, and black workers praise poetry based on tribal oral conventions. As a carrier of a new working-class identity, this literature promoted a modern urban model which, nevertheless, relied on the continuity with local rural traditions.

Alternative Expressions of Citizen Voices: The Protest Song and Popular Engagements with the Mozambican State

This study examines Mozambican popular music to investigate three questions: Are notions of empowerment and accountability present in popular music in Mozambique? If so, what can these existing notions of empowerment and accountability reveal about relations between citizens and state institutions in general and about citizen-led social and political action in particular? In what ways is popular music used to support citizen mobilisation in Mozambique? The discussion is based on an analysis of 46 protest songs, interviews with musicians, music producers and event promoters as well as field interviews and observations among audiences at selected popular music concerts and public workshops in Maputo city. Secondary data were drawn from radio broadcasts, digital media, and social networks. The songs analysed were widely played in the past two decades (1998–2018), a period in which three different presidents led the country. Our focus is on the protest song, conceived as those musical products that are concerned with public affairs, particularly public policy and how it affects citizens’ social, political and economic life, and the relationship between citizens and the state.