"I Am Black and Beautiful": A Black African Reading of Song of Songs 1:5-7 as a Protest Song

Adamo's article on Ebed-Melech's protest brings fresh insight into my earlier article on Song of Songs 1:5-7, prompting me to reread the text as a protest song (essay) against the racial stigmata that continue to bedevil black people in the world. The current article, using hermeneutics of appropriation, maintains the meaning of שְׁחוֹרָה as a black person, who in the Song of Songs protests against the racism, which transformed her status to that of a socioeconomic other. The study is informed by the contemporary and historical contexts of racial injustices and stigma suffered by Blacks for 'being' while Black. The essay investigates this question: In which ways does Adamo's reading of Jer 38:1-17 influence an African reading of Song 1:5-7 as a protest against racism? The article employs African Biblical Hermeneutics, as part of a creative and literary art in the protests against racism, to read the biblical text as our story-a divine story, which in the language of Adamo, has inherent divine power that can empower oppressed black people.

The language of the art of music: an overview of its history in Brazil

This study sought to re-visit the two conceptions of Art – pedagogical and reflective - forged throughout history and its relationship with the Brazilian aesthetic thought of resistance. From the 60's, such thinking has given a pedagogical purpose to art, charged with the task of social criticism and political engagement human emancipatory: in this scenario mainly determined by the Theater of the Oppressed, the new movies and the protest song by Milton Nascimento, , Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil, among many others.

The Language of the Art of Music: An Overview of Its History in Brazil

This study sought to re-visit the two conceptions of Art – pedagogical and reflective - forged throughout history and its relationship with the Brazilian aesthetic thought of resistance. From the 60's, such thinking has given a pedagogical purpose to art, charged with the task of social criticism and political engagement human emancipatory: In this scenario mainly determined by the Theater of the Oppressed, the new movies and the protest song by Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil, among many others.

Das Protestlied „Le déserteur“ von Boris Vian: Wahrnehmung und Aneignung in Frankreich und in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland der 1960er Jahre

There is hardly any other politically committed chanson from France which received as much response worldwide as “Le déserteur” by Boris Vian. “Le déserteur” was censored by French public radio and caused great unrest during the already heated period of the Indochinese and Algerian wars of independence. With the pacifist Easter March movement in Germany and a few years later with the increasing protest against the Vietnam War, the war resister became a symbol of various political struggles that allied a generation. From a transnational perspective, this essay examines the reception and appropriation of this subversive protest song that conveyed war resistance and disobedience.

Protest Song and Countercultural Discourses of Resistance in 1960s Colombia

In Colombia, the tumultuous second half of the twentieth century kicked off with a fierce conflict between the Liberal and Conservative parties known as La Violencia (The Violence, ca. 1948-1958). Following a brief period of military rule (1953-1957), a bipartisan system of shared governance, the National Front (1958-1974), brought about some respite to the sectarian bloodshed. However, the exclusionary two-party system precipitated new lines of conflict between the state and communist guerrillas. Along with the political turmoil, the nation was also undergoing an era of profound cultural change. This essay examines three countercultural-oppositional movements that captivated a wide swath of youth in Colombia’s biggest cities during the 1960s: the canción protesta (protest song) movement, the rock and roll subculture denominated as nueva ola (new wave), and nadaísmo, a rabblerousing avantgarde literary movement. I analyze the correspondences and discontinuities in the ways adherents of these movements conceived of the ideal means to carry out social, cultural, and political resistance. While there were fundamental tensions between the “discourses of resistance” linked to these three countercultural streams, I argue that their convergence in the late 1960s facilitated the emergence of a commercial form of canción protesta.

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.

Cultural resistance in occupied Palestine and the use of creative international solidarity through song1

Protest song has been an important component of grassroots political struggles, and the Palestinian resistance to Zionist settler-colonization is no exception. This article draws on original research with activists in the Palestinian popular resistance on the impact of song during the first intifada (1987 to 1993) and more recently in the opposition to the segregation wall and accelerated colonization of the West Bank. The significance of international solidarity to the Palestinian struggle is noted, and the role of protest song in international solidarity is explored. The activities of Edinburgh-based community choir San Ghanny in using song as an expression of solidarity with the Palestinian popular anti-colonial struggle is analysed. Protest song is a globally recognizable form, which can help to build connections with social movements in different parts of the world and in different periods of history, which is both rooted in individual places and struggles, and also transcends these at the level of global solidarity.