Zimdancehall vs. The State: An Interrogation of the Genre as Response to Socio-political Crises in Zimbabwe Chapter (Faculty180)

cited authors

  • Mavima, Shingi

description

  • <span>Since its emergence as a discernible genre in the late 2000s, Zimdancehall has established itself as an incomparable avenue of socio-political expression among the urban youth. It has also, however, been condemned for its apparent vulgarity, violence, and all-round seeming departure from the civility which largely defined Zimbabwean music in the yesteryear. How are we, as scholars and the community, to reconcile these two characterizations of the genre? This study seeks to show that, rather than being paradoxical, the two are complementary: it is the irreverence of the genre that has made it effective in its confrontation of contemporary crises. Conversely, the unrelenting nature of the contemporary crises facilitated the emergence of an irreverent genre. In this chapter, I argue that the contemporaneous emergence of the genre with the political and economic abyss of post-colonial Zimbabwe has not been coincidental: the two are intrinsically connected. As such, I interrogate the relationship between the two phenomena through an analytical lens that draws attention to Zimdancehall’s disruptive messaging, as exemplified through four recurrent themes: direct confrontation of authorities; explicit criticism of both the lived conditions of the urban poor; defiant assertion of parochial and individual agency; and the irreverent subversion of traditional societal expectations. The study aims to propagate a more nuanced conversation around this critical genre and the subculture it represents—in as much as they impact and are impacted by the socio-political and economic environment out of which they emerge.</span>

authors

publication date

  • 2023

publisher

published in

start page

  • 83

end page

  • 117