Description

Book Synopsis


Trade Review

Chikowero has written a fantastic book worthy of wide and careful attention for years to come.

* Journal of African History *

This book makes a valuable contribution to colonial and mission history, musicology, and performance studies, offering a fresh lens on the creative labor and insurgent cultural practices of Zimbabweans under colonialism.

* International Journal of African Historical Studies *

[P]rovides a fascinating new way to think about liberation. Chikowero helps us understand revolution beyond the gun as he moves from the conquest in the 1890s through music of the missions, mining company dancehalls, townships, the armed struggle campsites and more to chart a social history of how black people continually made and remade themselves through music, dress, drink, spirituality and politics.

* The Guardian *

Chikowero interrogates the political economy of performance in Zimbabwe with a mastery of detail that is yet to be matched.9/12/16

* The Zimbabwe Herald *

African Music, Power, and Being in Colonial Zimbabwe will benefit ethnomusicologists as well as multimedia experts and general readers. Chikowero makes a tremendous contribution to African music in general and, indeed, ethnomusicology in particular.

* Africa Today *

Overall,the book encourages a stimulating rethinking of the role of music in colonial societies. It is therefore recommended for readers with a broad interest in African history.

* American Historical Review *

Table of Contents

Introduction: Cross-Cultural Encounters: Song, Power and Being
1. Missionary Witchcrafting African Being: Cultural Disarmament
2. Purging the "Heathen" Song, Mis/Grafting the Missionary Hymn
3. "Too Many Don'ts:" Reinforcing, Disrupting the Criminalization of African Musical Cultures
4. Architectures of Control: African Urban Re/Creation
5. The "Tribal Dance" as a Colonial Alibi: Ethnomusicology and the Tribalization of African Being
6. Chimanjemanje: Performing and Contesting Colonial Modernity
7. The Many Moods of "Skokiaan:" Criminalized Leisure, Underclass Defiance and Self-Narration
8. Usable Pasts: Crafting Madzimbabwe Through Memory, Tradition, Song
9. Cultures of Resistance: Genealogies of Chimurenga Song
10. Jane Lungile Ngwenya: A Transgenerational Conversation
Epilogue: Postcolonial Legacies: Song, Power and Knowledge Production
Notes
Bibliography
Index

African Music Power and Being in Colonial

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    RRP £27.99 – you save £2.80 (10%)

    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Thu 2 Jul 2026.

    A Paperback / softback by Mhoze Chikowero

      Trusted by thousands of customers. See 2,385+ Customer Reviews

      View other formats and editions of African Music Power and Being in Colonial by Mhoze Chikowero

      Publisher: Indiana University Press
      Publication Date: 24/11/2015
      ISBN13: 9780253018038, 978-0253018038
      ISBN10: 025301803X

      Description

      Book Synopsis


      Trade Review

      Chikowero has written a fantastic book worthy of wide and careful attention for years to come.

      * Journal of African History *

      This book makes a valuable contribution to colonial and mission history, musicology, and performance studies, offering a fresh lens on the creative labor and insurgent cultural practices of Zimbabweans under colonialism.

      * International Journal of African Historical Studies *

      [P]rovides a fascinating new way to think about liberation. Chikowero helps us understand revolution beyond the gun as he moves from the conquest in the 1890s through music of the missions, mining company dancehalls, townships, the armed struggle campsites and more to chart a social history of how black people continually made and remade themselves through music, dress, drink, spirituality and politics.

      * The Guardian *

      Chikowero interrogates the political economy of performance in Zimbabwe with a mastery of detail that is yet to be matched.9/12/16

      * The Zimbabwe Herald *

      African Music, Power, and Being in Colonial Zimbabwe will benefit ethnomusicologists as well as multimedia experts and general readers. Chikowero makes a tremendous contribution to African music in general and, indeed, ethnomusicology in particular.

      * Africa Today *

      Overall,the book encourages a stimulating rethinking of the role of music in colonial societies. It is therefore recommended for readers with a broad interest in African history.

      * American Historical Review *

      Table of Contents

      Introduction: Cross-Cultural Encounters: Song, Power and Being
      1. Missionary Witchcrafting African Being: Cultural Disarmament
      2. Purging the "Heathen" Song, Mis/Grafting the Missionary Hymn
      3. "Too Many Don'ts:" Reinforcing, Disrupting the Criminalization of African Musical Cultures
      4. Architectures of Control: African Urban Re/Creation
      5. The "Tribal Dance" as a Colonial Alibi: Ethnomusicology and the Tribalization of African Being
      6. Chimanjemanje: Performing and Contesting Colonial Modernity
      7. The Many Moods of "Skokiaan:" Criminalized Leisure, Underclass Defiance and Self-Narration
      8. Usable Pasts: Crafting Madzimbabwe Through Memory, Tradition, Song
      9. Cultures of Resistance: Genealogies of Chimurenga Song
      10. Jane Lungile Ngwenya: A Transgenerational Conversation
      Epilogue: Postcolonial Legacies: Song, Power and Knowledge Production
      Notes
      Bibliography
      Index

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