Abstract
This study argues that indigenous musicians in Zimbabwe have acted as “dissident” archetypes in a country where any formal opposition to power has been met with legal and extra-judicial interventions by state apparatus. This form of dissident expression is drawn from Zimbabwe’s historical political experience tracing back to the pre-colonial period. This chapter employs the concept of the dissident to study Zimbabwe’s post-independence-era musicians (1980–2020) and Mano’s conceptual framework of music as a journalism variant to understand how musicians have relied on lyrics to challenge power. This study finds that four themes have found lyrical expression: Marginalisation, socio-economic inequality, corruption and political violence/repression. The selected musicians for this study are Thomas Mapfumo, Hosiah Chipanga, Lovemore “Majaivana” Tshuma and Wallace “Winky D” Chirumiko. They sing in Zimbabwe’s two dominant languages—Shona and Ndebele— and their lyrics exhibit a dissident tone. The findings of the chapter suggest that the selected musicians coded their lyrics in dissident language which sought to challenge political hegemony, expose corruption and decry poverty under the successive Zanu-Pf rule.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
A Shona term used to describe a thug or a wild thing in the bush.
- 2.
Some of these songs include his popular song—“Corruption”—where he bemoans corruption in post-colonial Zimbabwe.
- 3.
KoNtuthu Ziyathunqa is in reference to the city’s past status as an industrial hub where the industrial section of the city was always showing robust activity with smoke coming out of various factories.
- 4.
We do acknowledge that other parts in Zimbabwe are underdeveloped.
References
Barber, K. (1987). Popular arts in Africa. African Studies Review, 30(3), 1–78.
Chikowero, M. (2007). The third Chimurenga: Land and song in Zimbabwe’s ultra-nationalist ideology, 2000–2007. In J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni & J. Muzondidya (Eds.), Redemptive or grotesque nationalism? Rethinking contemporary politics in Zimbabwe (pp. 291–314).
Chirombe, J. (2019). The interface of music and politics: Exposition of Tongai Moyo and Hosiah Chipanga’s post 2000 music. Doctoral dissertation.
Chitofiri, K., Mutasa, D. E., & Gwekwerere, T. (2017). Fighting for justice and freedom through music: The case of Thomas Mapfumo, Hosiah Chipanga and Leonard Zhakata, ca. 1988–2015. South African Journal of African Languages, 37(1), 59–73.
Chuma, W. (2008). Mediating the 2000 elections in Zimbabwe: Competing journalisms in a society at the crossroads. Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, 29(1), 21–41.
Drewett, M. (2003). Battling over borders: Narratives of resistance to the South African border war voiced through popular music. Social Dynamics, 29(1), 78–98.
Elo, S., & Kyngäs, H. (2008). The qualitative content analysis process. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 62(1), 107–115.
Emenyonu, E. (Ed.). (2011). Teaching African literature today (Vol. 29). Boydell & Brewer Ltd.
Hove, M., & Gwiza, A. (2012). The fast track land reform programme and food insecurity: A case of Zimbabwe from 1992 to the present. American Journal of Contemporary Research, 2(8), 282–291.
Kabwato, C. (2011). Arts under pressure. Agents of Change: The Role of Artists and Cultural Actors in Regions of Conflict Crisis. Accessed on: https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/51197/ssoar-2011-Agents_of_Change_Die_Rolle.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&lnkname=ssoar-2011-Agents_of_Change_Die_Rolle.pdf
Magosvongwe, R. (2009). Contrasting discourses of emancipation and empowerment in selected albums by Hosiah Chipanga and Fungisai Zvakavapano. Muziki, 5(1), 75–91.
Makina, B. (2009). Re-thinking white narratives: Popular songs and protest discourse in post-colonial Zimbabwe. Muziki, 6(2), 221–231.
Mano, W. (2007). Popular music as journalism in Zimbabwe. Journalism Studies, 8(1), 61–78.
Marongedze, R., & Chinouriri, B. (2004). Lampooning political corruption of the nation: An analysis of the selected songs of Thomas Mapfumo and Hosiah Chipanga.
Matsilele, T. (2019). Social media dissidence in Zimbabwe. Doctoral dissertation, University of Johannesburg.
Mbaegbu, C. C. (2015). The effective power of music in Africa. University of Embu.
Mbembe, A. (1992). The banality of power and the aesthetics of vulgarity in the postcolony. Public Culture, 4(2), 1–30.
Mhlanga, B. (2010). Zimbabwe’s post-colonial antinomies as the ‘northern problem’: Policy projections. African Security Review, 19(4), 104–113.
Mhlanga, B. (2013). Ethnicity or tribalism? The discursive construction of Zimbabwean national identity. African Identities, 11(1), 47–60.
Mlambo, A. (2012). Becoming Zimbabwe or becoming Zimbabwean: Identity, nationalism and state building in the historical context of Southern Africa. Paper presented at the Inaugural Lecture of the HOD of the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies, University of Pretoria, 30 October 2012.
Mpofu, S., & Nenjerama, T. (2018). Imaginations and Narrationsof the Nation: The Music of Raymond Majongwe and Brian Muteki in the Identity Construction of Post-2000 Zimbabwe. Muziki, 15(2), 1–20.
Mvundisi, J. (2020). I sang in the wrong language: Majaivana. Daily News. https://dailynews.co.zw/i-sang-in-the-wrong-language-majaivana/
Ncube, G., & Siziba, G. (2017). Compelled to perform in the ‘oppressor’s’ language? Ndebele performing artists and Zimbabwe’s Shona-Centric Habitus. Journal of Southern African Studies, 43(4), 825–836.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J. (2011). The Zimbabwe nation-state project: A historical diagnosis of identity and power-based conflicts in a postcolonial state. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J., & Ruhanya, P. (2020). The history and political transition of Zimbabwe. Springer International Publishing.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J., & Willems, W. (2009). Making sense of cultural nationalism and the politics of commemoration under the third Chimurenga in Zimbabwe. Journal of Southern African Studies, 35(4), 945–965.
Nehanda Radio. (2016). My music has been banned: Hosiah Chipanga. Nehanda Radio. https://nehandaradio.com/2016/07/17/album-banned-hosiah-chipanga/
Nehanda Radio. (2020). Govt orders radio station to cancel Winky D interview … Moves to Ban his music. Nehanda Radio. https://nehandaradio.com/2019/12/30/govt-orders-radio-station-to-cancel-winky-d-interview-moves-to-ban-his-music/
Tivenga, D. R. (2018). Contemporary Zimbabwean popular music in the context of adversities. Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, 55(1), 134–148.
Tshuma, L., & Ndlovu, M. (2020). Immortalizing “buried memories”: Photographs of the Gukurahundi online. Journal of Genocide Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2020.1850393
Ureke, O., & Washaya, Y. (2016). Social commentary, subaltern voices and the alternative medium of Zimdancehall music: Unpacking the Music of Winky D and Sniper Storm. Muziki, 13(1), 68–88.
Viriri, A. (2013). “Seiko Musina Morari?”: The Carnivalesque modes of the Pungwe Institution in selected Shona novels. Doctoral dissertation, University of South Africa.
Walton, K. (1994). Listening with imagination: Is music representational? The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 52(1), 47–61.
Werbner, R. P. (1991). Tears of the dead: The social biography of an African family. Edinburgh University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Matsilele, T., Msimanga, M.J. (2022). Popular Music and the Concept of the Dissident in Post-Independence Zimbabwe. In: Salawu, A., Fadipe, I.A. (eds) Indigenous African Popular Music, Volume 2. Pop Music, Culture and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98705-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98705-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-98704-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-98705-3
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)