Indigenous African Popular Music, Democracy and Politics

Abstract

How have the indigenous African popular music artistes portrayed the world, Africa, governments, people and themselves in relation to these realities?

A study to investigate Indigenous Ngoni African popular music in East and Southern Africa has revealed that Ngoni culture is portrayed to Africa and to the world as an advanced democracy that respects dignity, cultural values as well as traditional beliefs. It also indicated that their music reveals ingredients of unity of the tribe regardless of the colonial boundaries, making it one of the largest ethnic tribes in Africa. A total of hundred people were selected and interviewed during the traditional cultural festival that is called Umtheto in Malawi (done every August), Nc’wala in Zambia (done every mid-February) and Maji-maji in Tanzania (done end of February every year) (Etats, Malawi: Ngoni Cultural Festival Uniting East and Southern Africa. http://www.54etats.com/fr/node/8813, 2020). The study used a simple sampling method to identify respondents. It also used face-to-face interviews as well as focus group discussions (Alassutari, Researching Culture, Qualitative Method and Cultural Studies, SAGE Publications, 1995). The study also revealed the old traditional two-step model of communication being used as the people use chiefs and other people who are ethical in society as opinion leaders (Katz, The Two-Step of Communication: An Up-To-Date Report of a Hypothesis. In B. M. Enis & K. K. Cox [Eds.], Marketing Classics [pp. 175–193], 1973), while others use the one-step model of communication (Bennett and Manheim, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science [Online], 608, 231–232, 2006). It is hoped that this revealing study about the role of music in economic as well as social cohesion will be useful in Africa and beyond with lessons that can help in economic development.