Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania, Volume 1Since its founding in 1964, the United Republic of Tanzania has used music, dance, and other cultural productions as ways of imagining and legitimizing the new nation. Focusing on the politics surrounding Swahili musical performance, Kelly Askew demonstrates the crucial role of popular culture in Tanzania's colonial and postcolonial history. As Askew shows, the genres of ngoma (traditional dance), dansi (urban jazz), and taarab (sung Swahili poetry) have played prominent parts in official articulations of "Tanzanian National Culture" over the years. Drawing on over a decade of research, including extensive experience as a taarab and dansi performer, Askew explores the intimate relations among musical practice, political ideology, and economic change. She reveals the processes and agents involved in the creation of Tanzania's national culture, from government elites to local musicians, poets, wedding participants, and traffic police. Throughout, Askew focuses on performance itself—musical and otherwise—as key to understanding both nation-building and interpersonal power dynamics. |
Contents
Tanga Tanganyika Tanzania | 27 |
Of Ginger Ale and Orange Soda | 68 |
Figures | 71 |
reception to welcome Prime Minister Rashid Kawawa date | 78 |
Novelty Musical Club c 1960s | 113 |
Zanzibar 1990 | 140 |
Cultural Revolution in Tanzania? | 157 |
The Production | 196 |
and Language Competition 1992 | 201 |
Competition 1992 | 222 |
Taarab Performance and the Tanzanian State | 224 |
TOT and Muungano Cultural Troupe | 265 |
Cultural Policy by and for the People | 268 |
Glossary ofSwahili Terms | 353 |
405 | |
Other editions - View all
Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania Kelly Askew No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
A. P. Chandarana Recording African Arab Arusha Atomic Jazz Band audience Babloom Modern Taarab Black Star Musical chakacha Chorus coastal colonial commissioner communities competitions constitutes cultural officers cultural policy Cultural Troupe dance dansi Dar es Salaam dispute district East Africa ethnic genre Handeni identity Jazz Band Kama katika Taifa letu Kenya Kisauji Kiswahili KIUBATA kwaya Lucky Star Lushoto Maasai mainland Makonde Mamu ment Mimi Mombasa Morogoro Moto Mpenzi musicians Mwanya Mwinyi n.d. Vol Nambari wani National Culture negotiation Ngamiani ngoma ngoma performance Nguzo nisisi vijana Ngwinji Nyerere party poetry political POLP Polydor popular practice Radio Tanzania DSM rehearsal Saba Saba Salaam Salim sing singer social socialist society Star Musical Club Swahili taarab performance Taifa Tanga Region Tanganyika TANU Tanzania One Theatre Tanzanian cultural Tanzanian national tion tipping tradition Ujamaa Ukala University Press Utamaduni Vijana Jazz wangu Watangatanga wedding women Zanzibar Zigua