Research Articles (Odeion School of Music)

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Browsing Research Articles (Odeion School of Music) by Subject "Culture"

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    Acculturation as translation: mimicry, satire and resistance in Chewa dance
    (University of the Free State, 2012) Nthala, Grant
    English: communities of Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. With this particular dance – and indeed with many others – historical connotations, cultural reverberations, and systemic institutionalisation come into play. The hierarchical organisation of the Chewa dance systems and the orderly and enigmatic tendencies of the dance displays are reminiscent of historical phenomena linked to the Chewa diaspora. In essence, mimicry, satire and other forms of enactment (often dramatic) in Chewa dance subtly or candidly unearth acculturative elements within the Chewa ethnicity. This article seeks to illustrate that the Chewa dances gulewamkulu and mganda constitute theatre and that their performance demonstrates a manifestation of traditional Chewa cultural features that have been altered or modified by borrowing from or adapting to other Bantu-related and European cultures.
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    Music and (re-)translating unity and reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda
    (University of the Free State, 2012) Barz, Gregory
    English: This article focuses on the ability of a historically important musical instrument in the East African country of Rwanda, the inanga, to contribute to the (re-)translation of issues related to unity and reconciliation efforts after the genocide of 1994. By concentrating on the transmission of tradition from Kirusu Thomas to Sophie Nzayisenga, from father to daughter, I underscore the significant changes in cultural contexts for historical and contemporary inanga performance while also positioning the instrument within the dominant cultural metaphors of ‘blockage’ and ‘flow’. Throughout the article, I draw on inanga song texts to demonstrate the role of the inanga as cultural translator.