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Nightsong

Performance, Power, and Practice in South Africa

Veit Erlmann author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:13th Mar '96

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Nightsong cover

Popularized by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul Simon, the "a cappella" music known as "isicathamiya" has become celebrated as one of South Africa's most vibrant and distinct performance traditions. This text provides an interpretation of isicathamiya performance practice and its relation to the culture and consciousness of the Zulu migrant labourers who largely compose its choirs. In songs and dances, the performers oppose the class and racial oppression that reduces them to "labour units." At the same time, Erlmann argues, the performers rework dominant images to symbolically reconstruct their "home," an imagined world of Zulu rural tradition and identity. By contrasting the live performance of isicathamiya to its reproduction in mass media, recordings and international concerts, Erlmann addresses issues in performance studies and anthropology, and looks to the future of isicathamiya live performance in the new South Africa.

ISBN: 9780226217215

Dimensions: 23mm x 16mm x 3mm

Weight: 794g

462 pages