Music and social change in South Africa : maskanda past and present

Music and Social Change in South Africa looks at contemporary maskanda-a folk musical genre distinguished by fast guitar picking and blues-style vocal intonation-against the backdrop of South Africa's history. A performance practice that emerged in the early decades of the twentieth century among Zulu migrant workers, maskanda is strongly associated with young Zulu men's experiences of repression and dislocation during imperial and, more particularly, apartheid rule.

Working closely with translated song lyrics and musical notation-and applying musical and socio-political analysis to this music and its cultural context-Olsen argues that maskanda offers insight into how the post-apartheid ideal of social transformation is experienced by those who were marginalized for most of the twentieth century.

Drawing on a decade of research, Olsen strives to demystify the Zulu part of contemporary experience in South Africa and to reveal some of the complexities of the social, economic, and political landscape of contemporary South Africa.

Author Notes

Kathryn Olsen is Lecturer in Ethnomusicology, Popular Music, and Related Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

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The evolution of South Africa has become apparent in changes of various aspects of social, political, and economic culture in the aftermath of the apartheid regime. These changes have occupied center stage in studies of South Africa across the humanities. Olsen (Univ. of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) discusses the evolution of the practice of maskanda, a genre of Zulu folk music and dance that embodies Zulu identity. To sustain her argument, she draws on past and present performers who have used this genre to reflect social changes among the Zulu. The author presents extensive methodological discussion of prevailing ethnomusicological paradigms and theory but avoids defining maskanda. She presents it simply as a body of musical practice that emerged during the height of the apartheid era in the 1980s. Thus, maskanda becomes an ideal genre that stresses the functionality of African music whose structure and meaning are derived from its association with a cultural activity. Written in clear, simple language, Music and Social Change in South Africa is an informative book that will be useful to ethnomusicology students interested in social changes in Africa, in particular South Africa during and after apartheid. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Kazadi Wa Mukuna, Kent State University

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Prologue	p. xi
1 Maskanda Researched: The Parallax View	p. 1
2 Maskanda's Early Years	p. 20
3 Maskanda as Commodified Tradition	p. 56
4 Men Making Maskanda m Post-apartheid South Mica	p. 70
5 Women Playing Maskanda	p. 141
6 Experiencing Transformation	p. 185
Notes	p. 197
References	p. 205
Index	p. 213

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