Dust of the Zulu: Ngoma Aesthetics after Apartheid

Louise Meintjes

Published by Duke University Press 2017

Dust of the Zulu

Ngoma Aesthetics after Apartheid

Louise Meintjes
Photographs by: TJ Lemon

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822373636

Overview
Contents

About this book

Louise Meintjes traces the history and the political and aesthetic significance of ngoma, a competitive form of dance and music that emerged out of the legacies of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa, showing how it embodies Zulu masculinity and the expanse of South Africa's violent history.

Author / Editor information

Louise Meintjes is Associate Professor of Music and Cultural Anthropology at Duke University and the author of Sound of Africa! Making Music Zulu in a South African Studio, also published by Duke University Press.

TJ Lemon is an award-winning photojournalist based in Johannesburg.

Reviews

"Studies of African performance remain far too few; this one sets a very high bar. Essential."

-- A. F. Roberts Choice

"Crackling with energy and erudition, Dust of the Zulu now vivifies ngoma for the academy."

-- Benedict Carton Journal of Modern African Studies

"Louis Meintjes's Dust of the Zulu leaps out at the reader with the same energy and passion as the Ngoma dancers themselves. It is uncanny how deftly Meintjes captures the vibrancy and rhythm of the performers and performances in her writing, and T.J. Lemon’s photos are the perfect complement to the descriptions of harmonized bodies and voices."

-- Aran Mackinnon African Studies Quarterly

"Meintjes’s fluid ethnographic writing melds analytical precision with a depth of cultural insight gained through long immersion. The book’s dialectical force is sustained by the richness and intimacy of Meintjes’s collaborations. Zulu voices saturate the book’s textures. . . . The prose itself is beautifully wrought. . . . Replete with revelations that are by turns tremendously moving, frightening, disconcerting, and inspiring."

-- Thomas M. Pooley Anthropos

"We travel with Meintjes as she recounts individual narratives of Zulu men maintaining dignity amidst wavering stability in wage-labor, health, and the inconsistent machinations of the international music industry. The humanity, fragility, and mutual constitution of strength through aesthetics is expertly handled in this new classic in the genre of performative ethnography."

-- Elizabeth Perrill International Journal of African Historical Studies

"Louise Meintjes’s book provides a captivating introduction to the vibrant and dramatic spirit of this Southern African art form. . . . Dust of the Zulu contributes to the ever-growing literature on indigenous African theatre and performance; its strength is the author’s captivating descriptions of the dance and the drama of the competitions."

-- Osita Okagbue Theatre Research International

"Dust of the Zulu is a significant contribution to the scholarship of South African music and Zulu ngoma more specifically. The book will be very useful for students and scholars in the fields of ethnomusicology, anthropology, cultural studies, and African studies. It demonstrates the author’s deep and wide knowledge of Zulu ngoma and her mastery of the art of ethnography writing and is strongly recommended for anyone interested in learning this art. Indeed, whereas Meintjes praises Clegg for successfully translating ngoma into terms that are intelligible within the global popular-music circles, she and the photographer T. J. Lemon should be praised for magnificently translating ngoma in terms that are legible within music and cultural scholarly circles."

-- Imani Sanga Notes

"Visceral and immediate. . . . [Meintjes] makes us hear an alternative to mainstream ethnography by leaving it unspoken. She’s dancing in the scholar’s world."

-- Barbara Titus Ethnomusicology

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
INTRODUCTION. The Politics of Participation in Ngoma Song and Dance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. TURNING TO BE KISSED. Praise, Flirtation, and the Work of Men Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
2. THE UNWAVERING VOICE. Affect, Eloquence, and the Moral Anger of Men Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
3. FEET OF THE CENTIPEDE. Military Aesthetics and the Politics of Reconciliation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
4. TO QUELL THE DANCER’S DUST. Singing Violence during South Africa’s Transition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
5. THE CROSSING. World Music and Ngoma at Home Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
6. DANCING AROUND DISEASE. Silence, Ambiguity, and Brotherhood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	182
7. THE DIGITAL HOMESTEAD. Having a Voice and the Sound of Marginalization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210
8. BROKERING THE BODY. Culture, Heritage, and the Pleasure of Participation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
CLOSING. Ngoma’s Masculinity, South Africa’s Struggle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	266
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 360
Illustrations
- Other: 142 illustrations

eBook

Published: July 20, 2017
ISBN: 9780822373636