Youth lyrics, street language and the politics of age: Contextualising the youth question in the Third Chimurenga in Zimbabwe

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 38, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 107-127

  Mate, Rekopantswe ^a  

^a INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL STUDIES   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL RELATIONS; LANGUAGE; MUSIC; NATIONALISM; YOUNG POPULATION;

ZIMBABWE;

EID: 84859330133     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2012.642722     Document Type: Article

References (142)

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10. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Willems, 'Making Sense of Cultural Nationalism'.
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22. R.J. Heiman, 'The Ironic Contradictions in the Discourse on Generation X or How 'Slackers' are Saving Capitalism'), Childhood, 8, 1 (2001), pp. 274-292.
23. P. Mizen, The Changing State of Youth (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
24. M. Flack, '"Label Jars and Not People": How (Not) to Study Youth Civic Engagement', In Representing Youth: Methodological Issues in Critical Youth Studies (New York, New York University Press, 2005).
25. D.B. Cruise O'Brien, 'A Lost Generation?: Youth Identity and State Decay in West Africa', In R. Werbner and T. Ranger (eds), Postcolonial Identities in Africa (London, Zed Books, 1996).
26. L.A. Sharp, The Sacrificed Generation: Youth, History and the Colonized Mind in Madagascar (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2002).
27. Mizen, The Changing State of Youth.
28. Cruise O'Brien, 'A Lost Generation?'.
29. J. Abbink, 'Being Young in Africa: The Politics of Despair and Renewal', In J. Abbink and A. van Kessel (eds), Vanguard or Vandals? Youth Politics and Conflict in Africa (Leiden, Brill, 2005), pp. 1-36.
30. P.M. Kagwanja, 'Power to Uhuru: Youth Identity and Generational Politics in Kenya's 2002 Elections', African Affairs, 105 (2005), pp. 51-75
31. S. Simonse, 'Warriors, Hooligans and Mercenaries: Failed Statehood and the Violence of Young Male Pastoralists in the Horn of Africa', In Abbink and van Kessel, Vanguard or Vandals?, pp. 243-266
32. K. Peters and P. Richards, '"Why We Fight": Voices of Youth Combatants in Sierra Leone', Africa, 68, 2 (1998), pp. 183-210
33. K. Meagher, 'Hijacking Civil Sociality: the Inside Story of Bakassi Vigilante Group in South East Nigeria', Journal of Modern Africa Studies, 45, 1 (2007)
34. O. Ismail, 'The Dialectics of 'Junctions' and 'Bases': Youth in Securico-Commerce and the Crises of Order in Downtown Lagos', Security Dialogue, 40, 4 (2009), pp. 463-487
35. I. Abdullah, ' "I am a Rebel": Youth Culture and Violence in Sierra Leone', In A. Honwana and F. de Boeck (eds), Makers and Breakers: Children and Youth in Postcolonial Africa (London, James Currey, 2005).
36. Meagher, 'Hijacking Civil Sociality'
37. Kagwanja, 'Power to Uhuru'.
38. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Willems, 'Making Sense of Cultural Nationalism', p. 952
39. Simonse, 'Warriors, Hooligans and Mercenaries'.
40. P. Bennell and M. Ncube, '"Jobs for the Boys?": Employment Experiences of Secondary School Leavers in Zimbabwe', JSAS, 20, 2 (1994), pp. 301-316.
41. G.C.Z. Mhone, 'The Social Dimensions of Adjustment (SDA) in Zimbabwe: A Critical Review and Assessment', European Journal of Development Research, 7, 1 (1995), pp. 101-123.
42. C.M. Nherera, 'Globalisation, Qualifications and Livelihoods: The Case of Zimbabwe', Assessment in Education Policy: Principles, Policy and Practice, 7, 3 (2010), pp. 335-363.
43. Mhone, 'The Social Dimensions of Adjustment'.
44. UNICEF, 'Children and AIDS Fact Sheets: Zimbabwe' (New York, UNICEF, 2009).
45. B. Eyre, Playing with Fire - Fear and Self-censorship in Zimbabwean Music (Copenhagen, Freemuse, 2005).
46. A.Y. Kamete, '"At the Bottom of the Social Heap": A Youth Underclass in Inner City Harare', Journal of Youth Studies, 9, 1 (2006), pp. 67-89.
47. Kamete, 'Planning versus Youth'.
48. As discussed in detail in: Solidarity Peace Trust, 'National Youth Service Training'.
49. Because of structural challenges such as economic stagnation, the capacity of colleges to absorb students was already stretched to the limit. In any case, the promise was not to waive the usual entry requirements, thus national youth service was an extra requirement for those most desperate to get training and jobs.
50. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, and Willems, 'Making Sense of Cultural Nationalism'.
51. Eyre, Playing with Fire
52. T. Kupe, 'The Meanings of Music: The Presentation of Popular Music in Zimbabwe', In African Identities, 1, 2 (2003), pp. 187-196
53. M. Chikowero, '"Our People Father, They Haven't Learned Yet": Music and Postcolonial Identities in Zimbabwe, 1980-2000', JSAS, 34, 1 (2008), pp. 145-160.
54. Eyre, Playing with Fire.
55. E. Fürsich, 'In Defense of Textual Analysis: Restoring a Challenged Method for Journalism and Media Studies', Journalism Studies, 10, 2 (2009), pp. 238-252.
56. A. McKee, Textual Analysis: A Beginner's Guide (London, Sage Publications, 2003)
57. R. Wooffitt, Conversation Analysis and Discourse Analysis: A Comparative Introduction (London, Sage Publications, 2005).
58. C. Kurbin, 'Gangstas, Thugs, and Hustlas: Identity and the Code of the Street in Rap Music', Social Problems, 52, 3 (2005), pp. 360-378.
59. Perullo, 'Hooligans and Heroes'.
60. These artists should not be confused with other artists commissioned to perform chave chimurenga jingles on public radio, as none dealt with in this article performed materials used for that campaign.
61. Clay, 'Keepin' it Real'
62. Perullo, 'Hooligans and Heroes'.
63. I. Manase, 'Zimbabwean Urban Grooves and Their Subversive Performance Practices', Social Dynamics, 35, 1 (March 2009), pp. 56-67.
64. Nyamnjoh and Fokwang, 'Entertaining Repression'
65. Nyairo and Ogude, 'Popular Music, Popular Politics'
66. Rossi, 'Youth Political Participation', p. 468.
67. Nyairo and Ogude, 'Popular Music, Popular Politics', pp. 232-244
68. Nyamnjoh and Fokwang, 'Entertaining Repression', pp. 253+266.
69. M. Miller-Young, 'Hip-hop Honeys and da Hustlaz Black Sexualities in the New Hip-hop Pornography', Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transactionalism, 8, 1 (2007), pp. 261-292.
70. Perullo, 'Hooligans and Heroes'
71. Saavedra Casco, 'The Language of Young People'
72. Becker and Dastile, 'Global and African'.
73. Kurbin, 'Gangstas, Thugs, and Hustlas'
74. Miller-Young, 'Hip-hop Honeys'.
75. Miller-Young, 'Hip-hop Honeys'
76. Kurbin, 'Gangstas, Thugs, and Hustlas'
77. Clay, 'Keepin' it Real'
78. Perullo, 'Hooligans and Heroes'.
79. Kurbin, 'Gangstas, Thugs, and Hustlas'
80. Clay, 'Keepin' it Real'
81. Miller-Young, 'Hip-hopHoneys', among others.
82. F. Tichawangana, 'Urban Grooves is Dying', available at http://www.zimbojam.com (25 May 2009), accessed 2 August 2010.
83. Debates are on-going on ZBC television youth music programmes Heart of the Rhythm and Urban Limelight.
84. W. Bere, 'Urban Grooves: The Performance of Politics in Zimbabwe's Hip Hop Music' (PhD Thesis, New York University, 2008)
85. Manase, 'Zimbabwean Urban Grooves'.
86. For example, the Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Empowerment, Mr Saviour Kasukuwere, interviewed on ZBC TV, on 18 December 2010.
87. Steingo, 'South African Music After Apartheid'
88. Perullo, 'Hooligans and Heroes'.
89. Kupe, 'The Meanings of Music'
90. Chikowero, 'Our People Father, They Haven't Learned Yet'.
91. There are complaints about the exclusion of emerging artists. See http://xbcjumpoff.blogspot.com (accessed 18 May 2010).
92. Youth Lyrics, Street Language and the Politics of Age 113
93. For instance, the term chirema (the English equivalent is 'cripple'), seen as demeaning by activists who prefer the descriptive phrase 'mwana/munhu akaremara' (that is, 'person/child with disability'). The former persists in everyday language.
94. M. Lafon, 'Shona Class 5 Revisited: A Case Against *Ri-as Class 5 Nominal Prefix', Zambezia, 20, 1 (1994), pp. 51-80+69+73.
95. Another example is the street term mazirudo calibrated from 'rudo' meaning 'love'. Mazirudo means 'lots of awkwardly big love' because of the use of two prefixes zi- (as discussed above) and ma- (indicating quantity). Such love is hard to imagine, insincere and therefore repulsive. It denotes an uncharted territory underlined by uncertainty of intentions, cynicism and insincerity.
96. Vanamai in Shona.
97. J. Jones, '"Nothing is Straight in Zimbabwe": The Rise of the Kukiya-Kiya Economy', JSAS, 36, 2 (2010), pp. 285-299.
98. Youth Lyrics, Street Language and the Politics of Age 115
99. A. Mbembe, On the Postcolony (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2001).
100. Eyre, Playing with Fire, p. 7.
101. C. Shire, 'Men Don't Go to the Moon: Language, Space and Masculinities in Zimbabwe', In A. Cornwall and N. Lindisfarne (eds), Dislocating Masculinity: Comparative Ethnographies (London, Routledge, 1994), pp. 145-153.
102. This is based on my personal recollections of doing A Level Shona. The language of such poems was often impenetrable and there were no reference materials to aid comprehension.
103. E. Schmidt, Peasants, Traders and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870-1939 (Harare/London, Baobab Books/James Currey, 1992).
104. This version of Shona uses the sound 'L' instead of 'R'. Standard Shona has no 'L'.
105. Muzondidya, 'Jambanja: ideological ambiguities', p. 335
106. On the long established trope of caricaturing of black people of foreign origin as idiots, without rural homes and totems considered important aspects of neo-patrilineal identity. Xtra Large also mock other Shona dialects for humour and satire in some of their pieces.
107. S. Heald, 'The Power of Sex: Some Reflections on the Caldwells' "African Sexuality" Thesis', Africa, 65, 4 (1998), pp. 489-505.
108. 'Time's Up for "Kerb Crawlers"', Mail and Guardian, 19 August 2004. See http://mg.co.za/article/2004-08-19-times-up-for-kerb-crawlers (accessed 18 April 2011).
109. M.S. Kaplan, 'Feminisation of the AIDS epidemic', Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 22, 2 (1995), pp. 5-22
110. NFPA, State of World Population (New York, USA, 2005).
111. By the feminisation of HIV and AIDS, they mean that in the worst affected region (sub Saharan Africa) women dominate the ranks of the infected, likely to be infected and dying of AIDS because of pervasive gender inequality.
112. She says repeatedly, ' ... ndipe zvandakavinga' (' ... give me what I came for').
113. Nyamhangambiri, 'Urban Grooves Blacklisted by State Radio'.
114. R. Mate, 'Women as God's Laboratories: Pentecostal Discourses of Femininity in Zimbabwe', Africa, 72, 4 (2002), pp. 549-568.
115. For instance in the songs 'Todii' (What shall we do?), 'Mabasa' (Tragedy) and 'Tapindwa nei?' (What is the matter with us men?) from the album Tuku Music (Zimbabwe Music Corporation (ZMC), 1998). Todii laments women's despair and helplessness when infected with HIV; the pressure to carry to term pregnancies knowing that the babies will have a short life; and when married, women are under pressure to fulfil conjugal rites (sex) under unfavourable terms, and so on. He describes this as marital rape 'kubatwa chibharo neakabvisa pfuma'.
116. Footnote 68 continued Considering that marital rape is often said to be a misnomer in Zimbabwe, this could be controversial but Mtukudzi gets away with it. There has never been protest about this utterance. Mabasa is a lament to compatriots and ancestors about the ubiquity of death, especially of the young, and about the pointlessness of mourning rites when everyone is in mourning. Tapindwa nei? rebukes older men who sexually abuse children/youth. Mtukudzi asks rhetorically 'what type of sexual desire is this?' saying 'Dai iri nzara; Inzara rudzii?'.
117. In the album Tsimba Itsoka (Tuku Music/Sheer Sound, 2007, South Africa), the first song 'Ungade we?' (How would you feel?) is a case in point. It is a song about child abuse. Here Mtukudzi challenges older men asking how they would feel if their daughters were abused/taken advantage of? Chances are many would be rightly offended. Thus he implores men to be conscientious. In the album Vhunze Moto (ZMC, 2002), the last song 'Tapera' (We face decimation) - is an example. It laments the decimation of the population due to HIV partly attributed to older men's recklessness, in their extramarital affairs with younger women or girls. He tells men to be careful, to exercise caution, restraint and have shame.
118. Saying ' ....kuzviketa tsotsi' (that is, 'making oneself a scamster', 'living by their wits' or 'getting things by illicit means').
119. Often performed as part of greetings to show respect, in traditional rituals and/or as a sign of contrition when dealing with authority.
120. Ukarohwa uchataura .... ('you will confess after a good beating') and later urging the angry man 'Nyatsomurova ...', ('beat him hard').
121. Which means 'show us your hands', and is a Shona version of popular hip-hop chanting in which people on the dance floor simultaneously raise and wave their hands and chant in response to the prompts of a disc jockey/MC.
122. Soul City, Multiple and Concurrent Partnerships in Southern Africa: A Ten Country Research Report (Johannesburg, South Africa, 2008).
123. ' ... hapabvumidzwe madhirezi nemadhuku ... /.mapatapata ..../Panodiwa mahipsters, ma mini ..../
124. R. Marindo, S. Pearson and J.B. Casterline, 'Condom Use and Abstinence Among Unmarried Young People in Zimbabwe: Which Strategy and Whose Agenda?' (Washington, DC, Population Council, 2003).
125. J. Saul, 'On Treating Things as People: Objectification, Pornography and the History of the Vibrator', Hypatia, 21, 2 (Spring 2006), pp. 45-59.
126. Miller-Young, 'Hip-hop Honeys', pp. 263-264.
127. For instance, see www.urbandictionary.com (accessed 20 September 2011); an online user-generated dictionary of English slang. A 'video ho' is a woman or man who likes to draw attention to himself/herself by being filmed near stars, wearing revealing clothes or doing things which draw attention to stand out in a video. 'Bitch' means whining excessively, doing degrading work or is used to express hardship.
128. Miller-Young, 'Hip-hop Honeys', p. 263.
129. These debates are too complex to get into because of limitations of space and scope.
130. T. Truong, 'Sexual Labour in Contemporary Capitalism', Journal of Gender Studies, 1 (1998), pp. 9-21.
131. F.B. Nyamnjoh, 'Fishing in Troubled Water: Disquettes and Thiofs in Dakar', Africa, 75, 3 (2005)
132. K. Longfield, 'Rich Fools, Spare Tyres and Boyfriends: Partners Categories and Relationship Dynamics and Ivorian Women's Risk for STIs and HIV', Culture, Health and Sexuality, 6, 6 (2004), pp. 483-500.
133. A Similarly 'war vet' is interchangeable with 'hooligan' in popular parlance.
134. Eyre, Playing with Fire, p. 29.
135. In official circles, the title 'Comrade' silences academic/professional titles.
136. Jones, Youth (London, Polity Press, 2009)
137. Mizen, The Changing State of Youth.
138. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Willems, 'Making Sense of Cultural Nationalism'.
139. Jones, 'Nothing is Straight in Zimbabwe'.
140. D. Bhana, R. Morrell, J. Hearn and M. Moletsane, 'Power and Identity: An Introduction to Sexualities in Southern Africa', Sexualities, 10, 2 (2007), pp. 131-139.
141. T. Shefer and D. Foster, 'Discourses on Women's (Hetero)Sexuality and Desire in a South African Local Context', Culture, Health and Sexuality, 3, 4 (2001), pp. 375-390.
142. L.B. Christiansen, '"In Our Culture" - How Debates about Zimbabwe's Domestic Violence Law Became a "Cultural Struggle"', NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 17, 3 (2009), pp. 175-191.