“From Angola to the world”, from the world to Lisbon and Paris: How structural inequalities shaped the global kizomba dance industry

Abstract

A form of couple dance popular since the eighties in urban contexts of Portuguese-speaking Africa was commodified in Lisbon in the late nineties under the label kizomba, pointing to Angola as its original source. It met with unexpectedly great success in dance schools all over Portugal and, in a few years, became a global phenomenon following on salsa circuits so that nowadays it is possible to find a kizomba dance school in almost every corner of the world. The objective of this paper is to analyse how structural inequalities shaped the global kizomba industry, imposing conditions on its professional circuits, redirecting the movements of people, moulding its symbols and reorienting the circulation of capital from the peripheries towards hegemonic centres. Within this objective, I provide empirical descriptions of how kizomba was commodified and how the global circuits were constituted. I propose that the debates on authenticity and African-ness across the global kizomba community make sense in this specific context of inequalities, before concluding that this case constitutes an example of how the metaphor of “flow” proves inappropriate for accounting for global culture circulation.