Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania (review)

Abstract

Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania Kelly Askew, Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania. University of Chicago Press, 2002, 392 pp. The book is extremely rich fabric of ethnographic description, first-person accounts, and theoretical discussions, and is accompanied by a CD of samples. The major contribution of the book is that, beyond presenting political and musical ethnographies, the author intertwines them to show that and dance do not simply reflect; rather, they provide the means by which social and political hierarchies are negotiated and transformed. In various chapters, she presents several in-depth case studies of musical events to illustrate the role of musical performance in local, state, and national politics. In short, it is a history of Tanzanian through musical performance. Following a rich introductory chapter, Chapter 2 offers an ethnography of Tanzanian nationalism (107). The author outlines the history of Tanzania, and the city of Tanga, in particular, from the origins of coastal Swahili culture, through the arrival of Europeans, the colonial era, postcolonialism, the socialist experiment, and, finally, today's multipartyism. Particular attention is paid to the relations between Zanzibar and mainland Tanganyika. In Chapter 3, the author presents a musical ethnography and social history of three musical genres of coastal Swahili society: ngoma, dansi, and taarab. Ngoma literally means and also translates as drum and music in general. The term refers specifically to traditional dance and more generally to a musical event encompassing music, dance, song, characteristic instrumentation, and a characteristic rhythm. There are countless varieties of ngoma based on ethnic group, region, gender, and function. Ngoma is found primarily at life cycle rituals such as weddings and initiations, but also at state celebrations. Though often associated with traditionalism, ngoma is not frozen in time, thanks to its capacity for improvisation. Dansi refers to urban popular music. It began with colonialism but has continued to expand and incorporate both foreign and traditional elements. Dansi, found primarily at urban nightclubs, rare elite weddings, or state celebrations, is considered pan-ethnic, and marks urban, elite status. Dansi offered a cultural route to social parity with colonizers, representing a genre of change and modernity. Taarab is a form of sung Swahili poetry (especially love songs) unique to the coastal region of East Africa. It is subdivided into linguistic and regional categories and includes both classical and modern varieties. It must follow certain poetic conventions of rhyme and meter. It is full of ornamentation and is not improvisatory practice. The defining characteristic of taarab is its heavy use of metaphor, allusion, and double entendre, which produce multiple layers of meaning and transforms the songs into power-laden weapons; taarab can thus send messages that local protocol otherwise prohibits. Taarab has layer upon layer of social critique, political positioning, gender debate, identity contestation, and dispute negotiation. Each of the three genres constitutes a form of cultural expression and a resource through which social and political identities are constructed, contested, reshaped, and manipulated. Participants manipulate song texts (in particular ngoma and taraab) to affirm or reject love relationships, to denounce moral character, or to negotiate their own personal disputes through tipping (139). Furthermore, the line between performers and audience is erased by the practice of tipping, which is the audience's medium of participation. Musical performance, especially of ngoma and taarab, thus has the capacity to constitute, negotiate, and transform social relations (154). Chapter 4 is wholly dedicated to the role of taarab in negotiating social relations. …