Popular Songs and Social Realities in Post-Independence Zimbabwe

Abstract

The analysis of popular songs in post-independence Zimbabwe has received little attention. The few analyses that have been attempted remain fragmentary and notoriously insist on a uniform worldview for the singers. This tends to blur ideological differences in the sensibilities of the singer's response to the realities of independence. Moreover, an overemphasis on a homogenous perspective on independence by the singers also tends to underestimate the contradictory response in the songs of an individual singer. This article analyzes popular songs of Zimbabwe in the Shona, Ndebele, and English languages. It argues that although the popular songs occur within the context of celebrating independence, the state sought to control the extent to which singers could define the meaning of independence. But the plurality of the singers' responses, their refusal to conform to a single definition of the idea of independence, indicates what is distinctively “popular” in the songs.