Verbal art beyond categorization: inductive and aesthetic approaches to Remmy Ongala’s songs

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the textual aesthetics of the Congolese-born (later Tanzanian naturalized) Swahili singer-songwriter Remmy Ongala. In the first part, I argue that a textual approach is also important for songs. The theoretical discussion is mainly based on the studies by Karin Barber (“Popular Arts in Africa.” African Studies Review 30, no. 3 (1987): 1–78, “African-Language Literature and Postcolonial Criticism.” Research in African Literatures 26, no. 4 (1995): 3–30, “Quotation in the Constitution of Yorùbá Oral Texts.” Research in African Literatures 30, no. 2 (1999): 17–41, The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), which offer a fundamental perspective on these issues. On this basis, I propose a more literary perspective, related to the ideas of the father of aesthetics Baumgarten (1714–1762), the American writer Susan Sontag (1933–2004) and the Swahili writer Euphrase Kezilahabi (1944–2020). Since Ongala belongs to different textual traditions, Congolese and Tanzanian, I use texts from these traditions for a comparative analysis of style and thought. On the Congolese side the comparison is based on elements of oral literature, like folk tale and song, both in relation to the proverb Kipendacho roho hula nyama bichi (A soul in love eats raw meat), while on the Tanzanian side the comparison is based on Swahili literature of that time.