Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa

Edited by Kimani Njogu and Hervé Maupeu. A collection of essays on songs and politics in East Africa and beyond. Through an analysis of voices from the margins, the contributors enter the debate on cultural productions and political change. The theme cutting across the contributions is that songs are, in addition to their aesthetic appeal, vital tools for exploring how political and social events are shaped and understood by citizens. Urbanisation, commercialisation, and globalisation contributed to the vibrancy of East African popular music of the 1990s, marked by hybridity, syncretism, and innovativeness. The lyrics explored social cosmology, worldviews, class and gender relations, interpretations of value systems, and other political, social, and cultural practices. Frustration and disenchantment with corrupt and dictatorial political systems drove popular music. Kimani Njogu is Director of Twaweza Communications and won the 2000 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa for Ufundishaji wa Fasihi.