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6. The Hiatus: Music, Dissent, and Nation Building after Independence, 1975–90s
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6 w The Hiatus Music, Dissent, and Nation Building after Independence, 1975–90s The involvement of politics in music and of music in politics ended up being translated into political conflicts, which later came to reflect themselves in the area of music. —Mário Rui Silva, on music after independence Given the vibrancy of the music scene and its relationship to the battle for the nation, it is perhaps no surprise that music came to play an important role in the battle over the new nation. A military coup in Portugal in April 1974, announced when the radio station played Zeca Afonso’s “Grândola, Vila Morena,” set the stage for Angolan independence and, simultaneously, for civil war.1 By late 1975 the MPLA controlled the state, UNITA took on the role of rebel opposition, and the FNLA was effectively neutralized both politically and militarily. Despite the political and military organization and unity required to take over the state and control the capital, relations within the MPLA and between the MPLA and urban populations, particularly in Luanda, were fraught with tension. Following the military coup in Portugal, most of the musicians popular in the heyday of Angolan music supported or joined the MPLA, whose cosmopolitan nationalist message resonated with their own imaginations of themselves and their nation.2 Three or four bands from the central highlands joined UNITA and played music, initially music from the late colonial period, and later propagandistic music through the 1980s.3 By all accounts, music suddenly became a partisan and highly politicized affair. Part of what made the earlier period a golden age was the sense that people were united in their desire for independence. As Armando Correia de Azevedo put it: “Everyone was united, the sentiment was the same: to one day see your country free. The people had one voice. And later the contradictions established themselves here with the politicians. The politicians were the ones that came with contradictions.”4 He asserts that those who returned 165 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. from exile and became the political elite disrupted and disarticulated a unity that Angolans who had stayed behind had established for themselves. Adolfo Maria echoed this sentiment when discussing a later moment, the Bicesse Accord, that led to elections in 1992: “[It] consecrated the division of power between two parts and left no space for the Angolan nation to declare itself.”5 Independence and civil war ushered in a politics that was a rarefied field of activity, increasingly distant from the desires and expectations of most Angolans. Not only differences between the three parties but differences within the MPLA took on new meaning after independence. An alleged attempted coup in 1977 led to a purge in the party and a narrowing of political debate: “In the aftermath of the coup, MPLA became a more exclusive, secretive and less accountable organization.”6 Meanwhile, the civil war had begun in earnest, further raising the stakes over who got to define the nation and nationalism and how it would be done. Under these conditions, the independent state used music as a nation-building tool and actively promoted music production from 1978 until the early 1990s. Musicians continued to produce music but under very different conditions than before. In the early 1990s the state introduced economic and political reforms: the economy was unfettered and opened to the market and in 1992 the first elections were held. At the same time, the then minister of culture informed musicians it was time to fend for themselves.7 This chapter analyzes the relationship of music to independent Angola and, in particular, to the internal politics of the MPLA. Musicians claim that this period initiated a “hiatus” in music, as the historical narrative of Angolan music parted ways with the official historical narrative of Angolan nationalism . At the same time, some musicians remember this period with nostalgia: it was a time when the state supported and respected musicians, when everybody got something to eat even if it meant standing in line—a time contrasted with today’s feral capitalism unleashed in the early 1990s.8 Thus this chapter underscores the contingent relationship between politics and music. It is here where musicians pull the narrative of nation away from that of nationalism . They point to the...