Music, Performance and African Identities ed. by Toyin Falola and Tyler Fleming (review)

Much of African music scholarship is dominated by ethnomusicologists who draw on methods and theories derived from anthropology and musicology. Reacting to this trend, Tyler Fleming and Toyin Falola, the editors of Music, Performance and African Identities, express the need to “wrestle” the study of African music away from the grip of ethnomusicology. “This philosophy of compartmentalizing aspects of music to certain disciplines is illogical,” they say; the goal of the book is therefore to “interrogate the larger meanings of music” (18). This stated objective perhaps explains why most of the authors featured in this book come from disciplines like history, linguistics, performing arts, journalism, and communication studies.

In many ways I think that the editors may be overstating their case. The exploration of “larger meanings” has always represented a major feature of ethnomusicological research, and Fleming and Falola themselves acknowledge the importance of three music scholars, namely John Miller Chernoff, Christopher Waterman, and Kofi Agawu: Chernoff and Waterman for their methodological insights into the relationships between music and society in Africa; and Agawu for his critical reflections regarding the production of intellectual knowledge about African music. The goal of “interrogating the larger meanings of music” is also evident in the works of pioneering scholars like Alan Merriam, Charles Seeger, and John Blacking. Indeed, the interdisciplinary nature of ethnomusicology is strongly linked to the strong desire to probe and understand the significance of music traditions beyond their value as aesthetic expression (see Bruno Nettl, The Study of Ethnomusicology, University of Illinois Press, 2005, 216–17). It is also important to note that the more successful studies of African music are those, like John Blacking’s work on the music of the Venda of South Africa (How Musical Is Man? University of Washington Press, 1991) in which explorations of larger meanings of music derive from an analysis of the music itself. I believe, in other words, that there has to be a more cogent reason for “wrestling“ African music from the domain of ethnomusicology than the one given by the editors. Nevertheless, in its broad range across many cultures and historical periods, this volume represents an important contribution to the study of African music.

In the introduction, the editors provide a review of many historically important works, including those by Hugh Tracey (1954), Percival Kirby (1932–33), and Rose Brandel (1961). Fleming and Falola explain that earlier studies, especially those of the colonial era, tended to “demonize” African music and propagated an “otherness” ideology that resonated with the politics of colonial domination.

The rest of the fourteen chapters cover a wide variety of musical genres and performance practices from different parts of Africa. The chapters are grouped under four main sections: “Contemporary Music and Its Wider Social Impacts”; “Transnational Projections and Performances”; “Historical Reflections on Music”; and “Cultural and Political Meanings in African Music.” Six of the chapters focus on southern Africa, mainly South Africa and Zimbabwe; four discuss East Africa, mainly Tanzania and Kenya; and the remaining four concentrate on countries in West Africa: Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, and Ghana. These four categories are of course not mutually exclusive in terms of the issues that they address. For example, contemporary musical genres are discussed in all the sections, while the exploration of the social significance of music pervades the book.

Topics in the first section include East African hip hop, takiboronse music in Burkina Faso, and the use of music for political propaganda in Zimbabwe. A recurring theme is the increasing domination of modern performance spaces by the youth. George Gathagi’s chapter on East African hip hop, “Inventing East African Hip Hop: Youth and Musical Convergence in East Africa,” for example, discusses the development of rap music in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania as a symbol of youth power, and as shaped within the political and social dynamics of the region. Topics covered in the second section include the interface of Islam and popular culture...