Reading the Political Metaphor: Oliver Mtukudzi’s ‘Wasakara’ and ‘Ngoromera’: Calling for Cultures of Peace in Africa

The chapter conceptualizes Oliver ‘Tuku’ Mtukudzi as a musician who has been harshly misjudged as lacking political consciousness. It argues that Tuku has consistently employed hidden scripts to engage political issues and speaking back to power through his music. Tuku uses the metaphors of kusakara...

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Main Authors: Mangeya, Hugh, Jakaza, Ernest
Format: Book chapter
Language:English
Published: Springer 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11408/5045
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author Mangeya, Hugh
Jakaza, Ernest
author_facet Mangeya, Hugh
Jakaza, Ernest
author_sort Mangeya, Hugh
collection DSpace
description The chapter conceptualizes Oliver ‘Tuku’ Mtukudzi as a musician who has been harshly misjudged as lacking political consciousness. It argues that Tuku has consistently employed hidden scripts to engage political issues and speaking back to power through his music. Tuku uses the metaphors of kusakara (‘wearing out’) and ngoromera (‘magic charm for fighting’) to advocate for truly democratic and peaceful cultures of peace in African politics. The two songs under study were purposively selected from the album Bvuma-Tolerance, which was released in arguably one of Zimbabwe’s significant turning points in its political developments. Analysis of the songs is done using the metaphor metafunction of Cognitive Grammar whereby existing concrete concepts (the source domain) are used to represent more abstract concepts (the target domain), such as governance. The chapter reveals that, through the two songs, Mtukudzi attributes Zimbabwe’s socio-economic and political downfall to Mugabe’s old age and perpetual violent tendencies. These are two topics that have been deemed ‘politically sensitive’ in the country’s hegemonic discourses. It emerges that Tuku could have been harshly misjudged as a musician with a little to no political consciousness or commitmen
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spelling ir-11408-50452022-08-02T18:55:45Z Reading the Political Metaphor: Oliver Mtukudzi’s ‘Wasakara’ and ‘Ngoromera’: Calling for Cultures of Peace in Africa Mangeya, Hugh Jakaza, Ernest Metaphor Political consciousness Protest music Hegemonic discourses Political engagement The chapter conceptualizes Oliver ‘Tuku’ Mtukudzi as a musician who has been harshly misjudged as lacking political consciousness. It argues that Tuku has consistently employed hidden scripts to engage political issues and speaking back to power through his music. Tuku uses the metaphors of kusakara (‘wearing out’) and ngoromera (‘magic charm for fighting’) to advocate for truly democratic and peaceful cultures of peace in African politics. The two songs under study were purposively selected from the album Bvuma-Tolerance, which was released in arguably one of Zimbabwe’s significant turning points in its political developments. Analysis of the songs is done using the metaphor metafunction of Cognitive Grammar whereby existing concrete concepts (the source domain) are used to represent more abstract concepts (the target domain), such as governance. The chapter reveals that, through the two songs, Mtukudzi attributes Zimbabwe’s socio-economic and political downfall to Mugabe’s old age and perpetual violent tendencies. These are two topics that have been deemed ‘politically sensitive’ in the country’s hegemonic discourses. It emerges that Tuku could have been harshly misjudged as a musician with a little to no political consciousness or commitmen 2022-08-02T18:55:45Z 2022-08-02T18:55:45Z 2022-01-13 Book chapter Mangeya, H., Jakaza, E. (2022). Reading the Political Metaphor: Oliver Mtukudzi’s ‘Wasakara’ and ‘Ngoromera’: Calling for Cultures of Peace in Africa. In: Chitando, E., Mateveke, P., Nyakudya, M., Chinouriri, B. (eds) The Life and Music of Oliver Mtukudzi . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80728-3_13 978-3-030-80727- 978-3-030-80728-3 doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80728-3_13 http://hdl.handle.net/11408/5045 en The Life and Music of Oliver Mtukudzi;Pages 177 – 190 open Springer
spellingShingle Metaphor
Political consciousness
Protest music
Hegemonic discourses
Political engagement
Mangeya, Hugh
Jakaza, Ernest
Reading the Political Metaphor: Oliver Mtukudzi’s ‘Wasakara’ and ‘Ngoromera’: Calling for Cultures of Peace in Africa
title Reading the Political Metaphor: Oliver Mtukudzi’s ‘Wasakara’ and ‘Ngoromera’: Calling for Cultures of Peace in Africa
title_full Reading the Political Metaphor: Oliver Mtukudzi’s ‘Wasakara’ and ‘Ngoromera’: Calling for Cultures of Peace in Africa
title_fullStr Reading the Political Metaphor: Oliver Mtukudzi’s ‘Wasakara’ and ‘Ngoromera’: Calling for Cultures of Peace in Africa
title_full_unstemmed Reading the Political Metaphor: Oliver Mtukudzi’s ‘Wasakara’ and ‘Ngoromera’: Calling for Cultures of Peace in Africa
title_short Reading the Political Metaphor: Oliver Mtukudzi’s ‘Wasakara’ and ‘Ngoromera’: Calling for Cultures of Peace in Africa
title_sort reading the political metaphor: oliver mtukudzi’s ‘wasakara’ and ‘ngoromera’: calling for cultures of peace in africa
topic Metaphor
Political consciousness
Protest music
Hegemonic discourses
Political engagement
url http://hdl.handle.net/11408/5045
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