The female body and voice in audiovisual political propaganda jingles: the Mbare Chimurenga Choir women in Zimbabwe's contested political terrain
Zimbabwe’s post-2000 political terrain has been highly polarised and contested; a minefield requiring political resourcefulness to negotiate. Political actors in this terrain have employed an array of political and cultural tools, ranging from discourses of black empowerment and democratisation, to...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis (Routledge),UNISA Press [Copublisher]
2016
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org.access.msu.ac.zw:2048/10.1080/02560046.2013.784388 |
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| author | Ngoshi, Hazel T. Mutekwa, Anias |
| author_facet | Ngoshi, Hazel T. Mutekwa, Anias |
| author_sort | Ngoshi, Hazel T. |
| collection | DSpace |
| description | Zimbabwe’s post-2000 political terrain has been highly polarised and contested; a minefield requiring political resourcefulness to negotiate. Political actors in this terrain have employed an array of political and cultural tools, ranging from discourses of black empowerment and democratisation, to written texts and performances of political propaganda to garner support from the electorate and gain political mileage. This article explores the literal and symbolic implications of the entry of the female body into public and political spaces through performance in propaganda jingles in the electronic media, represented here by the Mbare Chimurenga Choir’s album ‘Nyatsoteerera’ [Listen carefully]. Using the Bakhtinian carnivalesque theoretical framework, the article analyses the audiovisual and thematic aspects of the Mbare women’s performance, exploring how the female body is cast in the visuals as both object and metaphor in the articulation of a largely masculinist nationalist project. The authors of this article suggest that the choreography exalts the female body as a metaphor for the authoritarian creed, and the gyrating bodies make tangible the objectification and metaphorisation of women in political discourses, while thematically, the lyrics suggest that
the Zimbabwean nation cannot be construed outside ZANU-PF’s terms, thereby foreclosing
any alternative discourse on Zimbabwe. |
| format | Article |
| id | ir-11408-860 |
| institution | My University |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis (Routledge),UNISA Press [Copublisher] |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ir-11408-8602022-06-27T13:49:06Z The female body and voice in audiovisual political propaganda jingles: the Mbare Chimurenga Choir women in Zimbabwe's contested political terrain Ngoshi, Hazel T. Mutekwa, Anias Carnivalesque, cultural nationalism, female objectification, metaphorisation, propaganda jingles, Zimbabwe Zimbabwe’s post-2000 political terrain has been highly polarised and contested; a minefield requiring political resourcefulness to negotiate. Political actors in this terrain have employed an array of political and cultural tools, ranging from discourses of black empowerment and democratisation, to written texts and performances of political propaganda to garner support from the electorate and gain political mileage. This article explores the literal and symbolic implications of the entry of the female body into public and political spaces through performance in propaganda jingles in the electronic media, represented here by the Mbare Chimurenga Choir’s album ‘Nyatsoteerera’ [Listen carefully]. Using the Bakhtinian carnivalesque theoretical framework, the article analyses the audiovisual and thematic aspects of the Mbare women’s performance, exploring how the female body is cast in the visuals as both object and metaphor in the articulation of a largely masculinist nationalist project. The authors of this article suggest that the choreography exalts the female body as a metaphor for the authoritarian creed, and the gyrating bodies make tangible the objectification and metaphorisation of women in political discourses, while thematically, the lyrics suggest that the Zimbabwean nation cannot be construed outside ZANU-PF’s terms, thereby foreclosing any alternative discourse on Zimbabwe. 2016-04-16T12:28:08Z 2016-04-16T12:28:08Z 2013 Article 0256-0046 http://dx.doi.org.access.msu.ac.zw:2048/10.1080/02560046.2013.784388 en Critical Arts;Vol. 27, Issue 2, p. 235-248 none Taylor & Francis (Routledge),UNISA Press [Copublisher] |
| spellingShingle | Carnivalesque, cultural nationalism, female objectification, metaphorisation, propaganda jingles, Zimbabwe Ngoshi, Hazel T. Mutekwa, Anias The female body and voice in audiovisual political propaganda jingles: the Mbare Chimurenga Choir women in Zimbabwe's contested political terrain |
| title | The female body and voice in audiovisual political propaganda jingles: the Mbare Chimurenga Choir women in Zimbabwe's contested political terrain |
| title_full | The female body and voice in audiovisual political propaganda jingles: the Mbare Chimurenga Choir women in Zimbabwe's contested political terrain |
| title_fullStr | The female body and voice in audiovisual political propaganda jingles: the Mbare Chimurenga Choir women in Zimbabwe's contested political terrain |
| title_full_unstemmed | The female body and voice in audiovisual political propaganda jingles: the Mbare Chimurenga Choir women in Zimbabwe's contested political terrain |
| title_short | The female body and voice in audiovisual political propaganda jingles: the Mbare Chimurenga Choir women in Zimbabwe's contested political terrain |
| title_sort | female body and voice in audiovisual political propaganda jingles: the mbare chimurenga choir women in zimbabwe's contested political terrain |
| topic | Carnivalesque, cultural nationalism, female objectification, metaphorisation, propaganda jingles, Zimbabwe |
| url | http://dx.doi.org.access.msu.ac.zw:2048/10.1080/02560046.2013.784388 |
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