As Plato Duly Warned: Music, Politics, and Social Change in Coastal East Africa
Author(s):
Kelly M. Askew
Publication Year:
2003
Type:
journal article
Journal/Book Title
Anthropological Quarterly
Publisher
Editor(s):
Pages:
609-637
Volume:
76
Issue:
4
Abstract:
This essay explores the significanceof art in political and social change by way of evidence from the Swahili coast of East Africa. Analysis of two musical genres, ngoma and dansi (typically glossed as "traditional dance"and "urban jazz"), exposes common aesthetic principles of innovation, inventive appropriation,competitiveo pposition,linguistic indirection,and intertextuality. Historical analysis further reveals that both genres haves erved as effective modesof political action in Swahili communities. I use this data to question prevailing assumptions about Swahili cosmopolitanism, challenge traditional/modern binarism, and theorize the relationship between art and society
Permalink:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3318282Citation (Chicago Author-Date):
Askew, Kelly M. 2003. “As Plato Duly Warned: Music, Politics, and Social Change in Coastal East Africa.” Anthropological Quarterly 76 (4): 609–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3318282.