Studies on black South African popular music have often invoked the idea of 'identity performance'. Although ethnic identity continues to be performed in contemporary black South African popular music, this article argues for the existence of a performance of, and discourse on, identities that go beyond ethnicity. Here the focus is on the relationship between ethnic identity and other identities that elide the national South African identity as manifested in the stories and music of the following Tsonga musicians from different generations: General MD Shirinda, Joe Shirimani, Penny Penny and Jeff Maluleke. Based on several in-depth interviews with these musicians, an analysis is provided of their use of language and their modes of self-representation as apparent in their music and in their discourse on their music during apartheid and post-apartheid times. The findings demonstrate how the musicians' thoughts about, and practising of, identity move between different levels of ethnic affiliation at different historical moments.
Studies on black South African popular music have often invoked the idea of identity performance: certain music genres are associated with particular ethnic identities, for example maskanda with Zuluness 1. This work shows how various South African popular musics construct ethnic identities. Although ethnic identity continues to be performed in contemporary black South African popular music, there is also, I argue in this paper, a performance of and discourse on identities that exceed ethnicity. In this paper I focus on the relationships between ethnic identity and other identities that elide the national South African identity as manifested in the stories and music of two Tsonga musicians from different generations, General MD Shirinda and Jeff Maluleke. From several in-depth interviews with these musicians I analyse their use of language and modes of self-representation, in their music and in their discourse on their music during apartheid and post apartheid times. In so doing I show how the musicians' thinking about and practicing of identity moves between different levels of affiliation at different historical moments.
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