Risky dialogues: the performative state and the nature of power in a postcolony

Willems, Wendy

doi:10.1080/13696815.2015.1026881

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…For Mawarire, performance poetry represented an especially apt response to Mugabe's regime, which had co-opted anti-colonial lyrics for its own uses (Willems 2015;Ravengai 2015;Bere 2008). During independence struggles in Zimbabwe, music and song were used to articulate the demands of the fighters and affectively draw together a community invested in the language of the nation.…”

Section: Toward a Poetry Of Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Evan Mawarire’s #ThisFlag as Tactical Lyric: The Role of Digital Speech in Imagining a Networked Zimbabwean Nation

Sacks¹

2019

Afr. Stud. Rev.

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Abstract:Evan Mawarire’s poetic video “This Flag,” first posted on Facebook on April 20, 2016, mobilized an international protest movement against then-president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe between April and September of 2016. In the video, Mawarire built on the poetics of anti-colonial resistance and nationalization to create a rallying cry. The piece’s remediation through the hashtag channel #ThisFlag created rhetorical links between digital organizing and grounded action. This literary perspective on contemporary discussions of social media and collective identity formation shows how the poetic elements of the video enabled Mawarire’s claim to spread and motivate a grounded movement.

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Section: Toward a Poetry Of Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Evan Mawarire’s #ThisFlag as Tactical Lyric: The Role of Digital Speech in Imagining a Networked Zimbabwean Nation

Sacks¹

2019

Afr. Stud. Rev.

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“…If the ‘playback’ performances required by Guma Guma were about creating governable post-genocide celebrity subjects, this was not how Rwandan audiences interpreted the competition. Performances, after all, are not ‘the exclusive tool of power-holders’ (Askew 2002a: 6; see also Willems 2015), but rather are actively interpreted by audiences 15 . In her work on taarab , a popular music genre in Tanzania, Askew aptly demonstrates how, despite attempts by political parties to co-opt the genre for propaganda purposes, audience members, especially women, continue to interpret songs according to their own ‘politics of the personal’ and use taarab performance as a way to reconfigure social relations.…”

Section: ‘Live’ Surprise Take 1: the Stoning Of Tom Closementioning

confidence: 99%

The making of a ‘superstar’: the politics of playback and live performance in post-genocide Rwanda

Grant¹

2017

Africa

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This article considers the reconstruction of Rwanda's post-genocide music industry through the national music competition, Primus Guma Guma Super Star. It explores local ideas about ‘playback’ and ‘live’ music, and argues that these two performative categories can be understood as wider metaphors for the relationship between the Rwandan state and its citizens, particularly Rwandan youth. On the one hand, Guma Guma aims to create the ideal post-genocide celebrity subject who will ‘play back’ a unified, de-ethnicized Rwandan identity with body and words. On the other, during the first two seasons of the competition, audiences demanded ‘live’ performance and Guma Guma prompted heated debate about ‘taboo’ topics, revealing enduring differences along socio-economic, ethnic and regional lines. Rather than affirm an inclusive Rwandan identity, Guma Guma hinted at its fragility and underscored the multiple and conflicting ways in which young people identify themselves and evaluate ‘truth’ in the post-genocide era. The article contributes not only to literature on popular culture in Africa, but also to studies that focus on mediation and changes in recording technology. Although scholars have quite rightly attempted to dissolve the boundary between the live and the mediated, I suggest that the boundary continues to do cultural and political work, particularly in developmental states.

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“…Como será entendido en este artículo, este es el nivel «performático» de la «performatividad». El Estado ha sido estudiado en su aspecto «performático» por varios autores (ver, entre otros: Bakker, 2016;Foxeus 2016;Kingsley & Telle 2016;Willems 2015), en la estela inaugurada por Geertz con su libro Negara (2000). Sin embargo, la «performatividad» no se agota en la actuación, sino que también responde a una historicidad concreta (Butler 2002).…”

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Pasado y presente de la relación Estado-población pobre en Chile: de la historicidad del ‘Programa Familias’ como política pública1

Rebolledo¹

2021

pontourbe

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Risky dialogues: the performative state and the nature of power in a postcolony

Abstract: This document is the author's final accepted version of the journal article. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it.

Cited by 9 publications

References 36 publications

Evan Mawarire’s #ThisFlag as Tactical Lyric: The Role of Digital Speech in Imagining a Networked Zimbabwean Nation

Evan Mawarire’s #ThisFlag as Tactical Lyric: The Role of Digital Speech in Imagining a Networked Zimbabwean Nation

The making of a ‘superstar’: the politics of playback and live performance in post-genocide Rwanda

Pasado y presente de la relación Estado-población pobre en Chile: de la historicidad del ‘Programa Familias’ como política pública1

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