In the Time of Cannibals: The Word Music of South Africa's Basotho Migrants (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology) - Softcover

Coplan, David B.

 
9780226115740: In the Time of Cannibals: The Word Music of South Africa's Basotho Migrants (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0226115747 ISBN 13: 9780226115740
Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1995

Synopsis

The workers who migrate from Lesotho to the mines and cities of neighboring South Africa have developed a rich genre of sung oral poetry—word music—that focuses on the experiences of migrant life. This music provides a culturally reflexive and consciously artistic account of what it is to be a migrant or part of a migrant's life. It reveals the relationship between these Basotho workers and the local and South African powers that be, the "cannibals" who live off of the workers' labor. David Coplan presents a moving collection of material that for the first time reveals the expressive genius of these tenacious but disenfranchised people.

Coplan discusses every aspect of the Basotho musical literature, taking into account historical conditions, political dynamics, and social forces as well as the styles, artistry, and occasions of performance. He engages the postmodern challenge to decolonize our representation of the ethnographic subject and demonstrates how performance formulates local knowledge and communicates its shared understandings.

Complete with transcriptions of full male and female performances, this book develops a theoretical and methodological framework crucial to anyone seeking to understand the relationship between orality and literacy in the context of performance. This work is an important contribution to South African studies, to ethnomusicology and anthropology, and to performance studies in general.

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About the Author

David B. Coplan is professor in and chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is the author of Lyrics of the Basotho Migrants and In the Time of Cannibals: The Word Music of South Africa's Basotho Migrants, the latter also published by the University of Chicago Press.

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Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Publication date
1995
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0226115747
ISBN 13 
9780226115740
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
2
Number of pages
330

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780226115733: In the Time of Cannibals: The Word Music of South Africa's Basotho Migrants (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology CSE)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0226115739 ISBN 13:  9780226115733
Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1994
Hardcover