Registry until 15th of June
Goals
This course aims to explore colonial legacies and post-colonial challenges in shaping performative practices in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe; to examine the history and the sonic characteristics of diverse musical genres associated with these contexts, from a perspective informed by post-colonial and decolonial studies; and to relate these expressions with the social and historical processes that have shaped them, from anti-colonial struggles to independence and their contemporary ramifications.
Program
1st session – 1.07 (Marco Roque de Freitas)
Introduction: Music, memory and identities.
This session presents the theoretical foundations and provides a historical context for anti-colonial struggles and the construction of national identities through music.
2nd session – 3.07 (André Castro Soares)
Sounds of Luanda: music and national imagination at the end of the colonial period.
This session explores the sonic construction of Luanda (1940-70) and the musical practices that helped imagining Angola as a political community.
3rd session – 6.07 (André Castro Soares)
From semba to heritage: music, power and circulation in post-independence Angola.
This session addresses the trajectory of semba as a national song, and its recent reinvention and projection as imaterial heritage.
4th session – 8.07 (Magdalena Chambel )
Sounds of the islands: territorial, social and musical mosaic in São Tomé and Príncipe before independence.
This session explores the cultural and social diversity after the recolonization of the archipelago, examining the borders that shaped its musical universe.
5th session – 10.07 (Magdalena Chambel)
From cultural mosaic to the nation: the sound of independent São Tomé and Príncipe.
This session examines the impact of social transformations in the musical universe, highlighting the expansion of border areas.
6th session – 13.07 (Miguel de Barros)
Songs of popular tradition as expression of colonial resistance and the affirmation of national identity in Guinea-Bissau.
This session identifies the importance of Balanta, Mandinka and Beafada singers and the emergence of music in Creole language in the construction of a collective identity of resistance.
7th session – 15.07 (Miguel de Barros)
The new "protest music" of Guinea-Bissau: denunciations, dissent and reinvention.
This session examines the role of Guinean rappers in denouncing and social protest, as well as the reach of private and community radio stations and new technologies.
8th session – 17.07 (Inês Nascimento Rodrigues)
From repression to resistance: music and anticolonialism in Cape Verde.
This session highlights the role of culture in the anticolonial strategy of PAIGC: from the repression of Batuku, Tabanka and Funaná to their rehabilitation as symbols of identity.
9th session – 20.07 (Inês Nascimento Rodrigues)
The sound construction of the nation in independent Cape Verde.
This session examines the construction of Cape Verdean musical national identity through cultural policies of PAIGC, and the tension between "cultural roots", innovation and political project.
10th session – 22.07 (Marco Roque de Freitas)
From ‘caniço’ to ‘cimento’: towards a sound history of Lourenço Marques in late colonial period.
This session addresses the socio-musical experiences in Lourenço Marques in the late colonialism and the "war of the sound waves" between Rádio Clube de Moçambique and “Voz da FRELIMO”.
11th session – 24.07 (Marco Roque de Freitas)
The sound construction of Mozambique: chronicles of the life and death of the "Mozambican new man" through music.
This session presents the cultural policy of FRELIMO (1974-94), with a focus on radio broadcasting, the status of musicians and the earliest experiments with World Music.
12th session – 27.07 (Marco Roque de Freitas, André Soares, Inês Nascimento Rodrigues, Magdalena Chambel, Miguel de Barros)
Roundtable: trajectories to the future / test.
This session explores similarities and differences in the trajectories of the five countries and reflects on the future of music research in Africa. The last hour will be dedicated to an optional test.
Bibliography
- Barros, M. de. (2012). Participação política juvenil em contextos de “suspensão” democrática: A música rap na Guiné-Bissau. Revista TOMO, (21), 169–200.
- Chambel, M. B. (2022). Dêxa puíta sócó(m)pé: Música em São Tomé e Príncipe: Do colonialismo à independência. Centro de História da Universidade de Lisboa.
- Cidra, R. (2021). Funaná, raça e masculinidade: Uma trajetória colonial e pós-colonial. Outro Modo.
- Freitas, M. R. de. (2023). A construção sonora de Moçambique. Sistema Solar/Teatro Praga.
- Moorman, M. J. (2008). Intonations: A social history of music and nation in Luanda, Angola, from 1945 to recent times. Ohio University Press.