Popular Culture and Democracy in Some Southern Contexts: An Introduction

Marching the nation: an essay on the mobility of belonging among militant youngsters in Cote d’Ivoire

“…Such observations find support in the anthropological literature that is seeking to considerably enlarge the field of political expressions and performances (e.g. Mbembe & Roitman 1997;Bayart 1992;Martin 2002;Kaarsholm & James 2000) and in the politological literature which offers a performative understanding of political participation (Kulynych 1997). Looking at militiamen and women as actors in the public sphere seeking among other things economic and political participation, implies perceiving their organisations as, in the words of David Apter (199 3: 30), emancipatory movements, and their actions as inversionary discourse in which violence (in the widest possible sense of the word) is "the ultimate symbolic expression, the social text, the beginning rather than the end of discourse" (see also Hoffinan 2006Schlichte 2005.…”

Moral Panic and Cultural Mobilization: Responses to Transition, Crime and HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal

“…Since then, however, the vibrant civil society of resistance that is remembered from the final years of apartheid has largely disappeared. Instead, a broader and more diverse type of local civil society has been unfolding in which cultural institutions and discourses play a prominent role, and whose political dimensions and democratic potentials have so far not been studied or taken sufficiently into account (Kaarsholm and James, 2000). I have tried to show how such institutions and discourses articulate differences more indirectly, and can be seen as constituents of a public sphere in which political debates take place by proxy, through different moral and cultural discourses.…”

‘Consuming my loyalty’: Youth, popular culture and gender contestations in Kenya

“…To avoid escapism and engage the audience the youth invented themselves both individually (Hardstone, Suzanna Owiyo, Blakskin, Kimani Thomas, Mighty King-Kong, Mercy Myra, Eric Wainaina, Poxie Presha) and collectively (Kalamashaka, Mashifta, Princess Julie, GidiGidi Maji Maji rap duo) using contemporary discourse in song. 7 As a form, popular culture 'depends on words and the development of shared meaning as it defends on existing gains', 8 while renegotiating the meanings of situations they are exposed to. 9 The term 'youth' as used in Kenya is contested and therefore requires some reflection.…”