REVIEWS – BOOKS
Martin, Denis-Constant (2013). Sounding the Cape: Music, Identity and Politics in South Africa. Somerset West: African Minds Publishers. ISBN 9781920489823. 472 pp.
JOURNAL OF THE MUSICAL ARTS IN AFRICA VOLUME 12(1&2) 2015, 115–118 http://dx.doi.org/10.2989/18121004.2015.1129163
© 2015 NISC (Pty) Ltd ISSN: 1812-1004/ EISSN 2070-626X
South Africa is known for having the ways in which social identities were accomplished the world’s first heart built through networks of exchange. transplant, in 1967, during the apartheid Throughout much of its history, Cape years. But before the operation could Town acted as a cultural hub for the rest of be conducted, and under the pressure of the country and has been a privileged site a ticking clock, the hospital had to turn for cultural mixing. Aware of the conflicting down the heart of a coloured donor to literature on the subject, the author devotes comply with the regime’s policies
Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa is co-published by NISC (Pty) Ltd and Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 116 REVIEWS – BOOKS
while giving musicians the opportunity to challenges faced by musicians as South blend and borrow from one another, also Africa moves towards a global economy are hindered the attempts to separate South many, and the balance between financial Africa’s diverse populations. However sustainability and creative ownership may optimistic, this position should not not be easily attained. obscure the unfortunate consequences One solution proposed is the integration that repression had on music-making, nor of music into education and cultural underplay the cruelty to which all blacks policies. The Manifesto on Values, Education have been exposed, but hopefully challenge and Democracy (2001), cited in this book, the mechanisms that continue to create for example, has indicated a first step uneven opportunities, given ‘the divisions forward. It highlights the effects of music that still characterise South Africa in the in ‘promoting tolerance through exposure 21st century’ (vii). to, and a sharing of, diverse cultural There is in Martin’s interpretation traditions and experience’ (Department of a clear objection to the privatisation of Education 2001, cited on 371). What some culture. Cultural policies, he says, ‘cannot of the more recent studies have done is to be reduced to boosting private businesses suggest ways to create ‘opportunities for all and “selling” South Africa to tourists’ and citizens to interact with each other more adds that ‘[c]ommercial interests are not and to engage in intercultural activities easily compatible with freedom of creation’ […] that cross their usual boundaries of (375). Having conducted extensive communication’ (Minty 2008:34). The research on the Minstrel Carnival, and benefits of music are many. From some of acknowledging the social and historical the more recent musical trends in South significance of the event (Martin 1999), Africa, Martin cites Capetonian rap as the author is likewise firm in Sounding the having a positive influence in ‘[tying] Cape in asserting his opposition towards the local imaginations to global innovations’, Cape Town Carnival, which he considers and empowering musicians to take action to be a ‘totally artificial event’ (273). The in ‘the correction of inequalities, the contradiction, however, is that the latter rehabilitation of stigmatised people and the carnival is (or is at least attempting to be) enhancement of independent creativity’ socially inclusive by encouraging different (300). Conscious hip-hop is also described groups, many of which are from working- as having a central role in articulating class suburbs and townships, to showcase social and political struggles within the their performances and mix with socially community and helping to expand ‘creative and geographically separated groups, while and critical skills in ways not afforded to the Minstrel Carnival is largely based on the them by the formal education system’ activities of one ethnic group. This raises (Haupt 2008, cited on 300). What becomes an interesting question about whether apparent in the discussion is that, to ensure commercially driven initiatives can boost social cohesion, more attention should be creative expressions or have any implication given to cultural policies. in fostering creolisation. Nevertheless, the REVIEWS – BOOKS 117
In addition to rethinking policies more history of creolisation: it demonstrates ‘the closely connected to marginal interests, processes through which original musics a central focus of the book has been to were created [and] the impact that putting recompose the past in ways that would them in direct light could have on social help shape the future. This is done by relations in contemporary South Africa’ (67). drawing attention to how music in South As a final remark, much of the discussion Africa has played a central role in creating in the book stems from major concerns in bridges with the outside world, establishing the anthropology and sociology of music networks that ultimately ‘spurred creation’ in ways that challenge deterministic views (210), and helping to redefine previously about South Africa. Creolisation, in assigned identities. He goes on to cite particular, has been key in the discussion. the emergence of langarm, moppies, It attempts to describe the processes nederlandsliedjies, marabi and other musical of cultural mixing in relation to how styles that originated in Cape Town, which identities are formed, but considering the attest to the creolising processes experienced extent to which cultures have been mixed, in South Africa. While it may be difficult creolisation, like hybridisation, métissage to trace (or even speculate on) musical and so forth, is always on the verge of being genealogies, Martin makes convincing too wide. This is not to say that studies assertions about how the development of about cultural mixing are unproductive, musical styles has helped transform identity but that different forms of mixing should formations. In the case of the Kaapse be taken into account in ways that can Klopse1 music tradition, ‘importing songs help distinguish what makes the process and impersonating international stars were relevant to the culture under investigation. used as means of signifying Cape Town: it What Martin does in this direction is to meant that the underprivileged victims of show how musical developments in Cape racism and apartheid were not imprisoned Town were the ‘outcome of a dialectics of in their townships and cut off from the rest internal and external dynamics that operate of the world, but very much attuned to it, even in conditions of oppression’ (380). in permanent contact with its most modern The argument is profound. ‘It shows that and creative fields’ (117). There is a reason, the desire to create a “united South African though, why the author insists on presenting nation” […] is not an unrealistic wish, but the history of music in Cape Town as a that this new South African nation can be erected on foundations which have been 1 The Kaapse klopse is a carnival expression in Cape laid in the past, amidst the torments and Town influenced by American blackface sufferings caused by racism, segregation minstrelsy that dates back to the 19th century. Today the main participants of the festival are and apartheid’ (380–381). As an original members of the mixed-race community examination of the history of Cape identified as coloureds by the apartheid regime, Town’s music, the book provides fruitful most commonly belonging to working-class discussions and critical insights for further Muslim families living on the outskirts of Cape Town, known as the Cape Flats. research. 118 REVIEWS – BOOKS
References Martin, D (1999). Coon Carnival: New Year in Cape Town: Past to Present. Claremont: Department of Education (2001). Manifesto on New Africa Books. Values, Education and Democracy. Pretoria: Minty, Z (2008). ‘Culture and the right to the Department of Education. city: Diversity in the cultural ecology of Glissant, É (1997). Poetics of Relation. Translated Cape Town.’ Discussion Document, Cape by Betsy Wing. Ann Arbor: University of Town: Isandla Institute. Michigan Press. Haupt, A (2008) Stealing Empire: P2P, Intellectual Jonathan Gregory Property and Hip-Hop Subversion. HSRC Queens University, Belfast Press: Cape Town. • e-mail: [email protected] Heart of Cape Town (2015). The Timeline.