No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Dancehall City: Zongo Identity and Jamaican Rude Performance in Ghanaian Popular Culture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2022
Abstract
The explosion of Ghanaian Reggae-Dancehall reflects the influence of Jamaican-inspired popular culture in Ghana today. This subculture is championed by local Rastafarians and by youth from the zongos (internal migrant, largely Islamic, unplanned neighborhoods). Suffering social alienation, many zongo artists have adopted postures similar to their Jamaican counterparts—mirroring Rasta and rude identities as counter-hegemonic resistance. Alleyne explores several artists variously located between the zongo, the Reggae diaspora, and the Ghanaian state, examining how subjects rework Jamaican tropes and voice their aspirations within a globalizing Ghana and rethinking the zongo as space of rousing diasporic consciousness.
Résumé
L’explosion du Reggae-Dancehall ghanéen reflète l’influence de la culture populaire d’inspiration jamaïcaine au Ghana aujourd’hui. Cette subculture est défendue par les rastafariens locaux et par les jeunes des zongos (migrants internes, en grande partie islamiques, dans des quartiers non planifiés). Souffrant d’aliénation sociale, de nombreux artistes de zongo ont adopté des postures similaires à celles de leurs homologues jamaïcains, reflétant les identités rasta et grossières comme résistance contre-hégémonique. Alleyne explore plusieurs artistes diversement situés entre le zongo, la diaspora Reggae et l’État ghanéen, examinant comment les sujets retravaillent les tropes jamaïcains et expriment leurs aspirations au sein d’un Ghana mondialisé et repensant le zongo comme espace de réveil d’une conscience diasporique.
Resumo
O desenvolvimento fulgurante do reggae-dancehall ganense reflete a influência da cultura popular de inspiração jamaicana no Gana atual. Esta subcultura é liderada pelos rastafáris locais e pelos jovens dos zongos (bairros de migrantes ganenses, maioritariamente islâmicos e não planeados). Por se encontrarem em situação de exclusão social, muitos artistas dos zongos adotaram posturas semelhantes às dos seus homólogos jamaicanos — reproduzindo as identidades rasta e uma certa insolência como formas de resistência contra-hegemónica. Alleyne acompanha o percurso de vários artistas provenientes de diversas origens, entre o zongo, a diáspora reggae e o Estado ganês, analisando o modo como estes indivíduos se apropriam dos tropos jamaicanos e expressam as suas aspirações, e reinterpretando o zongo enquanto espaço de uma consciência diaspórica crescente.
- Type
- Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association
References
Casentini, Giulia. 2018. “Migration, Networks and Narratives in Ghana: A Case Study from the Zongo .” Africa 88 (3): 452–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassiman, Ann. 2019. Creative Knowledge: Life in the Zongo. Sweden: The Nordic Africa Institute. Retrieved from https://nai.uu.se/news-and-events/news/2019-08-14-creative-knowledge---life-in-the-zongo.html.Google Scholar
Cooper, Carolyn. 2004. Sound Clash: Jamaican Dancehall Culture at Large. Camden, New Jersey: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, Nadia. 2011. “Out and Bad: Toward a Queer Performance Hermeneutic in Jamaican Dancehall.” Small Axe 15 (2 [35]): 7–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiaveh, D. Y. 2014. “Sexual Pleasure and the Construction of Masculinities: Understanding Sexuality in Ghana.” PhD Dissertation. Department of Sociology, University of Ghana, Legon.Google Scholar
Geoffrion, Karine. 2013. “Ghanaian youth and festive transvestism.” Culture, Health & Sexuality 15 (sup1): 48–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilroy, Paul. 1993. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Gray, Obika. 2006. Demeaned but Empowered: the Social Power of the Urban Poor in Jamaica. Kingston: UWI Press.Google Scholar
Hall, S., Slack, J., and Grossberg, L.. 2016. Cultural Studies 1983: A Theoretical History. Durham: Duke University PressGoogle Scholar
Hope, Donna. 2001. Inna Di Dancehall: Popular Culture and the Politics of Identity in Jamaica. Kingston: UWI Press.Google Scholar
Jarvenpaa, Tuomas. 2015. “Jumping Nyabinghi Youths: Local Articulations of Roots Reggae in a Rastafarian Dancehall in Capetown.” Suomen Antropologi 40 (1):5–26.Google Scholar
Middleton, Darren. 2006. “As It Is in Zion: Seeking the Rastafari in Ghana, West Africa.” Black Theology 4 (2).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moyer, Eileen M. 2005. Street Corner Justice in the Name of Jah: Imperatives for Peace among Dar es Salaam Street Youth. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press.Google Scholar
Osumare, Halifu. 2013. Hiplife in Ghana: West African indigenization of hip-hop. Camden, New Jersey: Palgrave McMillanGoogle Scholar
Pellow, Deborah. 2008. Landlords and Lodgers: Socio-spatial Organization in an Accra Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pollard, Velma. 1994. Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar
Pontzen, Benedict. 2021. Islam in a Zongo: Muslim Lifeworlds in Asante, Ghana. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quayson, Ato. 2014. Oxford Street: Street Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Sarfoh, Joseph A. 1986. “The West African Zongo and the American Ghetto: Some Comparative Aspects of the Roles of Religious Institutions.” Journal of Black Studies 17 (1): 71–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savishinsky, Neil. 1994. Rastafari in the Promised Land: The Spread of a Jamaican Socioreligious Movement Among the Youth of West Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schildkrout, Enid. 1978. People of the Zongo: The Transformation of Ethnic Identities in Ghana. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shefer, Tamara, and Strebel, Anna. 2012. “Deconstructing the ‘Sugar Daddy’: A Critical Review of the Constructions of Men in Intergenerational Sexual Relationships in South Africa.” Agenda 26 (4): 57–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shipley, Jesse Weaver. 2013. Living the Hiplife: Celebrity and Entrepreneurship in Ghanaian Popular Music. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Stolzoff, Norman. 2000. Wake the Town and Tell the People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Teo, Thomas. 2018. “Homo Neoliberalus: From Personality to Forms of Subjectivity.” Theory & Psychology 28 (5): 581–599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Deborah A. 2005. Modern Blackness: Nationalism, Globalization and the Politics of Culture in Jamaica. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Tucker, Kelly Joanne. 2002. A History of Accra’s Zongos: Heterogeneity and Social Change. PhD diss, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.Google Scholar
Villanova, John. 2019. “‘Kingston Be Wise’: Jamaica’s Reggae Revival, Musical Livity and Troubled Temporality in the Modern Global Music Industry.” International Journal of Communication.Google Scholar
White, Carmen. 2007. “Living in Zion: Rastafarian Repatriates in Ghana, West Africa.” Journal of Black Studies 37 (5).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, Emily Anne. 2017. “Understanding the Zongo: Socio-spatial Processes of Marginalization in Ghana.” In The African Metropolis. New York: Routledge Press.Google Scholar