Kwaito, music to belong to By: Anneke Raven

Femke Jongerius, student at the University of Utrecht

in The Netherlands, is currently in Cape Town for

research for her studies in Cultural Anthropology.

There she’s exploring the role of the originally South

African rap-music called Kwaito. Apparently a strong

factor of identity for today’s South African youth from

the townships.

With the media travelling fast around the world, our universe is getting

smaller; information from anywhere is going everywhere! In the ‘old

days’, we used to strongly identify ourselves with our native country. How

different is that today, now that we’re finding ourselves in a globalizing

world. According to Femke, nationality is no longer the crucial

identification factor and is it getting more complex for people to find

something, a group, to relate to.

Femke is coming to the rescue for those having such difficulties: maybe

music might play an important role in bringing people together? ‘Music

talks a universal language, it might just be something in which people

can find recognition and identify with.’ she assumes.

Kwaito is an extraordinary category of music; originated in the townships

of South Africa, but multi-influenced by different cultures. The mix of

traditional African music and the North American hip hop was first

produced in the early 90’s as a response on the abolishment of

apartheid.

The music characterises itself with being made by and for youth living in

the townships, singing and rapping about the –more often than not-

harsh lives in these deprived areas. ‘Kwaito is a way to express, to give

voice to the problems people are coping with. On the other hand, one

could also say Kwaito is some sort of protest in itself. As the music is

sung in their own mother tongue and local slang, the kwaito-artists try to

exclude whites from their ‘area’ of music.’

Although Kwaito is considered so characteristic for the South African

townships, youngsters from all over the world seem to be able to identify

themselves with this music. This statement makes Femke wonder: what

does Kwaito exactly mean to its listeners? Is it the message, is it the

beat, is it the lifestyle that makes one identify oneself with music? And

then again: does the message of the music really matter if the beat

makes people happy together?

Femke will find out...

Would you wish to find out more about Femke’s research, or on kwaito-music,

please feel free to contact Anneke at anneke@raafteksten.nl

Global Music Mayday youthmagazine - 21 November 2007 - edition 12

The Music Mayday Foundation, P.O. Box 266, 1000 AG Amsterdam, the Netherlands www.musicmayday.org