Seleka’s profane potency

Kava artists and rebellious music in Tonga

Bibliographic Data

ID14970489
AuthorsD Hernandez (0000-0001-5269-3978, University of Auckland, corresponding author), Arcia Tecun, Taniela Petelo
Year2021
Volume20
Issue2
Pages134-154
Publication date2021-07-08
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePerfect Beat (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1038-2909 • E-ISSN: 1836-0343
PublisherEquinox Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1558/prbt.40000
OpenAlexW3182341070
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited10

The Seleka art and kava collective is found in the heart of the Kingdom of Tonga’s urban centre and capital. Seleka is a transformed nickname which is a play on the word kasele, meaning toilet or outhouse, an external othering and internal acceptance of divergence within Tongan society. Seleka is a site where urban Tongans paint and drink kava together while listening to rebellious music, incorporating some of the aesthetics and politics of these musical genres into their group. They have a broader musical playlist than most kava clubs in Tonga, which includes punk, rock and metal. This article explores the character of Seleka as a radical critique to Western introduced social constructs such as puritan respectability, which have become part of Tonga’s modern cultural norms. Seleka performs and generates mana (potency/prestige) through noa (profanity/neutralization) by desecrating the ‘sacred’ and recreating a new alternative. This act of rebellion is presented as a contemporary manifestation of an ancient Tongan practice where the ‘profane’ was used to identify and bring balance to the most tapu (‘sacred’/protected)

Aesthetics · Art · Folk music · Kava · Literature · Musical · Political science · Politics · Popular music · Prestige · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Psychology

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