Mueda Massacre
The Musical Archive
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4603957 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paolo Israel (0000-0001-5322-0929, University of the Western Cape, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1157-1179 |
| Publication date | 2017-11-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03057070.2017.1382186 |
| OpenAlex | W2765493370 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 4 |
As in Pidjiguiti in Guiné-Bissau or Baixa de Cassanje in Angola, the massacre that occurred in \nthe northern Mozambican town of Mueda on 16 June 1960 has been inscribed in the \nnationalist narrative as the breaking point of anti-colonial unrest and the trigger of the armed \nliberation struggle. In the past 20 years several scholars have questioned the central tenets of \nthe nationalist interpretation, especially the idea that the aim of the demonstration was political \nindependence - a claim considered too lofty to be articulated by a mass of illiterate peasants \nguided by leaders enmeshed in ethnic organisations. Caught between the rhetorics of resistance \nand revisionism, the colonial archive and oral testimony, the event itself has been rendered \nillegible. To rescue 16 June from such deadlock, this article turns towards a different kind of \nhistorical material: song. Proceeding archaeologically, it moves from songs that reproduce \nthe official version; through more ancient songs, which express some direct experience of the \nevent, however layered and reformulated; to songs that were sung at the time of the massacre. \nThese songs and the echoes they elicit from other sources pave the way to a re-interpretation of \nthe event: from the point zero of a vanguardist history of national consciousness, to a utopian \nmoment in which independence appeared as a possibility, however unclearly understood, the \npolitical imagination expanding beyond any consideration of objective constraint
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Event (particle physics · Independence (probability theory · Inscribed figure · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · Unrest · Zulu · African history and culture studies · History · Law · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2021 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |