Towards an Africa-centered and pan-African theory of communication

Ubuntuand the oral-aesthetic perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID5795489
AuthorsMalaika Mutere (corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume38
Issue2
Pages147-163
Publication date2012-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCommunicatio (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0250-0167 • E-ISSN: 1753-5379
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02500167.2012.717345
OpenAlexW2067690224
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited42

This article supports scholarly findings that Bantu traditions are among the strongest civilising forces in the United States. Positing pop music as a paradigm of proof, the author argues for a cultural decolonisation and corrective understanding of this expression as a manifestation of Africa's oral traditions and the global agency of the continent's cultural custodians. The Euro-patriarchal episteme that has formalised the language of music appreciation has, through its inherent incapacity or lack of political will to grant proper academic status to these mature modes of human discourse, promoted a diminished regard of oral tradition and its pop music formats as low-brow fodder for entertainment industry exploitation. Recognising that such north-south circumscriptions have served to disenfranchise humanity as a whole, the author reasons that ubuntu has nonetheless extended its humanising reach into the pan-African and global village by captivating and cultivating the popular imagination through effective, Africa-centered modes of oral communication. A culturally congruent theoretical framework is advanced to illuminate the transformational art-for-life's-sake mission of an epic African odyssey

Media, Communication, and Education · Music History and Culture · Political theory and Gramsci

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