Song walking : women, music, and environmental justice in an African borderland / Angela Impey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Impey, Angela, author.

Series:

Chicago studies in ethnomusicology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jew's harp.

Social aspects.

Music--Social aspects.

Ecomusicology.

Women.

Manners and customs.

Maputaland (South Africa)--Social life and customs.

Maputaland (South Africa).

Women--South Africa--Maputaland--Social life and customs.

Ecomusicology--South Africa--Maputaland.

Music--Social aspects--South Africa--Maputaland.

Music.

Jew's harp--Social aspects--South Africa--Maputaland.

Women--Social life and customs.

South Africa--Maputaland.

South Africa.

Physical Description:

x, 284 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2018.

Summary:

Song Walking explores the politics of land, its position in memories, and its foundation in changing land-use practices in western Maputaland, a borderland region situated at the juncture of South Africa, Mozambique, and Swaziland. Angela Impey investigates contrasting accounts of this little-known geopolitical triangle, offsetting textual histories with the memories of a group of elderly women whose songs and everyday practices narrativize a century of borderland dynamics. Drawing evidence from women's walking songs (amaculo manihamba)--once performed while traversing vast distances to the accompaniment of the European mouth-harp (isitweletwele)--she uncovers the manifold impacts of internationally-driven transboundary environmental conservation on land, livelihoods, and local senses of place. This book links ethnomusicological research to larger themes of international development, environmental conservation, gender, and local economic access to resources. By demonstrating that development processes are essentially cultural processes and revealing how music fits within this frame, Song Walking testifies to the affective, spatial, and economic dimensions of place, while contributing to a more inclusive and culturally apposite alignment between land and environmental policies and local needs and practices.

Contents:

Paths toward a hearing

Amaculo Manihamba: a genre considered

Walking, singing, pointing, Usuthu Gorge

Cartographic encounters: settling the Southeast African border

New routes in and out, Eziphosheni

Rain is only one aspect of water

Dwelling in a futurized past: longing for Ndumo

Beyond talk and testimony

Postscript.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226537962

022653796X

9780226538013

022653801X

OCLC:

1028603936