@article{ref1,
title=""A river with many branches": song as a response to Afrophobic sentiments and violence in South Africa",
journal="Acta academica",
year="2022",
author="Viljoen, Martina",
volume="54",
number="2",
pages="-",
abstract="The purpose of this article is to examine the symbolic role of song regarding Afrophobia in South Africa - a topic which has received limited attention within local music scholarship. To this aim, a textual reading, drawing on thematic analysis serves to identify patterns of cultural meaning represented in &quot;Umshini wami&quot;, as opposed to anti-Afrophobic songs, including Boom Shaka's &quot;Kwere Kwere&quot; (1993); &quot;Xenophobia&quot; by Maskandi musician Mthandeni (2015), &quot;United we Stand, Divided, we Fall&quot; by Ladysmith Black Mambazo with Malian singer Salif Keita (2015), and &quot;Sinjengomfula&quot; on the CD Tjoon in (2008), a collective production by musicians from Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The question considered is how healing metaphors featured in these songs oppose a politics of fear and the idea of the other as enemy in &quot;Umshini wami&quot;, described in the media as the 'soundtrack' of the deadly Afrophobic upsurge of 2008. It is found that, within the context of Afrophobia, the symbolic reach of &quot;Umshini wami&quot; extends beyond inter-racial conflict and in-group black factionalism to convey a politics of 'war' on African foreign nationals. Contrastingly, as symbolic exemplifications, healing metaphors in the selection of anti-xenophobic songs discussed speak to a perceived unified identity that, while representing ethnically diverse peoples, may bind Africans together through the fundamental human rights of morality, justice, and dignity.   Keywords: xenophobia, Afrophobia, South Africa, anti-Afrophobic songs, reconciliation<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0587-2405",
doi="10.18820/24150479/aa54i2/7",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.18820/24150479/aa54i2/7"
}