Paper short abstract:

The music gala emerged as a new genre on the state-owned broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) in the early 2000s. This paper discusses the complex and ambivalent ways in which this performative space was characterised by both co-optation and resistance.

Paper long abstract:

In the early 2000s, an intensification of a politics of difference could be witnessed in Zimbabwe. In the context of an economic and political crisis, a range of binary oppositions such as black/white, indigene/stranger, rural/urban and patriot/sell-out were invoked by the ruling party, Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), to distinguish true, authentic from fake, inauthentic Zimbabweans. Popular culture became a crucial battleground for identity politics, a space where demarcations between loyal and disloyal Zimbabweans were constantly created, enacted, performed and contested. This paper focuses on the performative event of the music gala which emerged as a new genre on the state-owned broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) in the early 2000s as part of government's cultural nationalist project of the Third Chimurenga. Given that the urban electorate overwhelmingly supported the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the gala was introduced in an attempt to interpellate young, urban Zimbabweans as loyal supporters of the ruling party. The galas became a platform not only of government-sponsored musicians part of the Third Chimurenga music album series but efforts were also made to incorporate performers part of the 'urban grooves' genre and musicians critical of the ZANU-PF government. The paper discusses the complex and ambivalent ways in which the music gala manifested itself as a performative space characterised by both co-optation and resistance. It argues for a more dialogic understanding of politics and performance so as to grasp the increasing convergence between formal politics and popular culture at various levels.