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Book Cover
Book
Author Coplan, David B. (David Bellin)

Title In the time of cannibals : the word music of South Africa's Basotho migrants / David B. Coplan
Published Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1994

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  782.42162 Cop/Itt  AVAILABLE
Description xxi, 300 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm
Series Chicago studies in ethnomusicology
Chicago studies in ethnomusicology.
Contents Ch. 1. "Hyenas Do Not Sleep Together": The Interpretation of Basotho Migrants' Auriture -- Ch. 2. "The Mouth of a Commoner Is Not Listened To": Power, Performance, and History -- Ch. 3. "Greetings, Child of God!": Generations of Travelers and Their Songs -- Ch. 4. "An Initiation Secret Is Not Told at Home": The Making of a Country Traveler -- Ch. 5. "These Mine Compounds, I Have Long Worked Them": Auriture and Migrants' Labors -- Ch. 6. "I'd Rather Die in the Whiteman's Land": The Traveling Women of Eloquence -- Ch. 7. "My Heart Fights with My Understanding": Bar Women's Auriture and Basotho Popular Culture -- Ch. 8. "Eloquence Is Not Stuck on Like a Feather": Sesotho Aural Composition and Aesthetics -- Ch. 9. "Laughter Is Greater than Death": Migrants' Songs and the Meaning of Sesotho
Summary "The workers who migrate from Lesotho to the mines and cities of neighboring South Africa have developed a rich genre of sung oral poetry - word music - that focuses on the experiences of migrant life. This music provides a culturally reflexive and consciously artistic account of what it is to be a migrant or part of a migrant's life. It reveals the relationship between these Basotho workers and the local and South African powers that be, the "cannibals" who live off of the workers' labor. The author presents a moving collection of material that for the first time reveals the expressive genius of these tenacious but disenfranchised people".--BOOKJACKET
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-291) and index
Notes In English, with some Sotho
Subject Songs, Sotho -- History and criticism.
Sotho (African people) -- Music -- History and criticism.
Music -- Lesotho -- History and criticism.
Sotho poetry -- History and criticism.
LC no. 94009093
ISBN 0226115747
0226115739