Dust of the Zulu: Ngoma Aesthetics after Apartheid

In Dust of the Zulu Louise Meintjes traces the political and aesthetic significance of ngoma, a competitive form of dance and music that emerged out of the legacies of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa. Contextualizing ngoma within South Africa's history of violence, migrant labor, the HIV epidemic, and the world music market, Meintjes follows a community ngoma team and its professional subgroup during the twenty years after apartheid's end. She intricately ties aesthetics to politics, embodiment to the voice, and masculine anger to eloquence and virtuosity, relating the visceral experience of ngoma performances as they embody the expanse of South African history. Meintjes also shows how ngoma helps build community, cultivate responsible manhood, and provide its participants with a means to reconcile South Africa's past with its postapartheid future. Dust of the Zulu includes over one hundred photographs of ngoma performances, the majority taken by award-winning photojournalist TJ Lemon.

Author: Louise Meintjes
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 08/23/2017
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780822362500

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2018

About the Author
Louise Meintjes is Associate Professor of Music and Cultural Anthropology at Duke University and the author of Sound of Africa! Making Music Zulu in a South African Studio, also published by Duke University Press.

TJ Lemon is an award-winning photojournalist based in Johannesburg.