Transgressive marginalities in youth pop culture: negotiating the challenges of the post-colony in contemporary Zimbabwe

Abstract

In the last two decades, Zimbabwe has faced a series of intractable political and socio-economic crises, resulting in abject economic collapse, stratospheric levels of inflation and massive youth unemployment. The country’s youth have responded to these endless crises through creative artistic expression via music and satirical videos, which are often circulated on social media platforms. This cultural activism by Zimbabwean youth is indicative of the distinctive ways in which the intersections of media globalization and situated local conditions have animated new popular cultural forms by youth in Africa. This paper, harnesses Nancy Fraser’s (Fraser, N., 1990. Rethinking the public sphere: a contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. Social Text (25-26), 56–80) concept of alternative public spheres and Mikhail Bakhtin’s (Bakhtin, M., 1984. Rabelais and his world. Translated by Helene Iswolsky. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.) notion of the carnival to analyse young people’s satirical videos posted on social media as creative responses that are used to protest the lived realities of economically marginalized youths even as they articulate significant needs and aspirations of their own. The paper views and analyses social media as a platform that is used to criticise and lampoon post-colonial excesses by the ruling elite who wield political and economic power. Youth popular culture is explored as a platform on which urban youths have sought to highlight and to contest the politics of survival in contemporary Zimbabwe in some highly creative and innovative ways.

Keywords:

• Transgressive
• satire
• marginality
• post-colony
• public spheres

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The term ‘Third Chimurenga’ was initiated during the year 2000 following the country’s often violent fast-track land reform programme. The post-independence Zimbabwean state views its history as having gone through a series of revolutions, with the first being the Ndebele and Shona Rebellions of 1896 and the second being the armed struggle between 1965 and 1980 leading to independence from British rule. ‘Chimurenga’ is a Shona word (the country’s largest language grouping) for ‘war’ or ‘revolution’.

2 Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi are two spirit mediums who inspired the First Chimurenga or revolution (Ndebele and Shona Rebellions) against British settlers during the 1890’s. They are generally regarded as the spiritual custodians of the Zimbabwean nation.

3 The late Robert Mugabe was the first Prime Minister (1980) and later Executive President (1987) of Zimbabwe up until November 2017 when he was ousted in a military coup.

4 Simuka Comedy International – Available on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcyPJOTm9YF6EW3ow48E2Bw

5 https://www.news24.com/news24/africa/news/comedian-mocks-zimbabwes-government-despite-fear-of-reprisal-202000821

6 Vakuru Episode 29: Simuka Comedy International Available on (https://youtu.be/Pmes1IkRX6E),

7 Vakuru Season 1, Episode 4 Simuka Comedy International Available on https://youtu.be/2wY17cjH-Uw?list=PLofKazLRyhhunM4aUmp-x8cTZ2lNlz-_

8 Vakuru Season 1, Episode 2: Simuka Comedy International Available on https://youtu.be/8vhtFuKl8sc?list=PLofKazLRyhhunM4aUmp-x8cTZ2lNlz-_

9 Victor Mpofu (Doc Vikela) quoted on https://www.news24.com/news24/africa/news/comedian-mocks-zimbabwes-government-despite-fear-of-reprisal-202000821

10 Victor Mpofu (Doc Vikela) quoted on https://www.news24.com/news24/africa/news/comedian-mocks-zimbabwes-government-despite-fear-of-reprisal-202000821