Brenda Fassie and Busiswa Gqulu: a relationship of feminist expression, aesthetics and memory

ABSTRACT

Works of art consciously or unconsciously reproduce or reject of the societal norms from which they emerge. Reading artists and creatives as bodies which articulate the social and political experiences (affirmation or rejection implies that the body can also construct and deconstruct particular social readings of itself. In this paper, I explore feminist corporality, aesthetics and gendered performativity in the translation of selected songs ,by South African popular music icons Brenda Fassie and Busiswa Gqulu, into music videos. I argue that both artists construct “the self” and engage gendered narratives of “the self” through audio-visual form. I firstly employ the notion of homology, to compare the common thread in their articulation of black feminist discourse through their lyrics and the self-performativity of their music videos. I then focus on the aesthetic and performative elements of Gqulu’s music videos, notably the queer performativity of the Vintage Cru dancers and the staging of post-apartheid urban spaces. Through this intergenerational analysis I illustrate how popular audio-visual form participates in the representation of multiple iterations of queer and feminist performativity emerging out of the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

KEYWORDS:

• South Africa
• Brenda Fassie
• Busiswa Gqulu
• queer
• music videos
• feminist expressions

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. Womxn is spelt with an x to be more inclusive of all kinds of women, to include queer, non-binary, gender non-conforming, trans women and other gender identities.

2. Shebeens are typically unlicensed pubs, predominantly run by elderly businesswomxn, popularly known as shebeen queens. Shebeen queens would sell their own brewed Umqombothi [traditional beer] mostly to political activists who would use the space for political meetings (see Leigh 2017). Worth noting is Yvonne Chaka Chaka’s “Umqombothi” (1988), which tells the story of a womxn who prides herself in being able to produce one of the best beers.

3. Endaweni means “the spot” or “the space.”

4. A “diss track” is a song in which an artist responds to a comment, usually negative, made by the media or another, potentially competing, artist.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Siphokazi Tau

Siphokazi Tau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1493-5638. Twitter: @tau_siphokazi) is an MA student in the Political Science and Conflict Studies Department at Nelson Mandela University, focusing on intergenerational interpretations and understandings of African feminisms. She is affiliated with the Centre for Women and Gender Studies at Nelson Mandela University.