Song, identity and the state: Julius Malema's Dubul’ ibhunu song as catalyst

Abstract

This article tracks the entry of Julius Malema and his package of skills as a political persona into the South African public domain. It focuses on his use of song, particularly the Dubul’ ibhunu song/chant within the public space and links it to a long tradition of political song. It sets this within a wider context of the aesthetics of power in the postcolony and within older epistemes of performance, language and power. It also discusses the media as both actor and acted upon in relation to Malema. It links the topic of power, rhetoric and its use to inter-generational politics, and to the struggle of youth and the marginalized poor against an entrenched gerontocratic elite.

Keywords:

• political song
• Julius Malema
• radical populism
• language
• power
• youth

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my research assistant, Lehlohonolo Chabedi; a number of colleagues read versions of the paper. My thanks to them all but in particular Isabel Hofmeyr, Maria Suriano, Wendy Willems and Tom Penfold; also to Kelly Askew and to Debby Potts for editorial and logistics help in London, and to S.C. Potts. Thanks also to Hazel Zaranyika at CfAR, and to Ayanda Thabethe for help with current SASCO and ANC songs. My thanks to the anonymous JACS reviewers for their comments. Drafts of the paper were given at the Third Advanced Seminar in Performance and Social Meaning, Wiser, Wits, August 2012; and at the ASAUK Conference, Brighton, September 2014. I thank the NRF, and the Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, for funding in support of this research. For the image reproductions, my thanks to the artist Ayanda Mabulu based at The Bag Factory, Newtown, Johannesburg; and to Phillip Kgaphola at the Times Media Library, Rosebank, Johannesburg.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.