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SUMMARY:Writing a history of African popular culture - Professor Karin Bar
 ber (University of Birmingham)
DTSTART:20151130T170000Z
DTEND:20151130T180000Z
UID:TALK61754@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Victoria Jones
DESCRIPTION:How can it be done? There are brilliant histories of individua
 l African popular genres\, and even a few studies that extend across regio
 ns and culture areas. But a coherent account of the history of popular cul
 ture across Africa – or even just sub-Saharan Africa – does not\, to m
 y knowledge\, exist. There are good reasons for this. There are conceptual
  problems to do with the constitution of the field “African popular cult
 ure” as an object of inquiry. Then there are the daunting methodological
  problems\, to do with the scarcity of really detailed evidence about actu
 al popular performances and texts before the second half of the twentieth 
 century. Popular culture forms are often ephemeral\, overlooked\, left out
  of the archive. Oral performances recorded in the 1970s\, 80s or 90s may 
 be thought to emerge from and to represent much older traditions: but emer
 ge from them how\, represent them in what sense? Many genres could be said
  to be trans-temporal or multi-temporal\, which makes their history hard t
 o grasp. There are problems of chronological dissonance between comparable
  forms in different parts of the continent.  There are problems of interpr
 etation: we still know very little about what popular culture forms mean t
 o their local audiences. And there is the problem of the writing itself.  
 It’s unlikely anyone\, least of all myself\, will be able to propose a s
 atisfactory solution to any of these problems.  But I hope to show\, throu
 gh a number of concrete examples\, that confronting such challenges is in 
 itself productive. 
LOCATION:Seminar Room S1 Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge
  CB3 9DT
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