Singing in the Bush

MPLA Songs during the War for Independence in South-East Angola (1966–1975)

Edited by: Inge Brinkman. Series edited by: Michael Bollig, Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig †.

Series: HSA History, Cultural Traditions and Innovations in Southern Africa Volume 16

This edition is based on political songs that were composed and performed during the war for independence in south-east Angola  (1966-1975). The songs published in the book stem from fieldwork among Angolans residing in Namibia. Thirty song texts are rendered in their original language (Ngangela or Portuguese), with an English translation and extensive notes on the context in which they were sung.

The importance of these songs can hardly be overestimated. During the war political song was used by the MPLA Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola both in terms of nationalist mobilisation and as a means for civilians to bolster their position vis-à-vis the guerrillas. The importance of the subject prompts the editor to advocate a place for this literary genre in African historiography.

The introduction of the book focuses on the historical dimensions of the MPLA political songs and their relationship with local song/dance traditions in south-east Angola. The book discusses new alleys of research and poses theoretical questions about memory, popular literature and legitimacy.

About the author:

Since October 2015, Inge Brinkman is working as professor for African Studies at the Department of African Languages and Cultures at Ghent University. Her fields of research include African literature and African popular culture from a cultural-historical perspective. She is engaged in research on gender, oral narrative and monster studies, and on autobiographical writing in Africa. Geographically the focus is on Central Kenya and Namibia/Angola.

Under these links you will find publications of the volume editor and further ethnographical and ethnohistorical studies of the Kavango region and southern Africa:

Accompanying material:

• “Grandmother’s Footsteps” (ISBN 978-3-89645-056-2)
• A War for People (ISBN 978-3-89645-362-4)
• Der Caprivizipfel während der deutschen Kolonialzeit 1890–1914 (ISBN 978-3-89645-050-0)
• Die südafrikanische Militärverwaltung (1915–1920) und die frühe Mandatszeit (1920–1936) in der Kavango-Region / Namibia (ISBN 978-3-89645-360-0)
• Ethnische Grenzen und Frontlinien in Angola (ISBN 978-3-89645-356-3)
• Herrschaft, Macht und Einfluß (ISBN 978-3-89645-359-4)
• The Kavango Peoples in the Past (ISBN 978-3-89645-353-2)
• The Mbukushu in Angola (ISBN 978-3-89645-350-1)

Cross-reference:

• Alfred Schachtzabels Reise nach Angola 1913–1914 und seine Sammlungen für das Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin (ISBN 978-3-927620-21-6)
• Animal Husbands, Magic Horns and Water Spirits (ISBN 978-3-89645-221-4)
• Die ethnographische Sammlung aus Südwest-Angola im Museum von Dundo, Angola (1954). Katalog (ISBN 978-3-89645-161-3)
• Great Zimbabwe (ISBN 978-3-89645-210-8)
• Max Buchners Reise nach Zentralafrika 1878–1882 (ISBN 978-3-89645-160-6)
• Vorkoloniale Geschichte und Expansion der Avungara-Azande (ISBN 978-3-89645-209-2)

© 2024 by Rüdiger Köppe Verlag – www.koeppe.de

Print