Petal Samuel reviews Tsitsi Jaji’ s book Africa in Stereo: Modernism, Music, and Pan-African Solidarity

Tsitsi Jaji’s elegant study opens with an anecdote at once personal and emblematic: her interlinked memories of celebrations of Zimbabwe’s independence and the broadcasting of Bob Marley’s “Buffalo Soldier” on the radio. By examining such instances of black diasporic music’s circulation in continental Africa, Africa in Stereo demonstrates the role of music as a site […]

Tsitsi Jaji’s elegant study opens with an anecdote at once personal and emblematic: her interlinked memories of celebrations of Zimbabwe’s independence and the broadcasting of Bob Marley’s “Buffalo Soldier” on the radio. By examining such instances of black diasporic music’s circulation in continental Africa, Africa in Stereo demonstrates the role of music as a site for exploring and enacting pan-African solidarity and the experience of being “modern” in Africa. A critical intervention into studies of the African diaspora, Jaji’s study joins a body of scholarship that troubles unidirectional conceptions of diaspora that occlude continental Africa from its ongoing currents of exchange. Indeed, Africa in Stereo draws from a wide range of sources—including film, poetry, hymnbooks, magazines, ads, and other media—in order to demonstrate the breadth and vibrancy of U.S. African American music’s diverse afterlives in African media.

The full review can be downloaded here -> Sounding Solidarity_Review of Africa in Stereo_Petal Samuel

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