Fighting HIV/AIDS through popular Zambian music
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Date
2013
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Abstract
This paper explores how HIV/AIDS education messages are transmitted through popular
Zambian music lyrics. The focus is on the recontextualisation of lived experiences and
Zambian cultural practices in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Using multimodal discourse analysis,
the paper uses Zambian popular music lyrics to show how Zambian musicians deliberately
blend languages, socio-cultural artefacts and knowledge into a hybrid of 'infotainment' in the
fight against HIV/AIDS. The paper concludes that although male dominance is still prevalent,
choices regarding sex and discussions on sexual matters are no longer a preserve for the
men, and that musicians are able to use language to reframe dominant cultural practices and
taboos in the process of disseminating HIV/AIDS messages. This has produced altered social
conditions, which sometimes distort the intended messages, but allow musicians to operate
without fear of government censorship boards or running foul of cultural taboos.
Description
Keywords
Zambia, Popular music, HIV/AIDS, Multimodality, Taboo, Gender
Citation
Banda, F. & Mambwe, K. (2013). Fighting HIV/AIDS through popular Zambian music. Muziki: Journal of Music Research in Africa, 10(1): 1-12