2nd Arts & Humanities Conference, Florence

MUSIC/LANGUAGE: REFLECTIONS IN THE QUESTION OF FERTILITY IN MAINTAINING ANCESTRAL LINEAGE AS EXPERIENCED IN AFRICAN MARRIAGES

PHALANDWA ABRAHAM MULAUDZI

Abstract:

Music like language is used in our daily communication and as a result, it transmits beliefs, values and world view. According Gyeke (1996:76), traditional marriage unifies families within communities, its primary function is a biological one, to produce children as new members of the community. In fulfilling this aim, culture plays an important role in that it encourages marriages between members of communities. Young men and women are guided by certain values, expectations, meanings and patterns which must be observed. Those men and women who do not conform to acceptable social behaviour, attitudes and mannerisms are regarded as outcasts because they do not fit neatly within society’s prescribed categories of “male” and “female”. Since indigenous music like any piece of art is not composed in vacuum, it reflects the moral and social values within which it is conceived. Therefore, this paper interrogates African cultural values and norms presented in “Tlhltswa lesire” (bear a child for us) by Culture Spear under Magdeline as lead vocalist and “U swi tiva njani” (how do you know?) General Muzka. In the title track ‘Tlhltswa lesire” in Setswana, Charma girl uses this idiomatic expression to put forward a request by members of the community ‘to bear the child for the family’. ‘Lesire’ is wedding gown in Setswana and if it is washed, it will look clean. In this sense, the leading character in this track will look and treated differently if she bears a child. In the track “U swi tiva njani?” (how do you know?), the wife of the accused also referred as a chameleon ‘ripfani’ because she does not want to accept that she is sterile. This resonates well with the African world view as indicated in the first paragraph of this abstract. In these songs, artists use words, idiomatic expressions and other parts of speech to express elements of their African cultural world view (moral and social values). The discussion on this paper will be enriched by use qualitative as well as quantitative methods of data extraction from these two songs. Using Moral Philosophical theory, the paper argues that there is societal rejection when two women are unable to bear children. The society also shun them. The two characters in these indigenous songs are women whose social status is not acceptable to their community regardless of the challenges they are facing.

Keywords: Society; African cultural world view; Morals; Norms; indigenous music

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