Music and Dance in Eastern Africa

This collection of articles cuts across the Eastern African
region, with authors interrogating varying themes in different
historical periods that speak not only to the practice of music and
dance but also to the performances that characterize these practices. The book dedicates itself to research in music and dance, while engaging
with colonial and contemporary political and historical realities
within the Eastern African region. Inevitably, themes that grapple with
urbanization and the emergence of urban spaces for entertainment, as
well as the imagination of culture by the colonialist form a key window
into the research and understanding of music and dance.

The ever-present performance of ethnic identities that shape most of our
socio-political contexts adds to the overall texture of this book. At
the same time, the debate and question of gender in music and dance is
also comprehensively covered, in an attempt to delineate gender
relations in the region. Articles that employ a cross-genre approach to music and dance have
enriched the wide perspective of understanding African societies and the
realities that emanate from everyday lives in Eastern Africa.

A useful addition to the growing literature of popular culture in
Africa, this book takes a multidisciplinary angle and can easily fit
within the disciplines of political science, urban studies, literature,
sociology and media studies. The book contributes to the recurrent
dialogue towards emphasizing the relevance of the study of songs and
dances in a larger context within humanities and social sciences.