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Mobilizing Dance/Traumatizing Dance: Kongonya and the Politics of Zimbabwe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2013

Jairos Gonye
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Abstract

The article analyzes kongonya dance as it occurs in everyday Zimbabwean spaces. Tracing its origins, utility, and metamorphosis, I studied kongonya dance in its performed world; observed kongonya being danced at a pungwe, a gala, and a political function; and watched kongonya being performed on state television. Through participant-observations, respondent testimonies, and personal interviews of dancers and nondancers for all these contexts, pertinent data on kongonya were collected. The article contends that kongonya has both a human and inhuman face, having been transformed from a dance for the people into a dance against the people—a phenomenon at the mercy of political manipulators. Despite kongonya having creatively promoted the nationalist cause of the 1970s Zimbabwean liberation party, kongonya has been abused in the postcolonial state in an attempt to placate citizens, suppress dissension, and (also) in the hopes of reinvigorating the waning fortunes of the ruling party, ZANU PF. Initially, kongonya reflected an apparently more national outlook than an ethnic one, but lately it has revealed rather hegemonic traits. Regrettably, politicians sought to manipulate the malleability of dance and harness kongonya's national character to an exclusionist political agenda.

Keywords

galakongonyapungwemanipulatemobilizetraumatize
Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , April 2013 , pp. 65 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 2013

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References

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