Instructions ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS" Please chose ONLY ONE essay question from ANY of the following 9 questions. Please note that you are expected to answer ONLY ONE question for ASSIGNMENT 2 essay. Theme 3: Revolutionary violence in Mozambique 1. Gender and re-education • Watch the film: The Virgin Margarida, Licinio de Azevedo, 2012. Does Virgin Margarida provide a historically accurate portrayal of Mozambican reeducation camps? Which “arguments” does the film make? How does it depict the experience and personalities of women inmates and soldiers? Answer these questions in relation to the academic literature suggested below. Also provide a personal reading of the film. The film can be accessed here https://youtu.be/TzefMrurzH0 2. Re-education camps and political violence • Read the press dossier on reeducation camps and political violence available on Ikamva. Based on this press dossier and on the academic literature, what is your opinion of the experience of the Mozambican reeducation camps and more generally of the process of revolutionary violence? How was that violence depicted in the international press? What arguments did Samora Machel expound in its favour? 3. The trial of the compromised Film: Treatment for Traitors, Ike Bertels, 1983 https://youtu.be/f14mykWlUNo • Was the Trial of the Compromised a successful experiment? How does the film represent it? Discuss Samora Machel’s presence in the film, alongside one testimony, in the light of the academic literature. Compare Igreja’s and Meneses’ interpretations of the film. Compare the propaganda about Xiconhoca, and the way in which “traitors” are actually portrayed in the film. Theme 4: Structural Adjustment Programmes 4. Watch the film Bamako, then explain how the everyday experiences of the people inhabiting the “court yard” reflects the impact of the Structural Adjustment Programmes imposed on African states by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. 5. What in your own view were the political and economic conditions within African states that compelled the adoption of Structural Adjustment Program in the 1980s? Was the adoption a “cure or curse”? Reflect on the conditionality and the impact of SAP on African states. Theme 5: Music and social change 6. Fela Kuti Film: Fela Kuti: Music is the Weapon, Jean Jacques Flori and Stephen Tchalgadjieff, 1982 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfrNGST9V_E Watch the documentary listed above and read the academic literature. In which way did Fela Kuti’s music respond to and address the issues of military rule in Nigeria? From which traditions did he draw from? What did he bring? Choose a few of his songs and comment on them closely. Compare Fela Kuti’s artistic intervention to both Siti Binti Saad and Arab Spring songs. 7. ZimDancehall and the third Chimurenga in Zimbabwe Read the suggested readings below and listen to some Zimdancehall songs. How does Zimdancehall address the political crisis in Zimbabwe? Choose a few songs and comment on them closely. Compare this genre to Arab Spring songs and other contemporary musical genres you may know from the continent. 8. Rap: Moroccan and Tanzanian • “If politics means to engage people to take sides and tactfully generate consensus, then musicians are significantly implicated in the politics of society”. Justify this statement by critically analyzing the relationship of rap music with political struggles and social change, drawing from Moroccan artist Don Bigg and Tanzanian rapper AY. Compare these cases to the music of Siti Binti Saad and Arab Spring music. 9. Music – personal research Choose one musical genre in Africa (outside of South Africa) and investigate its relationship with political struggles and social change, drawing from adequate academic sources.
