This course offers students the opportunity to develop skills in critical reading, scholarly research, and analytical writing by studying protest music during two significant periods: apartheid South Africa and the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. It explores the intersections of protest music in these contexts, focusing on three key research strands: Ubuntu, social movements, and responses to systems of oppression.
The course delves into the impact of protest music on both macro and micro levels, demonstrating how it shapes societies while empowering individuals to assert their identity, celebrate cultural heritage, and build resilience. Students will explore South Africa’s protest music from 1948 to 1994 and its continued relevance 30 years after apartheid, alongside an analogous examination of Black American protest music during the Civil Rights Era and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Through these comparative time periods of civil unrest and critical self-definition, students will analyze the shared role of protest music in resistance, identity formation, and social transformation within both cultural contexts.