representation of African popular culture

representation of African popular culture

The media has been instrumental over the years in the representation of African popular culture and with the new wave of the press comes to a corresponding change in African popular culture. New media technologies refer to reforms of production and distribution of environment that are reliant on computers and computational process of digital platforms. Communication is the lifeline of human interaction; thus, it is not strange that African popular culture has a network with new media technologies in the cultural, social and institutional frameworks. In addition, new media existent in many forms such as digital technologies of print, audio and audio-visual. Friedman and Friedman write, “The so-called new media technologies…encompass a wide variety of web-related communication technologies, such as blogs, wikis, online social networking, virtual worlds and other social media forms.” Audio forms such as radio have proved to remain relevant with time. In specific artefacts, media plays a role in the creation of varied social, political and cultural impacts that are embedded in the promotion of African popular culture. So far, print and electronic media have been able to identify the profound transformative effects in African culture. The concept of a relationship between media and culture is not foreign because the evolution of popular culture by the use of techniques and conceptions rooted in the media for years.

Photography has acted as a bridge into the creation of definitive images of Africa and its people in both the contemporary and olden setting. The art of photography is the telling of a story through a moment frozen in history. Current images of the African continent from the basis by which the people’s customs, traditions and cultures. Early photography created a bank from which history has been pieced together. Therefore, combinations of modern and ancient photography create a full chronological description of events from the post-colonial to the colonial era. Barber points out, “traces of expressive forms from as early as the seventeenth century show that there were struggles…these voices are worth retrieving”(20).  On the other hand, at first, there was only inclusion of still photography, but with time, moving photography was a distinct chapter of the African popular culture. As evidenced in the ideas that are continuously presented in new media images, the African popular culture has grown to include a mix of the African elements together with Westernized influences. Additionally, the new media is a characterization of the repetition of the visual characteristics that were used in old technologies. Harding writes, “This ‘anxious repetition’…was interpreted as evidence of inadequacy in politicization, socialization and personal presentations, and these images were now inserted into the narratives imagined by the colonizer”(70).   In essence, this form of new media is an exemplification of the political structures that were being propagated in the way of images. IN turn, there was the adoption of a colonial leadership style by the next generation of African leaders. Primarily, photography established the superiority of the newcomers of the continent at the expense of indigenous people who depicted as uncivilized.

On the other hand, there was a new form of media that affected the African popular culture in the portrayal of video-movies. These are entirely different patterns of still and moving pictures. Harding points out, “ As a genre, collectively, they throw up new and interesting images of middle-class aspirations and wealth but also rely heavily on presenting explicit images of violence and the supernatural”(70).  Also, there is the depiction of sex as a visual and narrative thread in the movies and videos. Political resistance presents itself at the heart of the video-movies, especially those that are based on oppression and discrimination. For instance, in the film, “Saunders of the River”, there is a narration of the resistance of a political leader who is eager to have his power back from the colonial masters. Santanera and Ugor illustrate, “bourgeoning video film industry, has become a veritable cultural platform for constructing alternatives social histories and identities”(1). In this context, there is more than political representations; there is also the aspect of a clothing influence of African popular culture. Clothes and outfits are essential in the characterization of the actors and actresses in the movies.  Besides, there is a transformation of ideas in the cultural, social and political dimensions to include the dreams and aspiration of a new African culture that is more dependent on liberation and the instituting of ideas of democracy. Contrary to the popular understanding of the new media interrelated with African popular culture, the media is not a magic multiplying effect, nor does it dull the senses of perception. That is, the video-movies can be made of meaning from by those that are viewing this there is no fixed meaning of African popular culture attached to the audience.

What’s more, television acts as one of the most effective modes of African popular culture. First, screen characterization is based on the presentation of affluence. Wealthy characters are owners of better clothes, cars and live in specific affluent locations. All these representations were also signifiers of both ethnopolitical affiliation and status in society. Also, some modifications have been made in the creation of television programs having there been an introduction of a new range of affordable technologies. Thus, there is more accuracy in the portrayal of the everyday life of people in Africa due to the option of selective image-making. Noteworthy; most of the television programs broadcasted in Africa are dominated by government-sponsored content. Although this makes television less exciting and captivating, there are far more reaching political outcomes that are targeted. Stories on the television are mainly on the giving of power to a particular group of people. However, there are some diversions to the culture that have taken place due to several people switching to the use of satellite television. For instance, there is a broad fan base that is attracted to the viewership of “Big Brother Africa.” The television series is a spectacle of the ordinary lives of modern African life and an exemplification of African popular culture. It goes a long way in the creation of a new image for the African continent as one that does more than asking for help from others and is instead one that is vibrant with new cultures. Therefore, African popular culture and new media interact to explain the cultural, political and social complexities of the African continent.

Section B

Question Two

There is a growing football interest in Africa, and the fandom is not limited to just the local teams since there are also international groups. Therefore, soccer fandom is slowly becoming a mirroring of the values, traditions and beliefs of the continent. For instance, there is the unification of football fans to support African teams that have so far managed to the World Cup like Nigeria, Egypt and Ghana. Also, football teams in Europe have continually opted to outsource players from Africa to play in the European leagues. With such a growing fan base, there is the viewing of soccer as a space for unification, but that is not what is portrayed by studies of fandom trends in the continent. There are aspects of class and gender that have permeated the game, thus creating a division in the viewing and ensuing celebration of the teams. In any case, soccer remains to be a source of entertainment for the middle-income and low-income families. Notably, there is unwavering support for specific teams in these families to the point that football has become a part of the African tradition and culture.

Soccer as a type of diversion for some has figured out how to traverse from being simply one more game or type of time passing the movement to being an essential get-together, which cultivates systems administration and social association under a single shared encounter. With development comes obligations, and assignments, in that capacity, there is a brief period for individuals to bond and interface socially to cultivate social relations that will get satisfactory for their psychological and social limits. Stander and Zyl give evidence from South Africa, “Particularly, football evokes great passion amongst a large portion of South Africa’s sport consumers, and although the exact number of viewers is widely disputed, several millions of South Africans actively consume the sport.” Soccer has been wholly recognized to help the degrees of associating inside the general African culture. This is on the grounds that as a culture, it has figured out how to pick up its own help base and customs that frequently observe individuals assemble and watch it in broad daylight. While this may appear to be much the same as some other action, for soccer fans, it is something beyond a get-together; it is a convention that holds significance to their general educational encounters. In such manner, to an ever-increasing extent, individuals can meet in zones that were overwhelmingly diversion zones, for example, lodgings and bars, and get shipped from their substances and hardships, for a short minute, in an offer to appreciate socialization and holding over a game that was a critical factor in their childhood introducing nostalgic recollections while allowing them to make new ones. This ultimately arranges soccer and its fans under a typical subject advancing a personality through significant holding time.

Regarding class relations, soccer has completely been vital in making a more prominent type of relationship between individuals of different classes by distinguishing comparative shared encounters and allotting them esteem. Mainstream society stays to be made by the lion’s share inside the general public. Soccer can characterize the African mainstream society by the way it looks to portray the personality of the game inside individuals’ everyday life while additionally arranging their stratification. Fletcher writes, “Sports fandom as popular culture does not simply hold up a mirror to society, but it is a site where everyday identities are reified and negotiated”(188). Unquestionably there is a gigantic after of the game both locally and universally. However, this is distinguished to be completely misconstruing the point and the general relationship that is kept up inside the soccer network. As a type of mainstream society, soccer holds estimations of the dominant part and all things considered, plots their fantasies and motivations while likewise giving genuine setting into their day by day lives. Thus, soccer enables one to completely relate to individuals’ battles and make an otherness by seeing what a few people choose to watch and act during a game. Individuals will, in general, help groups that they accept to serve their advantage or mirror their battles. The outcome depends on parts of the group they partner with or the individuals inside their groups.

Ladies’ portrayal inside this games has consistently been horrid, breaking down soccer being a fan designs over the African mainland turns into a vital identifier of the prior sexual orientation based imbalance that command sports when all is said in done. Nkambule writes, “Women’s soccer continues to experience inequity practices in soccer, that women’s soccer is devalued and secondary to male soccer, and that men’s soccer and men in soccer continue to be prioritized.”  They likewise go about as a general mirror towards the worth cultural framework. Simultaneously, they distinguish the more noteworthy degrees of under portrayal for ladies and preceded with misuse that exists inside the general male commanded movement. On the other hand, the young football players that are portrayed as masculine and dominant are brought up to despise and demean women in and out of the soccer pitch. Additionally, women are not only demeaned as soccer fans; they are also labeled as passive fans.

Sports are linked with various stereotypes that are both demeaning to women and are a portrayal of the continued discrimination of women in the larger society. Chiweshe points out, “The male dominance and misogyny that characterize football stadiums unconsciously re-establishes soccer as a pathology of patriarchy meaning a misogynistic, male-oriented tradition that excludes women”(212). For instance, winning is said to be likened to the strength of a man while losing is associated with women. In some cases, there have been efforts to bar women from accessing the stadiums, thus causing a public outcry from women soccer fans that feel stigmatized or secluded. In these instances, lady soccer fans are said to be bad luck and will cause a team to fail. During the football matches, they are expected to sit at the back of the stadium and shut up while men are in the frontline cheering their teams. Most of the women that watch or follow football are portrayed as being less of women and more like men. Furthermore, the hostility goes as far as the attacking of women in football stadiums.

Works Cited

Barber, Karin. A History of African Popular Culture. Cambridge UP, 2018.

Chiweshe, Manase. “One of the boys: female fans’ responses to the masculine and phallocentric nature of football stadiums in Zimbabwe.” Critical African Studies, vol. 6, no. 2-3, 2014, pp. 211-222.

Fletcher, Marc. “More than vuvuzelas? Towards an understanding of soccer fandom in

Johannesburg.” Critical African Studies, vol. 6, no. 2-3, 2014, pp. 176-191

Friedman, Linda W., and Hershey H. Friedman. “The New Media Technologies: Overview and Research Framework.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2008.

Harding, Frances. “Africa and the moving image: television, film and video.” Journal of African Cultural Studies, vol. 16, no. 1, 2003, pp. 69-84.