Chikowero has written a fantastic book worthy of wide and careful attention for years to come.
(Journal of African History) This book makes a valuable contribution to colonial and mission history, musicology, and performance studies, offering a fresh lens on the creative labor and insurgent cultural practices of Zimbabweans under colonialism.
(International Journal of African Historical Studies) [P]rovides a fascinating new way to think about liberation. Chikowero helps us understand revolution beyond the gun as he moves from the conquest in the 1890s through music of the missions, mining company dancehalls, townships, the armed struggle campsites and more to chart a social history of how black people continually made and remade themselves through music, dress, drink, spirituality and politics.
(The Guardian) Chikowero interrogates the political economy of performance in Zimbabwe with a mastery of detail that is yet to be matched.9/12/16
(The Zimbabwe Herald) African Music, Power, and Being in Colonial Zimbabwe will benefit ethnomusicologists as well as multimedia experts and general readers. Chikowero makes a tremendous contribution to African music in general and, indeed, ethnomusicology in particular.
(Africa Today) Overall,the book encourages a stimulating rethinking of the role of music in colonial societies. It is therefore recommended for readers with a broad interest in African history.
(American Historical Review)
