The Personal and the Political: African Popular Music and Diasporic Heritage in Australia

Abstract

This chapter investigates diaspora and heritage through an analysis of the African Music and Cultural Festival held annually in the city of Melbourne, Australia. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in 2016-2017, the chapter provides insight into the mixing of popular music with the politics of Australian multiculturalism. It examines the way festival performances articulate multi-layered identities and a dynamic understanding of diasporic heritage as a tool for living and relating to others. Bringing an Australian perspective to African diaspora studies, the chapter demonstrates that festival participants engage popular music to negotiate the tensions associated with Australian multiculturalism and to challenge one-dimensional representations of Africans in Australia. Show more