In “National Liberation and Culture,” Amilcar Cabral argues for the important role of culture in African liberation from imperialism, insisting that African liberation movements “return to the source” and draw on the cultural traditions of the masses to create a new national culture.
Write an essay, at least 500 words, in which you use Cabral’s ideas about national liberation and culture to evaluate at least two of the following:
Semba music and the MPLA’s use of music in the Angolan independence movement
Musical and cultural government policy in independent Tanzania, including in relation to the genres ngoma, dansi, and taarab
Umm Kulthum’s musical career in relation to the nationalist movement in Egypt
The basic question is: how well did musical expressions and government policy do at creating a distinctly African culture that served African liberation in their respective nations? Be sure to use specific musical selections as examples in your essay.