Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

“Kwaito” Music Moves South African Youth
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
06 Jul 2020
🖨️ Print Article

Margaret Kimberley · “Kwaito” Music Moves South African Youth

Xavier Livermon, professor of African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, sees “many parallels” between the US-based Hip Hop phenomenon and the Kwaito music beloved by young South Africans. LIvermon is author of the book, “Kwaito Bodies: Remastering Space and Subjectivity in Post-Apartheid South Africa.” Livermon doesn’t see Kwaito as purely commercial and self-commodification. “South African youth play with and engage the system,” he said, “but also push back against it.”

South Africa

Related Podcasts

BAR Radio Logo
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio July 17, 2026
17 July 2026
In this week’s segment, we discuss the Supreme Court ruling that ends Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants.
South Africa
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
The Anti-Immigration Movement in South Africa
17 July 2026
What is behind this South African movement that drives immigrants out of the country?
Global March to Gaza
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Nkosi Mandela on the Global March to Gaza
13 June 2025
Our guest is Nkosi Mandela. He is the tribal chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council and the grandson of Nelson Mandela.

More Stories


  • Friends of Socialist China
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Lessons from China
    17 Apr 2024
    Socialist China is a powerful economic and diplomatic rival to the United States. Its success must be studied so that liberation may be possible and to prevent the declining U.S. from doing even more…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    TESTIMONY: How the Hereros Were Exterminated, 1918
    17 Apr 2024
    The eyewitness testimonies of Germany’s brutal attempted extermination of the Herero and Namaqua people remind us that genocide is the norm of European “civilization.”
  • UNAC Conference flyer
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Opening Remarks from Ajamu Baraka at the 2024 UNAC Conference
    17 Apr 2024
    Ajamu Baraka delivered this speech at the opening of the 2024 United National Antiwar Coalition Conference.
  • Rwandan refugees
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The US Did Not Fail to Intervene in Rwanda
    17 Apr 2024
    The U.S. kept the U.N. Security Council from sending in troops to stop the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
  • Man holding Haitian flag in front of fire
    MOLEGHAF
    MOLEGHAF Denounces the US-Imposed “Accord for Peaceful Orderly Transition” in Haiti
    17 Apr 2024
    The "transitional council" in Haiti is another part of the plan to maintain the dominance of imperialist forces over the island. This process is driving the nation further into a socioeconomic crisis.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us