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


  • War is a Racist Enterprise
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    War is a Racist Enterprise
    01 Sep 2021
    Racism is an unspoken rationale for U.S. imperialist actions.
  • We Can No Longer Avoid Raising the Contradiction of the Western Imperial Left’s Collaboration with the Western Bourgeoisie
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    We Can No Longer Avoid Raising the Contradiction of the Western Imperial Left’s Collaboration with the Western Bourgeoisie
    01 Sep 2021
    As the Western left has become more aligned with their imperialist bourgeoisie in the destabilization of the Global South, the radical Black tradition provides a clear approach to “turn imperia
  • U.S. Escalates Threats to Ethiopian and Eritrean Sovereignty
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    U.S. Escalates Threats to Ethiopian and Eritrean Sovereignty
    01 Sep 2021
    U.S. Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman recently returned from a tour of Ethiopia, Djibouti, and the United Arab Emirates. On the following Monday, the U.S.
  • An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo, 1890
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    An Open Letter to His Serene Majesty Leopold II, King of the Belgians and Sovereign of the Independent State of Congo, 1890
    01 Sep 2021
  • The Harvard Crimson
    Patrick Anderson
    Realism, Idealism, and the Deradicalization of Critical Race Theory—Rethinking the CRT Debate, Part 2
    01 Sep 2021
    Patrick Anderson continues his examination of Critical Race Theory.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us