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


  • What isn’t in Judas and The Black Messiah is Just as Important as What is
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    What isn’t in Judas and The Black Messiah is Just as Important as What is
    17 Feb 2021
    Hollywood is big, mostly white, capitalist business, so it’s no surprise that its new film on Fred Hampton provides little information on Black Panther politics and history.
  • MANIFESTO: Ten Commandments of Democracy in Haiti, September 25, 1991
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    MANIFESTO: Ten Commandments of Democracy in Haiti, September 25, 1991
    17 Feb 2021
    Almost 20 years ago, the president elected by Haiti’s poor majority gave the United Nations a lesson in the meaning of democracy for historically oppressed peoples.
  • What did low Barr know?
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    What did low Barr know?
    17 Feb 2021
    Liars, liars your loaded dice/tilted table theater’s on fire— But prosecutors and gas-lighting lawyers concur on  Empire… 
  • Kizito Mihigo and the Struggle for Rwandan Truth and Reconciliation
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Kizito Mihigo and the Struggle for Rwandan Truth and Reconciliation
    17 Feb 2021
    Rwandans around the world celebrate the life of the nation’s most popular singer, apparently killed for opposing Paul Kagame’s ethnic and military dictatorship, writes Ann Garrison.
  • Letters from Our Readers
    Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    17 Feb 2021
    This week color-blindness on the left and the Black Misleadership Class were on your minds.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us