Project description
Reading African decolonisations through music
In the 20th century, multiple links between music and politics emerged in Africa and the Black Atlantic. Focusing on Cuba and West Central Africa (Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Angola), the EU-funded CONGOTOPIA project will study how they developed and changed overtime to elaborate a new, trans-imperial history of decolonisations. Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach and a rich bibliography in history, anthropology and sound studies, the project will explore the trans-imperial space of Congolese rumba. This musical genre, influenced by Afro-Cuban music, became a marker of freedom and creativity in the context of colonisation and during the following era of Congolese independences, the Angolan liberation war and the Cuban revolution.
Objective
CONGOTOPIA proposes a new approach to the historical phenomenon of decolonization. Built on a rich bibliography in history, anthropology and sound studies, this project examines the movement of people, ideas and music put into motion by the Pan-African appeal of Congolese rumba. Inspired by early Afro-Cuban records, this dance music emerged in 1940s Leopoldville (current-day Kinshasa) and Brazzaville and soon became Africa’s most influential popular style thanks to the development—unique to Africa—of local radio stations and recording companies. Across different territories yearning for their independence, Congolese sound inaugurated a utopic Africa, audible over various Afro-Cuban rhythms and multi-voiced harmonies mixing Spanish with various African languages. While closely associated with pleasure, romance and fantasy, this popular music became a powerful marker of decolonization—in the 1960s, it “inflamed” Angolan nationalists’ spirit during the liberation war while allowing great Brussels-based musicians such as Manu Dibango to “jump in feet first with the question of Africa.” Examining the global, trans-imperial geography of Congolese rumba between Cuba, West Central Africa and Europe will reframe the conception of decolonization and the movements through which it unfolded in the period 1930-1974. By straddling the traditional divide between Francophone and Portuguese territories while reconnecting the African continent to the Southern Atlantic, it challenges established approaches to decolonization and sheds light on the history of a space (West central Africa) and from a perspective (colonized people’s) that have long been marginalized in the field of African studies. As the Congo(s) and Angola are impossible to fully dissociated from their multi-layered relations with Cuba in the period 1930-1974, the study of this musical region will deepen or understing of the Global South from an African perspective.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology anthropology cultural anthropology folklore
- humanities history and archaeology history
- humanities arts musicology popular music studies
- social sciences sociology anthropology social anthropology
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75794 PARIS
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.