Historicising the Popular: Trans-Atlantic Exchanges between African American and Local South African Musicians during the Cultural Boycott, c. 1960-1993
This dissertation examines the history of over 70 African American musicians’ tours to South Africa between 1960 and 1993. This largely underexplored history also includes the experiences of South African musicians who accompanied them on these tours. The tours were often perceived by the media and anti-apartheid activists as controversial. They broke the cultural boycott, but they can also be viewed as pivotal moments for cultural exchange and the promotion of Black identity. By analysing the tours, this study, firstly, seeks to situate African American tours into the broader historiography of South African popular music. Secondly, this study explores how apartheid legislation effected and was affected by these African American tours. And thirdly, discusses where these tours fit in relation to the cultural boycott and the anti-apartheid movement. Through meticulous research in South African newspapers and magazines, primary information about the tours of African Americans was found and reported by the media. Up until today, it is one of the only sources that documented African American tours. The consistent and widespread reporting of these tours stressed the influence that African American culture had on the conceptualisation of South African black identity as well as the popularity of African American musicians in South Africa. Through a close reading of these tours, this study argues that, ironically, the tours of African American musicians were more successful in effecting change in apartheid legislation during the 1970s than the cultural boycott.
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