On Being Undone by Music: Thoughts Towards a South African Future Worth Having

Abstract

Rampant inequality, violent xenophobia, ‘race’ essentialism, racism, ethnic prejudice, rabid fundamentalism, religious hatred, deeply engrained habits of ‘othering’: in the face of the ugly deformities fracturing our young South African democracy (and, indeed, the world at large), music can easily seem escapist, anodyne, legitimating or simply irrelevant. Yet this need not be its only, or its inevitable, fate. In this article I argue that music can, and often does, play a social role of immense importance, even – and perhaps especially – in troubled times. I seek to establish a theoretical basis for this claim, to identify some of the ways that (and some of the places where) music has had a significant social impact, and to show the deep and continuing relevance of this to the task of making South Africa’s future humane, socially cohesive and worth having.