Drafts by Enrica Mattavelli
The present research represents an attempt to investigate Reggae music as "travelling" music and ... more The present research represents an attempt to investigate Reggae music as "travelling" music and global popular genre. The corpus of diasporic narratives expressed and popularized through the vehicle of reggae music have contributed to the creation of images of Africa and Ethiopia as the “Promised Land”. Such a system of images acted as an engine for the movement of repatriation that Rastafarians have engaged in since the 1960’s that consequently led to their settlement in Shashamane, Ethiopia, the land granted by the Emperor Haile Selassie I as compensation for black support in the Ethio-Italian war. Through its progressive internationalization due to the global popularity of Bob Marley, roots reggae became known worldwide as a popular musical genre and culture. Rasta discourses and narratives have been circulating among the black diaspora in the West as well as among Africans who developed various local appropriations and elaborations of Rastafari/Reggae as music and culture. My research investigates how Rasta discourses around Ethiopia and Africa, including elements of universality and cultural uniformity, can be experienced as problematic by local audiences not only in terms of individual perception but also considering the hegemonic representation of Ethiopia as a “mosaic of cultures” introduced and promoted by the current Ethiopian Government. I contend that such contrasting narratives represent a hindrance to the social integration of the repatriate community in Shashamane. Furthermore, I speculate if Rasta’s perception of Ethiopia might function as a valid counter-narrative for those Ethiopians who do not identify with the national ethnic-based representation. I will also attempt to comprehend the repatriates’ efforts to partially adapt such narratives to the Ethiopian context as well locals’ strategies of appropriation and re-elaboration in the establishing of their identity and experiences of the place. I contend that reggae music can represent a guide for understanding the way in which both groups relate to Ethiopia as “imagined” and as an actual location, inscribing new meanings to their local experiences. Another goal of my research is to understand whether reggae music may be an instrument through which repatriates and locals can create a discursive as well as concrete space of communication, mutual exchange, and hybridization.
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Drafts by Enrica Mattavelli