heritage dynamics

The paper presents an analysis of how visual and musical aesthetics converge in the performed production of history, as creolization, and ethnically specific ‘heritage’, and how the self-stylization is employed in asserting a linguistic-cultural ‘identity’. This is done through an investigation of the aesthetics and politics of the ‘hip- hopera’ Afrikaaps. Afrikaaps was produced in 2010 by a group of musicians and spoken word artists from Cape Town and the rural Western Cape Province of South Africa.

The paper presents an analysis of how visual and musical aesthetics converge in the performed production of history, as creolization, and ethnically specific ‘heritage’, and how the self-stylization is employed in asserting a linguistic-cultural ‘identity’. This is done through an investigation of the aesthetics and politics of the ‘hip- hopera’ Afrikaaps. Afrikaaps was produced in 2010 by a group of musicians and spoken word artists from Cape Town and the rural Western Cape Province of South Africa.