“Big Map Idea”: Diasporic Currents in South African Music

ABSTRACT South African jazz historiography has tended to regard Cape Town and Johannesburg as the principal axes of musical practice within the country’s borders. This discourse tends to marginalize such practice in Durban as the most obviously “British colonial” of South Africa’s big cities. While Durban’s history has shaped its unique population, its unique demographic makeup has in turn influenced local musicking practices. This essay examines notions of diaspora under three broad headings: diasporic currents within the country, diasporic flows from “outside” (indentured labor from India for Natal’s sugar plantations), and phenomenological reflections on the interwovenness of place and culture.