Mapping Places and Identities through Contemporary Bulawayo Popular Song Texts

Abstract In this article, the authors examine the symbiotic relationship that exists between places and identities in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, through contemporary song texts. They borrow Julia Kristeva’s concept of intertextuality to trace the sources of spatial textual referents embedded in song texts and examine the ways in which they inform the emergence and consolidation of identities. Through analysing selected song texts from the late Beatar Mangethe, Khuxxman and Lovemore “Majaivana” Tshuma, the authors underscore the spatial senses in which these selected song texts define and shape identities and class distinctions in Bulawayo’s townships. Finally, they describe the identities of characters who are sketched into the places that Mangethe, Khuxxman and Majaivana sing about, thereby highlighting a symbiotic dialogue between people and places in Bulawayo.