Zaire ’74: politicising the sound event

Abstract

This article focuses on the multidimensional sound event in order to articulate certain transnational vectors of political power, anti-imperialism and black power. It proceeds from Louise Bethlehem’s research methodology which recasts the anti-apartheid struggle as an apparatus of transnational cultural production through charting the movement of texts, sounds and images in a cold war setting. At the core of the paper is the analysis of the black music festival “Zaire ’74,” associated with the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” heavyweight boxing match. Taken together, the two events brought “black power” into contact with “soul power” in Mobutu’s Zaire when both configurations were at their peak. Analysing this historical junction with reference to the type of affect it produced, demonstrates something of the tensions which existed between its various audiences. Concurrently, attending to the sounds it generated helps to shed light on the intersection between anti-colonial ambition and African-American resistance. The article introduces the concept of the “transnational sound event” which uses voice and sound to translate moments of disconnection into arenas for hope and solidarity. The analysis nevertheless reckons with the dark underside of the music festival as well as the political and material conditions under which it was held.