Congo's Dancers
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A01=Lesley Nicole Braun
affect economy
Africa
African music
African studies
anthropology
Author_Lesley Nicole Braun
Category=ATQ
Category=JBSF
Category=JHMC
Category=NHH
concert dancers
Congolese rumba
culture
dance
dance studies
dancers
danseuse
Democratic Republic of Congo
economic independence
economic mobility
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnography
family
femininity
gender
gender studies
Kinshasa
labor
local politics
morality
music
music studies
patronage politics
politics of control
popular culture
public sphere
religion
role of women
rumba
social mobility
society
socioeconomics
urban studies
urban women
virtue
women
women's labor
women's rights
Product details
- ISBN 9780299340308
- Weight: 363g
- Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 24 Jan 2023
- Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Dance music plays a central role in the cultural, social, religious, and family lives of the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Among the various genres popular in the capital city of Kinshasa, Congolese rumba occupies a special place and can be counted as one of the DRC’s most well-known cultural exports. The public image of rumba was historically dominated by male bandleaders, singers, and musicians. However, with the introduction of the danseuse (professional concert dancer) in the late 1970s, the role of women as cultural, moral, and economic actors came into public prominence and helped further raise Congolese rumba’s international profile.
In Congo’s Dancers, Lesley Nicole Braun uses the prism of the Congolese danseuse to examine the politics of control and the ways in which notions of visibility, virtue, and socio-economic opportunity are interlinked in this urban African context. The work of the danseuse highlights the fact that public visibility is necessary to build the social networks required for economic independence, even as this visibility invites social opprobrium for women. The concert dancer therefore exemplifies many of the challenges that women face in Kinshasa as they navigate the public sphere, and she illustrates the gendered differences of local patronage politics that shape public morality. As an ethnographer, Braun had unusual access to the world she documents, having been invited to participate as a concert dancer herself.
In Congo’s Dancers, Lesley Nicole Braun uses the prism of the Congolese danseuse to examine the politics of control and the ways in which notions of visibility, virtue, and socio-economic opportunity are interlinked in this urban African context. The work of the danseuse highlights the fact that public visibility is necessary to build the social networks required for economic independence, even as this visibility invites social opprobrium for women. The concert dancer therefore exemplifies many of the challenges that women face in Kinshasa as they navigate the public sphere, and she illustrates the gendered differences of local patronage politics that shape public morality. As an ethnographer, Braun had unusual access to the world she documents, having been invited to participate as a concert dancer herself.
