On the Postcolony as a Colony: Meditations on Letta Mbulu's Lyrical Content

ABSTRACT The importance of music as a tool for political communication is widely acknowledged. In many societies and their respective traditions, cultures and customs, music has been central in reflecting the historical, contemporary and future aspirations of such communities. In reference to South Africa, recent student movements have been central in calling into question the postcolonial status of the country amid its colonial legacies. These movements have relied on decolonial discourses (#RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall, #StatuesMustFall) and have deployed them as a means of critiquing the condition of “formerly” colonised subjects within South Africa's postcolonial status. This paper focuses on the role of music in understanding colonial legacies within a postcolony. It deploys decolonial theories as a means of understanding the lived condition of black people and particularly Africans in the “post” settler colonial context of South Africa. Using Letta Mbulu's hit song “Not Yet Uhuru,” the paper argues that her lyrical message is instrumental in understanding the “colonial situation” within the country. Therefore in this paper, the question of the continuities and discontinuities of coloniality is read through Mbulu's lyrical content. Ultimately, the central argument of the paper relies on the role of music as a form of political or decolonial communication and how such can be instrumental in understanding the legacies of the past within postcolonial South Africa.