The invention of religion: Aspects of the South African case

This paper examines the role played by popular culture in response to the effects of the unfolding social and political repression on the ordinary Zimbabwean after 2000. The arts is one sector where the Zimbabwean government fostered its repressive hegemony. An urban youth music genre called ‘urban grooves’ rose to prominence during the period under focus here and some of the artists colluded with the government in propagating an anti‐Western imperialism campaign. This paper evaluates the nature of the genre’s performance practices and its role in the government’s anti‐Western imperialism campaign. It also discusses the complexities associated with notions of complicity and resistance as urban grooves artists resisted both Western hegemony, as per the government’s campaign, and subverted the same government’s censorship of the urban youth’s and the general society’s imaginary and other freedoms.