Reflections on Afrika Bambaataa’s Universal Zulu Nation: horizons, hip hop, and hybridity
Using Hans-Georg Gadamer’s famous discourse on horizons and modern postcolonial theories on black religious pluralism, this article examines Afrika Bambaataa, along with the organization he founded, the Universal Zulu Nation. The emphasis of the analysis is on his overcoming of material borderlands,...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2021
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| In: |
Journal of contemporary religion
Year: 2021, Volume: 36, Issue: 1, Pages: 19-36 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Afrika Bambaataa 1957-
/ Universal Zulu Nation
/ Hip-hop
/ Blacks
/ Cultural identity
/ Religious identity
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AF Geography of religion AG Religious life; material religion KBN Sub-Saharan Africa KBQ North America |
| Further subjects: | B
New Religious Movement
B Black religious pluralism B hip hop religion B African Diaspora B Hybridity B horizons |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Using Hans-Georg Gadamer’s famous discourse on horizons and modern postcolonial theories on black religious pluralism, this article examines Afrika Bambaataa, along with the organization he founded, the Universal Zulu Nation. The emphasis of the analysis is on his overcoming of material borderlands, interventions in cultural knowing, and forming of hybrid identities with reference to the vitality of religion. This methodology not only intimates pragmatic epistemologies that elucidate transmissions of knowledge and ethics across geographic landscapes but also fosters a more general framework of social analysis regarding shared human heritages. An evaluation of how Zulu horizons operate between local communities and global cultures demonstrates how interreligious dialogue and polyethnic belongings that extend across transnational spiritualties and societies signify ways of transgressing difference and sameness within ideological systems. After a discussion of cultural hermeneutics as a mode of interpreting the histories of ontology and Otherness to obtain a basis for understanding peripheral societies and faiths, the article then investigates how the Zulu Nation belongs to an Afrocentric pluralist tradition within those constellations of ideas and ideals, before the conclusion focuses on the way recent allegations of Bambaataa’s sexual assault affect his legacy of social consciousness for scholars of contemporary religion. |
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| ISSN: | 1469-9419 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of contemporary religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/13537903.2020.1864105 |