And still they dance and sing : the significance and meaning of Swazi women's traditional songs

Abstract

Patriarchy, capitalism and colonisation have intersected in the struggle to maintain control over women. These forces have also intersected to reproduce and sustain structures that largely promote European culture. The conservation of these systems is developed and maintained in educational, political, economic and cultural locations. This study explores how, in the face of such forces, the Swazi people could critically preserve their culture while awakening women's critical consciousness of their traditional subservient status in the Swazi society.

In this thesis, Swazi rural women's traditional songs are recorded partly as a way to communicate women's experiences and, in so doing, to interrupt patriarchal relations. The songs in this study are also used to increase awareness of Swazi rural women's status and their truly radical role in society. The songs are also used to awaken our identity consciousness as a necessary means to preserve Swazi culture.

To achieve the goals of this study, these songs should be merged into the school curriculum where they may tell stories of women's lives, experiences, contributions and concerns. By using the formal school curriculum, schools are recognized not just as an ideological state apparatus successfully used to promote European culture but also as possible places of struggle that could be used to promote Swazi culture as well. To actualize this possibility, Paulo Freire's concept of critical literacy is suggested as a means by which Swazi rural women, school-going children and teachers may develop a critical consciousness in which social realities of patriarchy, capitalism and colonialism are recognised and addressed critically.