A History of African Popular Culture

Karin Barber is a Fellow of the British Academy and Professor Emerita of African Cultural Anthropology at the University of Birmingham. She was appointed CBE in 2012 for services to African studies. She is the author of a number of books and articles on African popular culture, including The Generation of Plays: Yoruba Popular Life in Theatre (2000) and Yoruba Print Culture and the First Yoruba Novel (2012).

• Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. Early popular culture: sources and silences; 3. Mines, migrant labour and township culture; 4. The city and the road; 5. The crowd, the state … and songs; 6. The media: globalisation and deregulation from the 1990s till today; 7. Conceptualising change in African popular culture; Bibliography; Index.

'In chapters packed with sparkling new visions of a field she helped to define a quarter-century ago, Karin Barber's book combines historical depth, careful attention to 'life on the ground', and discussions of popular culture from the whole continent without losing the complexity of each art form. This book is a transformative must-read for anybody with an interest in African everyday cultures.' S. Newell, Yale University, Connecticut