Marissa Moorman

Bonga’s Transatlantic Routes

This presentation pulls on one piece of music from Bonga´s Angola 74 album to undo some assumptions about the musician and his music. Less about roots and authenticity, “Ghinawa” charts a trans-Atlantic urban trajectory. If we raise the volume on the history, we can hear the sounds.

Marissa J. Moorman is Associate Professor of African History at Indiana University. She is the author of Intonations: a Social History of Music and Nation in Luanda, 1945-Recent Times (2008) and is currently writing Powerful Frequencies: Radio, State Power and the Cold War in Angola, 1931-2002. She is an editor at the blog Africa is a Country and on the advisory board of the KCL based Ananya Kabir directed project Modern Moves.