By Correspondent
You can argue as much as you want about Jah Prayzah’s video but facts around the artistry of this well-done video will remain.
We all know that it is the nature of music, as a form of artistic expression, to be related to human emotions and sexualities.
There is nothing new here! Sexuality is inextricably linked to music and performance, especially in our consumeristic and commercial society. In a culture where we have Mbende!
A very naughty and sexual dance and music that was indeed changed name from Mbende to Jerusalem all because of that royal visit from Buckingham Palace. We saw the shift of our fetility(mbende) and warrior (muchongoyo) dance costumes and music lyrics to suit the taste of the royal visitors!
From their original look of bare tops and bare feet covered by animal skins tied I different styles appearing massive like warriors.
The dancers were asked to wear leopard print vest made of cloth black shorts under the “Mbikiza”and black tennis shoes “aka” maTommy just to make the now late queen feel comfortable. Fast forward to date it still seems like we continue to hate ourselves as a people! Forgetting that “Aita Chake ndiHombarume”.
Art and creative expression have always made up our social and sensitive nature, from telling stories, to performing traditional dances, to painting scenes of human experience on cave walls. “Domboshava” Fast forward to date our cave walls have changed. Motion picture is the new cave walls.
Times have changed with that alone the internet and cable TV etc we are prone to move with time.
A well-known visual artist way back when once claimed that ‘sex and art are the same thing’ and another artist had his Sublimation theory suggested that ‘true’ artists made artwork out of an excess of sexual energy and highlighted the link between music and sex, arguing in The Descent of Man, that ‘musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male and female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex’.
Along the same lines as the male peacock’s colourful feather tail, the male songbird develops a large repertoire of (technically useless but attention-catching) songs in order to best attract a mate.
Fast forward to date with the ever-increasing sexualisation of these mass forms of media, it becomes vital that we pay attention to the way all genders are portrayed and YES, we should call out when the power dynamic is unbalanced and could fuel the fire, or be even more damaging, to cultural and social perceptions of gender roles.
As a dynamic and evolving art-form With that said I think Jah Prayzah video is a good opportunity to spark debates about sexuality, relationships and gender dynamics.
In my own opinion it is not the sexual nature of music that is damaging but the way this is often manipulated and made to reinforce male-female stereotypes.
Zimbabweans home and away need real entertainment on a competitive level and Jah Prayzah has been consistent!
Muroverei manja Wagwizi!
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