Language Syncretism and the Expression of Youth Identities in Zimbabwe Urban Grooves Music

Introduction

The term syncretism is derived from the Greek word for the unification of different forms (often linguistic and religious) (Wade, 1995). Hence, it has been defined as denoting a fusion of two distinct traditions to produce a new and distinctive whole (Ashcroft, Griffiths, & Tiffin, 1998, p. 229; Wade, 1995, p. 4) or what Barber (1987, p. 40) calls a “qualitatively new form.” Barber (1987) cites syncretism as a major characteristic of popular arts in Africa as they are products of intercultural encounters that tap into both indigenous (hinterland) and imported (metropolitan) elements to express and negotiate “their real social position at the point of articulation of two worlds” (p. 14). Thus, anything syncretic according to Barber (1987) “almost automatically qualifies as popular” (p. 12). This article presents the Zimbabwe urban grooves music as a syncretic musical and popular art form that emerged and developed within various forms of intercultural encounters and interactions that are key to understanding the genre’s syncretism.

The Zimbabwe urban grooves music—an urban contemporary musical genre popular with the urban youth—fuses digitally local and global rhythms and beats. Predominantly Afro diasporic genres such as Jamaican dancehall and the Euro-American soul, rhythm and blues (R&B) and rap are appropriated by the youthful artists who add a local flavor by singing chiefly in Shona and Ndebele (the two indigenous majority languages in Zimbabwe) about the lived experiences of the contemporary Zimbabwean people (Bere, 2008; Chari, 2009; Kellerer, 2013; Manase, 2011; Mate, 2012; Viriri, Viriri, & Chapwanya, 2011). Chari (2009) argues that urban grooves negotiates with global cultural texts to suit the Zimbabwean context and to reflect on the contemporary Zimbabwean reality. The syncretism in urban grooves music can be further deciphered in relation to the diffuse nature and adaptability of hip-hop music and how it has “travelled” to many places and become a distinct local genre (Bere, 2008; Mate, 2012). The resultant local genre has been adapted to reflect the local conditions of young people (De Block & Buckingham, 2007, p. 178) through a process that Robertson (1995) calls “glocalisation.” Bere (2008) thus defines urban grooves music as Zimbabwean hip-hop music that localizes the global. The birth of the genre corresponds with the institution of new media laws by the government of Zimbabwe through the then Minister of Information and Publicity, Jonathan Moyo. Moyo instituted the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) in 2001 which legislated a 75% local content which was further pushed to 100% content on Zimbabwean radio and TV (Bere, 2008; Chari, 2009; Manase, 2009; Mate, 2012; Viriri et al., 2011). This legislation encouraged Zimbabwean youth, most of whom were unemployed due to the down spiraling economy, to join the local music scene as urban groovers and produce music that defined and expressed urban youth identities, cultural practices, and experiences.

Previous research on language use in urban grooves music has focused mainly on lexical formations in the form of urban slang (Manase, 2011; Siziba, 2009; Veit-Wild, 2009) or what Mate (2012) calls “street language.” The four scholars pay attention on the subversive characteristics of the slang or street language. Manase (2009) adds that the subversiveness in urban grooves music is also demonstrated in the fusion of Shona and Ndebele languages with the “United States of America and other foreign” musical forms. This undermines the Zimbabwean government’s nationalist rhetoric that it sought to promote through the locally produced urban grooves as a mainstream musical genre. Research by Mugari (2014) focuses on code switching in urban grooves and argues that it is used by urban groovers to identify with their youth fans who practice code switching in their daily discourses. This article identifies and considers the different fusions in lexical formations as language syncretism. The analysis goes further to focus on how the language resonates with Zimbabwean youth experiences, practices, and identities. The analysis reveals that the youthful urban groovers transcend national borders even for their figurative language sources as they tap into global cultural practices that influence Zimbabwean youth lived experiences and practices. This article therefore posits that language syncretism plays a major role in offering urban groovers numerous opportunities to create and achieve desired effect in their music and especially in the expression of Zimbabwean youth identities and lived experiences as they interact with the global.

It is also important to note here that the term youth relates to a complex categorization as it has been subject to varied definitions and use. The word youth has often been used in relation to age group but it has proven difficult to reach a consensus as to which age group should be identified as such. The Western world categorizes youth as aged 24 and below and yet for Africans (Zimbabwe included) the category goes beyond the age 30 because of perennial economic problems that have prolonged youth’s economic dependence on the older generation (Kumavie, 2015). Studies on youth culture have thus reconceptualized youth as a social concept shaped by macro social forces (Steinberg, 2006). Kumavie (2015) argues that youth are social products of the specific environments in which they live. Thus, in this research, the term youth is not used in relation to a specific age group, but focus is on high school urban youth in impoverished residential townships who are significantly influenced and identify with urban grooves music and with the lived socioeconomic experiences that inform the music.

The analysis of language syncretism in this research involves a textual analysis of urban grooves musical texts. The textual analysis is complimented with data gathered from the group interviews held in June and July 2016 with youth in four schools situated in Zimbabwe’s capital city—Harare and the dormitory town of Chitungwiza where the music has its roots and is dominant. ¹ Reference is also made to interviews we held in Harare and Chitungwiza with players in the urban grooves music industry who included musicians, music producers, and promoters. In the referencing of interviewees in this study, ethical considerations for anonymity were made; hence, the respondents are identified with code names. We make reference to the respondents’ answers on questions that were related to the language used in urban grooves music and their perceptions on its significance. In addition, the textual analysis of music texts focuses on Shona songs because urban groovers predominantly sing in Shona and we also consider that interviews for the research were done in Harare and Chitungwiza which are chiefly Shona-speaking areas.

Finally, the analysis is informed by popular culture theories. Edgar and Sedwick (2008) view popular culture as an important source for identity formation. They posit that popular culture may refer to individual artifacts (texts) such as songs and television programmers to a group’s lifestyle, and that these serve to establish the group’s distinctive identity. However, one cannot ignore that popular culture is a primary source of entertainment and pleasure (Duncan, 2009). Popular culture theories are thus applied in this research to examine the manner in which language syncretism in urban grooves resonates with Zimbabwean youth identities, experiences, and entertainment practices. We also draw from Potter’s (1995) concept of resistance vernaculars. We characterize syncretic language formations in urban grooves as innovative and resistant formations that defy limitations of conventional languages and language rules. We therefore utilize the concept of resistance vernaculars to explore the different ways in which urban groovers creatively use language in their presentation of youth identities and cultural practices.

The Nature of Language Syncretism in Urban Grooves Music

Language syncretism emanates from historical contacts between people from different linguistic backgrounds and how they influenced each other linguistically. Earlier forms of such languages were creoles that developed in plantation colonies as a result of the contacts between European and non-European languages during the period of the slave trade. Such creoles developed into the first languages of the people who used them (Mufwene, 2010). A similar situation of language contact exists in contemporary Africa, interestingly in the form of urban slangs that are popular among the urban youth and whose cultural significance, as observed by Veit-Wild (2009), is that they often contain subversive elements and can be considered as anti-languages. ² These languages include Isicamtho and Tsotsitaal that developed in South Africa from the blending of African languages, English and Afrikaans; Sheng which is a mixture of Swahili and English that is spoken in Nairobi, and Camfranglais which is spoken in urban Cameroon and fuses French, English, and African languages (Veit-Wild, 2009). In addition to creoles and urban slang, contacts between different languages have also influenced code switching as speakers consciously and unconsciously use more than one language in a conversation (Veit-Wild, 2009). In Zimbabwe, which is a multilingual and multiethnic country, exposure of people to different languages, mainly the indigenous languages and English, influences code switching. However, the languages used in code switching have not transformed into first languages of the people who use them as in the case of creoles nor have they developed into the speakers’ lingua franca as in the case of the urban slangs such as Isicamtho and Tsotsitaal (Veit-Wild, 2009).

Music is an important cultural repertoire that utilizes language for the expression of the identities and cultural experiences of the people that it represents. wa Thiong’o (1987) argues in relation to this that language carries culture and vice versa and that to speak a language is to express a culture. Consequently, the Zimbabwe urban grooves musicians have utilized language in their music to express the identities, life experiences, and cultural practices of the Zimbabwean people, especially the youth whom they mainly represent in their music. That language plays a major role in urban grooves music is mainly evidenced by the huge creativity, improvisations, and transformations that are involved in the language that is employed by urban groovers in their musical texts. This creativity assists the urban groovers in their attempts to evade the rigidities and limitations of standard languages, fulfill their desired intentions and interconnect their musical productions with youth experiences, practices, and identities. Siyachitema (2014) observes the role that urban grooves has played in transforming indigenous Zimbabwean languages, especially Shona, which is the language used by the majority of the urban grooves musicians. He posits that Shona has taken on an artistic form and undergone a language transformation as a result of the advent of urban grooves music. However, the English language has not been spared from the language improvisations and transformations. Some urban groovers appropriate some English words and phrases in their musical lyrics and this is often done in novel ways that often involve slang formations, “tampering” with the meanings of the English words and their grammatical structures, often fusing the words with Shona prefixes and suffixes. Such language transformations are analogous to the language of American hip-hop identified by Potter (1995) as a form of “resistance vernacular” that takes the minor language’s variation and redefinition of the major language a step further and deforms and repositions the rules of intelligibility set up by the dominant language (p. 78). Morant (2011) notes similar characteristics of resistance in the language of funk music—a social protest discourse of the poor and working-class Black American youth that emerged after the euphoria of the civil rights movement had faded. Morant (2011) adds that the “work of funk musicians recognised language as a form of social control, and therefore ended their blind consent to being manipulated through language by developing a counter discourse” (p. 73). This resonates with Mate’s (2012) analysis of the subversion of the Shona language in urban grooves music through the use of slang and how the slang has become an effective means used by urban groovers to challenge intergenerational sexual relationships and gerontocratic Zimbabwean discourses. The analysis of language utilization in Zimbabwe urban grooves music in this article, however, goes further than Mate’s. It considers various forms of syncretic language formations employed in urban grooves, and how syncretic musical forms become spaces for the articulation of youth identities and lived experiences in the context of global intercultural encounters and linkages.

Language syncretism in urban grooves music is characterized by the interweaving of different forms of languages, mainly Shona, English, and slang, as the musicians constantly shift from one form of language to another in the lyrics, albeit through code switching. However, the language syncretism in the musical genre is seen in more than just language use in its literal sense as it is also evident in the figurative speech employed by the musicians. Shona figurative speech is interwoven with metaphoric expressions, similes, symbols, allusions, and images drawn from the youthful musicians and their youth fans’ interaction with the global and contemporary cultural practices. As a result, most of the musicians have become innovative as noted in the way they create their own figures of speech and not limit themselves to use of the traditional and conventional ones. Thus, this analysis of language syncretism focuses on that syncretism demonstrated mainly through code switching and figurative expressions.

Code Switching

Code switching has become more prominent in contemporary Zimbabwe where people consume global products and engage in global activities on a daily basis due to opportunities accorded by the growth of information communication technologies (ICTs). It is through such global interactions that contemporary youths, who are the main users of the new media and ICTs, have come to actively interact in ways that impact their identities and cultures. Zimbabwean youth employ code switching in ways that intersect with their lived experiences and practices. The Zimbabwean youth often practice code switching in their daily interactions due to exposure to both English and their own first languages. The youth use English at institutions of learning where it is the medium of instruction. They usually resort to use of their first languages at home or during informal school situations. The employed youth also use English as the official language at work and their first languages in informal situations. Some linguists, however, distinguish the use of different languages in a linguistic text between code switching and code mixing. Mashiri (2002) points out that in code mixing, the embedded language (EL) elements which have their own internal structure occur in the sentence of the main language (ML), obeying the placement rule of the ML as in the example “Ndipe makey angu!” (“Give me my keys!”) (p. 247). The English noun “key” is embedded into Shona and is made to follow the Shona grammatical construction where the plural prefix “ma-” is added to “key” to create concordial agreement between the plural “makey” (“keys”) and the plural possessive “angu” (“my”). In code switching, however, elements of both the ML and the EL maintain the morphological and phonological attributes of the respective languages (Mashiri, 2002) as noted in the example, “Come and collect your books, ndapedza kumaverenga” (Come and collect your books, I have finished reading them) (p. 247). Thus, while acknowledging that there is use of both code mixing and code switching in urban grooves music, this analysis, however, does not concentrate on the distinction between the two terms. Mashiri (2002) observes that the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably; hence, we adopt the term code switching and concentrate on showing how urban grooves musicians alternate between using different words and phrases from Shona, English, and slang, as well as fuse English words with Shona prefixes and/or suffixes and vice versa.

Although code switching is a widespread communicative resource among Zimbabwean youth bilinguals and/[multilinguals] (Mashiri, 2002), we are of the view that urban grooves music has made code switching much more popular. It is a prominent motif in urban grooves music. Mugari (2014) observes that code switching has become an urban grooves music style that makes the music reach out to a huge audience, especially the urban youth who practice code switching as well. However, it can be argued that code switching is also used by Zimbabwe urban grooves musicians to reach out to wider audiences including those from other countries. Hence, collaborative singing between urban grooves musicians and musicians from other African countries has recently become popular. A good example is Trevor Dongo’s “African Girl” (2015), which features the local Soul Jah Love (Soul Musaka) and Zambian musician Shyman Shaizo who brings in Zambian Nyanja in the song. “African Girl,” a love song that embodies a message of courtship weaves together Shona, Nyanja, English, and some form of pidgin or “Vernacular English” (Potter, 1995) that resemble the pidgins most popular in contemporary Nigerian youth music and related to the “Vernacular English” used in American hip-hop. More importantly, the themes of love and courtship central to the song “African Girl” are crucial youth practices and experiences. That the song is titled “African Girl” instead of “Zimbabwean Girl” denotes the shared perceptions of love, courtship, and what it means to be a “typical African girl” that the African audiences targeted by the song can identify with. Thus, language syncretism through code switching, as Mugari (2014) notes, has enabled urban grooves musicians to reach out to and identify with their fans. The process of identity construction in this instance of musicians’ identification with their fans through code switching can be best described by appropriating what Hall (1996) describes as the concept of identification that is “constructed on the back of a recognition of some common origin or shared characteristics with another person or group, or with an ideal, and with the natural closure of solidarity . . .” (p. 2). However, through code switching, urban grooves musicians find opportunities to reach out to wider audiences and identify with regional and global youth music cultures, practices, sensibilities, and lived experiences. This resonates with Marsh and Petty’s (2011) research on use of Sheng in Kenyan hip-hop, a language that has allowed youth musicians to disrupt ethnic and tribal linguistic divisions and connect with youth across Kenya.

Urban grooves, especially songs that are influenced by rap and Jamaican dancehall, involve a lot of rhyme, rhythmic sounds, and movements. Henriques (2014) argues that rhythm is the key element in dancehall and nowhere is its importance more evident than on the dancehall scene. Most urban groovers utilize the flexible word combinations in language syncretism for creation of rhyme and rhythm in their music. Such songs have, however, been often criticized especially by older people for prioritizing rhyme creation and lacking content. However, a closer analysis of the youth audiences’ reception of the songs reveals how the songs resonate with youth sensibilities and aspirations. A case in point is Soul Jah Love who was the most favorite artist among the youth we interviewed for this research and is a celebrated urban grooves (Zimdancehall) musician well known for his lyrical creativity and prowess. His creativity is closely linked with his use of code switching for rhyme and aesthetic and popular pleasure. Hence, he has been described as a “full-time entertainer” ³ owing to the pleasurable rhymes that are created in his music. The songs “This Time Havateri” (“This time they will not follow”) (2013), “Magetsi” (“Electricity”) (2015), and “Musombodhiya” (a colloquial term which refers to an alcoholic substance) (2015) are all dominated by rhymes which run throughout the songs as Soul Jah Love switches from Shona to English and slang. This is best exemplified in the following lyrics from “Magetsi”: “nemangoma ndichatotenga boat/ kana goat/ kana kunokupinza mucourt” (with music I will buy a boat/ or a goat/ or send you to court). Some youth interviewed for this study revealed that when they listen to urban grooves music they do not necessarily prioritize the message in a song but are captivated and entertained by the language that artists use and how they sometimes create “tongue twisters” and “punch-lines” in the lyrics. This is revealed by a youth respondent in the following: “[in my choice of music, I consider] the beat, how good the lyrics are and the punch lines, the singer must sing in a captivating way and capture my attention” (ZHR1, personal communication, June 24, 2016). This explains why youth identify with songs by musicians such as Soul Jah Love that employ rhyme for aesthetic pleasure through code switching. Code switching in urban grooves is thus a popular culture phenomenon that has become an important domain of pleasure and fun (Duncan, 2009) especially for youth who turn to music for mindless relaxation and entertainment.

Slang is popular in code switching as observed in urban grooves and in youth talk. There is a lot of innovation involved in slang as new words are at times invented, while the available words are sometimes transformed to carry new meanings through a process that Paveda (2006) calls “lexical innovation.” It is in such instances that those who are not familiar with the words or those who are not part of the group that uses such words find it difficult to understand the messages conveyed. Paveda expostulates that lexical innovation can at times be excluding to those who are not part of a group; hence, it takes place within the context of activities that youth participate in as part of their identity construction. Similarly, Veit-Wild (2009) posits that code switching is part of a social dialect that distinguishes people according to their social classes, ethnic groups, gender, or age. It is important to note here how slang formations are often an influence of the interaction between different languages and involve the interweaving of words from different languages, as noted in the way Shona prefixes and suffixes are blended with English and Ndebele words. For example, the word “muface” (friend) and its variant “chiface” (some kind of nepotism) has become so popular in daily youth talk and appears in most urban grooves songs, as revealed in Winky D (Wallace Chirumiko)’s “Vashakabvu” (“The Deceased”) (2013) and “Independent Woman” (2015), in Stunner (Desmond Chideme)’s “Godo” (“Jealous”) (2011) and Soul Jah Love’s “Magetsi” (2015). The word combines the Shona singular noun prefix “mu-” and the English “face” to refer to a friend. Although “muface” might have been drawn from the idea of “one whose face is familiar to . . .,” there is no relationship between the word “face” and friend; hence, “face” assumes a different meaning in “muface.” The other slang words that have infiltrated the urban grooves music include “mudhara” (“old man”) drawn from the Ndebele word “umdala” for old man, “skiri” (skill) and “kusaiza” (to reduce to size as in reduce or downgrade someone) borrowed from the English word “size.” The words “madhanzi” (borrowed from English dances), “mustaera” (Borrowed from English, being in style), and “swag” (English slang for fashionable or trendy) featured much into the interviews we had with youth and were significantly used by the youth to express their identities and practices. This is evident in the following statement by a youth interviewee (MHR3, personal communication, June 20, 2016): “Winky D sings that ‘kana usina bhachi rejean wakasara’ (‘if you do not have a jean jacket you are backward’), which shows that a fan of Winky D would want ‘kupinda mustaera’ (‘to be in style’).” Thus, the slang words that have permeated both urban grooves music and youth discourses make part of the language syncretism that is an influence of different languages that youth come into contact with. Most importantly, these words are embedded in youth experiences and practices that shape their identities.

As noted earlier, the growth of ICTs contributes significantly to the practice of code switching among Zimbawean youth. Veit-Wild’s (2009) research in which she links code switching with activities related to the electronic media and exchange of cellular telephony messages is instructive. She relates syncretic lexical formations to the popular practice of adding Shona prefixes and suffixes to English words related to media technologies and practices of faxing (ku-fax-ir-an-a), emailing (ku-email-ir-an-a), and texting (ku-text-ir-an-a). However, one notes that language syncretism through code switching is also prominent where global technologies or concepts are involved, and usually in such instances, the products or concepts get introduced and popularized through their English terms, such that there would be no Shona equivalents or the Shona equivalents may seem so remote, whereas the English words become more accessible. Usually in such instances, Shona borrows the English term but translates it into the Shona phonemic system. Veit-Wild (2009) calls these words, which include “tekinoroji” adapted from “technology,” adaptive words. In some instances the English word may be used in its pure form or Shona prefixes and suffixes may be added. This explains why words such as “video,” “video tapes,” salad, and TV are used in EX-Q (Enock Munhenga)’s Shona lyrics in the song “Salala” (2000) (a word derived from salad that is used to ridicule snobbish or westernized youths). The other words include “remote” (as in a remote control device) in the song “Mudendere” (“In the nest”) (2015) by Doba Don (Dumalisisle Mehlomakulu), “mabatteries” (“batteries”), “macomputer” (“computers”), “parecord” (“vinyl record”) and “muiPod” (“in the iPod”) in Winky D’s “Vashakabvu” (2013), and “mafans” (“fans”) in Shinsoman (Tinashe Romeo Antony)’s “Mawa-waya” (“Hundred dollar notes”) (2013). Therefore, language syncretism through code switching has become a popular culture phenomenon in urban grooves music that resonates with lived experiences and practices of youth enhanced by their interaction with global products and practices that were conceived and marketed in foreign or English discourses.

Our analysis above shows that there are a variety of reasons why code switching has permeated the daily languages of urban youth in Zimbabwe and urban grooves music. However, Veit-Wild (2009) argues that the most prominent motif for switching, particularly from vernacular languages to English, is to enhance one’s status since English is regarded as the language of sophistication and a sign of being hip. Although we agree with Veit-Wild that the English language is associated with urbanity and status, we consider the argument that social status is the most prominent motif for switching from Shona to English to be an overstatement. English words have become part of Zimbabwean people’s, especially the youth’s, daily conversations, regardless of their status. Zimbabwe urban grooves singers who switch to English in an attempt to be hip often do so with an anglicized accent. Examples are found in Stunner’s songs especially where he tries to spite his rivals and in Ex-Q’s “Salala” where the persona claims that he is trendy and demonstrates this by switching from Shona to English and using an anglicized accent. However, most of the urban grooves musicians’ code switching from Shona to English does not exhibit anglicized accents and hence we argue that it is utilized for other reasons. Winky D is a typical example of a singer who constantly switches from Shona to English in his songs but, as reflected by his manager, Jonathan Banda, Winky D hails from the impoverished residential townships popularly known as ghettoes in urban grooves, and sings about real issues about “ghetto youth” (Banda cited by Katiyo, 2011). His songs, “Survivor” (2015) and “Copyrights” (2015), which are dominated by Shona lyrics, both bear English titles and use code switching to detail the contemporary economic hardships and adversities that Zimbabwean “ghetto youth” face and how they try to transcend and survive such hardships. Code switching has accorded musicians such as Winky D numerous opportunities to let out and express daily youth struggles, anger, emotions, hopes, and aspirations without being limited by monolithic languages or the restrictions and formal rules of standard Shona (see Mate, 2012) or English. Therefore, unlike Veit-Wild’s claim that switching from vernacular languages to English enhances one’s status, we underline that code switching is a “language of resistance” (Potter, 1995) through which the urban youth challenge the status quo.

The Figurative Language of Urban Grooves

Musicians, just as poets and other creative writers, use a variety of figures of speech. Potter (1995) explains how figurative language is an important part of hip-hop music and asserts that signifying is an important trope in the music as well as that its most central trope is the sly exchange of the literal for the figurative. Similarly, figurative language holds an important place in urban grooves music and it can be argued that many of those who miss the messages embodied in urban grooves and criticize the genre for lack of content do not see beyond the literal level of meanings expressed in the lyrics. Although Shona has its own traditional figures of speech, urban grooves musicians have not limited themselves to use of only the conventional figures of speech. They often use their creative potential to come up with their own figures of speech drawn from their lived and cultural encounters. They also draw from global practices as contact with the global due to the compression or intensification of our spatial and temporal worlds (Giddens, 1990; Harvey, 1989) has influenced them to tap into the global for the creation of their figures of speech. Hence, the language syncretism in this instance involves “telescoping global and local [figures of speech] to make a blend” (Robertson, 1995, p. 28).

The song “Mudendere” (2015) by Doba Don typically synthesizes traditional Shona figures of speech with “modern” ones. The song’s message is centered on what Doba Don metaphorically expresses as “kufadza ndyere” which literally means “to make the mind happy” and represents different practices people engage in for mental stress relief. “Kufadza ndyere” can thus be considered as a typical youth practice associated with the majority of the struggling and unemployed Zimbabwean youth and how they resort to different relaxation activities, both good and bad, to try and cope with their everyday struggles. The song further recounts how some people want to live autonomous lives and be on top of every situation. However, Doba Don draws his figures of speech from contemporary and global concepts and practices. He sings

Mumwe haadi kushandisa nemunhu kunge remote One does not want to be used like a remote

Anoda kufloater pazvinhu fanika boat He/she wants to float on things like a boat

Unoda kumira kumberi kunge judge mucourt You want to stand in front like a judge in court

“Being used like a remote control device,” to “float on things like a boat” and to “stand in front like a judge in court” are all similes used to express the idea of freedom and autonomy but Doba Don visualizes these ideas from his interaction with “modern” and/or contemporary cultural practices and global technology products. Doba Don goes on to explain how it is important for one to have a sense of belonging and preserve it, what he calls “kurarama mudendere” as expressed in the title of the song. “Dendere” (a nest) is an important symbol and metaphor in the Shona tradition that is often used to allude to the possession of a sense of belonging and to show the importance of territorial possession and preservation. This significance is expressed in the idiom “shiri yakangwara inovaka dendere rayo mvura isati yaturuka” (a clever bird builds its nest before the coming of the rains) and the proverb “mudzimu weshiri uri mudendere” (the powers of the bird lie in its nest). Aspirations for freedom, autonomy, and the search for a sense of belonging are typical practices that interconnect with youth identities and resistant cultures. Doba Don sings about these by fusing the local and/or traditional with the global and/or “modern” metaphors and in the process represent youth everyday cultures and identities that are constructed at the intersection between the global and the local. This serves as evidence to demonstrate how language syncretism plays a significant role in the expression of youth identities and experiences.

Winky D is one musician who, in representing youth identities and experiences, has successfully refused to be limited by conventional figures of speech. What is most interesting about his language use is the dominance of quotidian metaphors and similes that resonate with local and global youth experiences, and practices and products that the youth use every day. In the song “Woshora” (“You do not appreciate”) (2015), Winky D recounts the joys associated with the end of winter and how the youth embrace summer as it is conducive for partying in open spaces with the female youth dressed accordingly, in short summer dresses. The hot summer weather is compared with the heat from an oven through the simile, “kurikupisa kunge oven.” Winky D warns the youth against being too much excited by the pleasures of summer and avoid engaging in sexual activities as they risk being infected with sexually transmitted diseases. The spread of sexual infections is compared with how one applies body lotion and spreads it on his/her body in the simile, “ndotya kuzorwa kunge lotion.” Both comparisons make use of quotidian similes drawn from youth everyday practices and the products they use daily; hence, there are resonances between the similes and the performer’s focus on popular entertainment youth practices (partying) and their risks.

Winky D also makes reference to international soccer in the song “Woshora” where he sings that in summer he is expensive to hire just as Fernando Torres who moved from Liverpool to Chelsea in 2011 after Chelsea had bought him for £50 million. ⁴ The Torres simile also connects with popular youth practices as watching both local and international soccer is a popular pastime especially for male youth. This and the other above-cited examples demonstrate how Winky D draws his figures of speech from lived experiences and concepts that his audiences are familiar with. In addition, this enables him to blend these experiences with the global ones that the audiences are familiar with too and thus proving the syncretic quality of his figures of speech and his ability to identify with his audiences and their experiences. This is reminiscent of Barber’s (1987) observation that popular style encompasses vocabulary and language forms that are fresh, simple, unsophisticated, full of life, and should be accessible to a wider range of people as well as appeal to the lowest denominator of comprehension.

In addition to the Torres example above, reference to soccer has become a popular youth culture phenomenon and practice that influences daily language and the coining of new words and phrases. Zenenga (2012) notes that soccer lies at the heart of popular culture in Zimbabwe. Hofmeyer, Nyairo, and Ogude (2010) observe that a major characteristic of popular culture texts is their ability to appeal to a range of situations and to circumstances of everyday life; hence, there is an intersection between the textual and the social (Fiske, 1989). This is true about the phenomenon of soccer and how it has come to influence Zimbabwean youth lived experiences and practices as evident in urban grooves texts. Being faced with obstacles is perceived in relation to being tightly marked during a soccer match (“kusunga play”) as used in “This Time Havateri” by Soul Jah Love and “Tezvara Varamba” (The father in-law has refused) (2012) by Ex-Q and BaShupi (Peace Ndlovu). In addition, outdoing one’s rivals is perceived as getting a penalty shoot as shown in “Kuvarova kunge pena” in Soul Jah Love’s “Magetsi” and success is expressed as goal scoring—“Bhora mumanet ndobva rakena” (and the ball went straight into the net) in Lady Squanda (Sandra Gazi)’s “Ndini Ndega” (“I am the only one”) (2016). The height of soccer influence as a popular culture phenomenon can be seen in how the phenomenon penetrated even the Zimbabwean political field, especially during elections, where voting was conceived in terms of playing soccer and scoring goals. The “bhora musango” (kicking the ball wildly away from the soccer pitch) discourse cost the Zimbabwe African Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) candidate Robert Mugabe crucial votes during the 2008 national elections as some members of parliament within the party clandestinely campaigned against Mugabe whom they perceived as too old and not fit to represent the party. In the 2013 national elections, Robert Mugabe adopted the soccer discourse but inverted it and launched his election manifesto running under the theme “Bhora mugedhe” in Shona or “ibhola egedini” in Ndebele which means “score the ball” (Ncube, 2016). The ordinary Zimbabweans who were opposed to ZANU-PF rule and resented it coined their own subversive “bhora ngariponjeswe” which alludes to deflating the ball. This was both a way of dissuading each other from voting for the party and a symbolic way of resisting ZANU-PF discourses and ideologies.

Winky D’s syncretic figurative language formations are also apparent in the manner in which he taps into both international and local soccer. His reference to the international soccer player, Torres, in “Independent Woman” is blended with reference to local soccer. He makes a pun on the name “Limited” in the simile “handisi limited saChikafa” (I am not limited like Chikafa) by alluding to the former Zimbabwean Caps United footballer and captain Limited Chikafa whose career has gone down the drain. The pun is made by the male persona of the song, who woos a female persona by recounting his abilities using football discourse. As noted earlier, courtship is a common youth practice and language choice is significant in this practice as articulated by an urban grooves music producer in the following:

Every generation have their preferences in terms of what speaks to them and what is relevant to them. Urban grooves would speak about the way we grew up, how we would approach a girl . . . or you like this specific girl . . ., the type of lingo that we would use . . . (P1, personal communication, June 28, 2016)

Thus, as Winky D situates his songs’ lyrics within typical youth practices, he displays the interconnectivity between local and global discourses (Marsh & Petty, 2011) by appropriating syncretic figures of speech drawn from both local and global football discourses and common practices of youth.

Urban grooves artists also make reference to other global popular figures. This referencing indicates how the musicians are influenced by these celebrities, look up to them and endeavor to identify with them. In the song “This Time Havateri,” Soul Jah Love makes reference to the Hollywood actor Samuel Jackson to celebrate his successes in music and in “Magetsi” and “Mari-mari” (“Money-money”), he compares himself with the popular American rapper Jay-Z (Shawn Corey Carter). These global references are related to another common feature of urban grooves, demonstrated especially in music videos, where musicians display materialism, a feature that scholars such as Chari (2009) consider as an influence from Western consumerist values. However, it is important to note at this point how these consumption practices are related to youth lived experiences and how they construct their identities. Psynakova (2012) argues that young people use consumer lifestyles as a means of inclusion and establishing their place especially under the condition of late modernity. Jones (2013) echoes this observation in her analysis of the concept of conspicuous consumption within the South African township youth called Izikhothane. These youth assert their wealth by setting alight sums of money, designer clothes, and shoes worth of thousands of rands (Bambalele, 2012; Jones, 2013)—what Jones (2013) terms “conspicuous destruction.” Jones (2013) interprets such behavior among township youth as a form of commodity display that is less about wealth attained than wealth and belonging aspired to. Jones (2013) argues further that the act of “conspicuous destruction is a double gesture that presses for visibility while registering the ways in which youth struggles against poverty, crime and unemployment are ordinary and acute” (p. 223). Thus, there are resonances here between youth consumption practices and their ordinary or lived experiences and aspirations.

The urban grooves musicians also make allusions and references to Zimbabwean artists in their songs showing how figurative language use in urban grooves is characteristic of the syncretism in the music. This is typically exhibited in the song “Tezvara Varamba” by EX-Q and BaShupi where the two make reference to Zimbabwean music and musicians through intertextual references. The persona refers to various successful Zimbabwean musicians with the aim of trying to make his prospective father-in-law change his negative attitude toward him and the music industry as a whole. Another interesting form of syncretism is seen in the love song “Ndapengeswa Newe” (“You have made me go crazy”) by the duo, Extra Large (Jimmy Mangezi and Norman Manwere) in collaboration with Nox (Enock Guni) and Oskid (Prince Tapfuma) where the four make use of traditional nursery rhymes that are popular with Shona people but “contaminate” the rhymes by fusing a foreign image of love in them. The nursery rhymes “Rure” and “Amina” ⁵ are extended as noted in the persona’s addition of claims that he has a love injection machine to the nursery rhyme. He sings, “amina ju jekiseni/ on your middle section of your heart portion” indicating how he will inject his lover’s heart with the love injection. The “love injection” in the extended nursery rhyme “Amina” is synonymous to Cupid’s arrow from the Roman Greek mythology which is one of the arrows that cupid is supposed to fire from his bow and causes the person struck to fall in love. ⁶ Cupid’s arrow has become a globally recognized symbol of love especially for the youth who commonly practice courtship. Hence, the youthful urban groovers practice language syncretism by drawing from conventional Shona figures of speech and contemporary youth practices and global cultural activities in order to reflect on youth experiences and identities.

Conclusion

Language syncretism plays a significant role in Zimbabwe urban grooves music in the expression of youth identities and experiences and their interconnections with global cultural experiences and practices. The language syncretism is mainly characterized by code switching where urban grooves musicians interweave Shona, English, and slang, in their music. There is syncretism as well at the level of figurative language created through a fusion of metaphors drawn from global encounters and images, and conventional Shona figures of speech as well as figures of speech drawn from contemporary Zimbabwean youth experiences and cultural practices. Thus, there is a lot of innovation involved in language syncretism. This syncretism is achieved through the urban grooves musicians’ resistance to the limitations of conventional figures of speech, constitution of novel ones, and their transformation of both the local Zimbabwean languages and English, in ways that appeal to and identify with the youth who use syncretic language formations as well. Finally, we have argued that language syncretism is a domain for aesthetic pleasure, especially where multilingual rhyme formations are involved, and that it is a popular culture phenomenon that instills the pleasurable to the musicians and their audiences who turn to music for entertainment.