Breaking Rocks: Music, Ideology and Economic Collapse, from Paris to Kinshasa

By Joe Trapido

Based on fieldwork in Kinshasa and Paris, Breaking Rocks examines patronage payments within Congolese popular music, where a love song dedication can cost 6,000 dollars and a simple name check can trade for 500 or 600 dollars. Tracing this system of prestige through networks of musicians and patrons - who include gangsters based in Europe, kleptocratic politicians in Congo, and lawless diamond dealers in northern Angola - this book offers insights into ideologies of power and value in central Africa's troubled post-colonial political economy, as well as a glimpse into the economic flows that make up the hidden side of the globalization.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1789207940
• ISBN13: 9781789207941
• Release Date: September 2020
• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"