Politics of the Rhythm: Unpacking Winky D’s Eureka Eureka Album

This chapter aims to critically investigate and explore the contradictions and the contestations that play out within the public and political discourses of Zimbabwean sonic geography with regard to the societal role of the musician. Accordingly, this has been brought into sharp focus after the latest release of a politically charged and socially conscious music album titled Eureka Eureka by Zimdancehall artist Winky D. Therefore, the lyrical content of Eureka Eureka together with the musicianship and artistic performances of Winky D will form the centrepiece of this theoretical examination into the aesthetic that underpins the politics of the sonic within the soundscape of Zimdancehall. Accordingly, this chapter, by incorporating some of the theoretical arguments of Henri Lefebvre’s rhythm analysis and that of Kjetil Bohler’s scholarship on rhythm politics, will argue that: Firstly, political messaging in the sonicscape of Zimbabwe is a tradition that has existed since time immemorial. Secondly, the sonicscape of Zimbabwe has always been characterised by two ideologically and diametrically opposed camps, that is, the pro-establishment camp against the anti-establishment camp. Thirdly, the ethnomusicology of the Zimdancehall has been primarily turbo-charged by the pent-up rage and frustrations of the socially and economically dislocated ghettoised subalterns. Fourthly, Winky D as a musician-activist pedagogue is effectively tapping into that pent-up rage and desperation, transmogrifying it into a potent form of political messaging and social consciousness, and as a form of resistance from below against the establishment. Finally, I will unpack the state-orchestrated cancel culture, de-platforming and censorship campaigns against rebel and anti-establishment music.