On the topic

This talk addresses the dissemination and practice of African, African American and Afro-Caribbean musics in Yugoslavia in the period 1961-1989. In particular, it looks at the musical activities and productions of students from African countries who moved to Yugoslavia thanks to scholarships within the Non-Aligned Movement. The co-presence of different genres ranging from “traditional African music” to funk and reggae among these students and the local communities shows the cosmopolitanism and interconnectedness of both African artistic practices and Yugoslav society. Considering the variety of musical genres and models of a Black matrix that circulated in the context of Yugoslavia, diverse musical productions and the accompanying discourses and representations are examined.

Linda Cimardi is currently leading the DFG-funded project “Black Musics in the (Former) Yugoslav Region”. She holds a PhD from the University of Bologna and has been a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Berlin and a Guest Researcher at the University of 
Performing Arts (KUG) in Graz. Besides various articles in peer-reviewed journals, her publications include the monograph Performing Arts and Gender in Postcolonial Western Uganda (University of Rochester Press 2023) and Women’s Leadership in Music (co-edited with Iva Nenić, Transcript 2023).