Portrayal of Identity and Otherness in Tocky Vibes’ Song ‘Binga’

Abstract

The study focuses on the song and video Binga by Tocky Vibes (Obey Makamure). It engages textual analysis of the Shona lyrics in the portrayal of the identity of others. The researcher interrogates the expression of beauty in women in relation to dress and nakedness. The researcher critiques the mention of nakedness of women in the song. Tocky recklessly offers the example of Binga, a rural district in Zimbabwe, where according to him the people are naked. However, his real message is that he treasures beauty more than clothing. He also regards his spouse as an African queen whose beauty transcends fashionable clothes. However, the context and setting of the music video for the song does not portray naked women in Binga. The women in the video clothed in modern fashionable apparel are not typical Binga women, vanenge vakashama, naked. The theme of African beauty in the song conflicts with the video. The video suggests that clothing has a bearing on women’s beauty, but the women in short dresses with bare bellies and thighs misrepresent the women in Binga. Tocky’s sense of nakedness has been viewed as obscene and socially unacceptable by the Zimbabwean censors who banned it from the airwaves. The song ‘Binga’ will never die but lives forever in spite of the ban on radio and television broadcasting.