African Dance as an Epistemic Insurrection in Postcolonial Zimbabwean Arts Education Curriculum

Abstract

As the kongonya dance commenced in the backdrop of high-pitched chimurenga1 song, I became barely conscious of my obscure presence amidst the rising thick dust. I remember looking at the bigger dancers and imitating their steps, moves and routines. What I distinctly remember to this day is that both young men and women danced in line formation, with those dancers behind clutching the waists of those ahead of them—man to woman, woman to man—then simultaneously rolling their buttocks exaggeratedly and stamping the ground as they hopped forward till the leading dancer completed a turn and clutched the waist of the last dancer in the line and thus formed a rotating ring (personal recollection by Jairos Gonye, the first author).