Unit 1 Group Blog Writing Assignment #1: Graceland During Apartheid

Activities:

In this blog folder, first watch the documentary on Paul Simons album Graceland, then read the interview with musician Steven Van Zandt before writing your blog entry.

Writing Prompt:

Near the end of the Graceland documentary, Simon credits his album with raising awareness of apartheid globally, ultimately helping to end it. While on the one hand it is an arrogant statement that may appear to devalue the struggle of South Africans and their foreign allies against apartheid, a struggle which Simon showed little if any interest in initially (see the Steven Van Zandt interview), and a struggle that some South Africans paid for with their lives. But Simons album was so successful that there is arguably some truth in his statement. In our lecture we watched a video of isicathamiya group Ladysmith Black Mambazo (LBM) perform on American television in the late 1980s, when apartheid was still in effect in South Africa and future president Nelson Mandela was still imprisoned. It is unquestionable that LBM, who have toured the world for over 25 years, recorded numerous albums, and won three Grammy awards, would not have been successful outside of South Africa had they not been tapped to collaborate with Simon on his album. (When was the last time you saw African music on television, or heard an African group in the radio?) What this assignment asks is, do the good ends of the Graceland project justify the boycott-breaking means? In other words, could Simons prominent ignoring of a United Nations boycott be forgiven because of what resulted from his project (a
good record, a record deal for LBM, increased visibility for South African music, etc.)? Or should he have been taken to task for breaking the boycott for personal gain? Do you believe Simon has whitewashed his history of breaking the boycott, or was he genuinely motivated by the belief that art and politics should not mix? Or is Steven Van Zandt correct about art being politics? What did South African
guitarist Ray Phiri have to say about this in the beginning of the Graceland documentary? How do you imagine you would feel if you were a Black South African during this era? If you were a musician during this era and Simon invited you to accompany him to South Africa, would you take the opportunity or pass? Why or why not? Can you think of a similar example from more recent history?

Essay Assignment: Using the above ideas regarding either positive or negative assessments of the Graceland project, describe your opinions regarding Paul Simons choice to break the United Nations boycott to record in South Africa. Students may choose to view Simons recording project positively, negatively, or both. The important thing to do to fulfill the assignment is to 1) evaluate Simons project (positive, negative, mixed) and then 2) support your opinion (you may use the class materials as well as your own experiences, knowledge, ideas, or preferences). Importantly, this is a reflection and opinion paper, not a research paper. There is no single correct answer here, but move beyond saying you like or

Music 345: World Music in Contemporary Life

dont like something to explain why. If, in the end, you feel ambivalent about the Graceland project, explain your ambivalence and demonstrate an awareness of positive or negative viewpoints of the subject as expressed by the people in the class materials or from some other sources. Use any of the questions raised in the writing prompt above as a point of departure, but do not feel that you have to answer all of them; there are too many. Rather, think of the questions above as a menu from which you may select any to discuss in your blog post.

The assignment is worth 10 points. You will be graded on content (4 points), writing (4 points), and comments/discussion contribution (2 points for writing at least two comments).

Specific Guidelines:

Assignment length: ~250 words. Write your blog post/mini-essay in a word processing program, back it up, edit it, proofread it, then when ready, submit/upload it to the Blog 1 link (see blog supplement for upload instructions).

• Do write in complete sentences, in clear, solid prose.

• You may write in the first or third person.

• Feel free to write personally, but not informally (i.e., avoid overly casual

  language, slang, profanity, etc.).

• Introduce and conclude your essay (introduction and conclusion sentence)

• If you refer to class readings or topics, do not summarize readings or video;

  the writing assignment is too brief to go into much summary; summary is not the focus of the assignment. You may use films scenes for examples, but the examples should only support your ideas/opinions.

• All ideas and quotations that are not your own must be properly cited to follow standard academic procedure and avoid breaches of the Honor Code (you may any citation style as long as you are consistent in its application). It is not a requirement of the assignment that you include outside sources, but any sources that you do use must be cited.

• Do not go over the word limit by more than 10%

• dont forget to comment on at least two other blog posts in your blog group;

  comments should be 2-3 sentences.

  Access and Deadlines:

  Post your work in a timely manner for the benefit of exchange of ideas; if you post and comment late, chances are few will read your work (except for me).