Re-collecting the Musical Politics of John and Nokutela Dube

On the occasion of the ANC’s centenary this article analyzes the musical contributions of founding president, John Langalibalele Dube and his first wife, Nokutela Dube. Through an analysis of the sonic metaphors the Dubes used in their speeches and letter-writing I show that the idea of transcribing music was essential to imagining freedom, modernity, and a relation to transnational black struggles. Close readings of their collection of secular songs, Zulu Songbook, and John Dube’s novel UJeqe reveal how their political and educational endeavors informed their writing, as well as the continuities and disjunctures between their intellectual labor and that of contemporaries such as Solomon Plaatje, Pixely ka Isaka Seme, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington.