The Ethnographic Understanding of the Interplay Between Zulu Culture and Afropop in Zinhle Madela’s Artistic Identity

The Afropop genre is rapidly growing within South Africa, enjoying support from diverse population groups. South Africa, a country with diverse and distinct indigenous cultures and traditions, has unique influences on the country’s Afropop music. The paper aims to explore the interplay between Zulu culture and Afropop in Zinhle Madela’s artistic identity in the Afropop genre as it continues to gain popularity locally, regionally, and internationally. The paper seeks to answer two research objectives: (1) understanding how Zulu cultural values and traditions underpin Zinhle Madela’s music and (2) exploring the significance and influence of Zulu aesthetics in visual performance and style. The paper employs the qualitative ethnographic approach as the sole research method underpinning the study, adopting purposive sampling as the primary sampling technique. In-depth semi-structured interviews and field observations were utilised as instruments for data collection. The collected data was thematically analysed. The findings were presented in terms of two main themes and subsequent subthemes. The findings relate to Zinhle Madela’s representation of cultural values and traditions in music and the intentional use of Zulu aesthetics in visual performance and style. Two recommendations are highlighted in the paper and relate to (1) conducting more research on Afropop within the Zulu culture from various perspectives and artists, and (2) fostering partnerships between researching academics and artists for knowledge preservation and documentation.