Title: Breaking Rocks
Description: Based on fieldwork in Kinshasa and Paris, "Breaking Rocks" examines patronage payments within Congolese popular music, where a love song dedication can cost 6,000 dollars and a simple name check can trade for 500 or 600 dollars. Tracing this system of prestige through networks of musicians and patrons - who include gangsters based in Europe, kleptocratic politicians in Congo, and lawless diamond dealers in northern Angola - this book offers insights into ideologies of power and value in central Africa's troubled post-colonial political economy, as well as a glimpse into the economic flows that make up the hidden side of the globalization.
Subjects: Political anthropology, Popular music, Music patronage, Congolese (Democratic Republic), Social conditions, Economic aspects, Social aspects