Cultural politics: Black Performing Arts in Johannesburg

Abstract

Max Weber (1964 ed.) was perhaps the first social theorist of power to note that activity in virtually any domain can serve as a basis of power, and that once established, such power can become available for use in other domains as well (Cohen 1966). Bertrand Russell (Cohen, 1969, p. 213) has most clearly expressed the implications of this notion for the study of power: "Power, like energy, must be regarded as continually passing from any one of its forms into any other, and it should be the business of social science to seek the laws of such transformation." It is my contention that the study of Johannesburg's black performing arts within the framework of a theory of social power can contribute to the formulation of such "laws". Though he does not concern himself with the arts specifically, Richard N Adams (1970, 1975) has developed a theory which can be of considerable value in understanding the role of expressive culture in the transformation of power in complexly structured situations.