Power, prayer and passion of women: A pragmatic illustration from Lucky Dube’s music - <i>“God bless the women”</i>

Abstract

Discussion on the role of women in contemporary African society occupies academic writing but how musicians engage their art to unpack women’s natural endowment has not received adequate scholars’ attention. To fill this gap, this paper explores the informative functions of music with particular reference to Lucky Dube’ music track “God bless the women” from the album-Trinity. Using African feminism and gender relation theories, the paper employed analytical method to identify power, prayer and passion of women as are explicated in the album. The analysis revealed the strength of African women as their natural endowment, passion, and ability to pray are clearly demonstrated in different circumstances. The artist predicted favour for any man that wins women love as such a man will be supported with ceaseless prayer and necessary efforts until he becomes successful, but hatred from women portends bad luck for anyone who incurs their wrath. The paper argues that Lucky Dube deployed this album as narrative on gender discourse with specific attention to the role of women in contemporary African society, especially against the backdrop of artist’s personal family experience.