Intonations — 2008 ·

“Intonations makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how Angola became what it is today, and it also makes a serious case for why popular music is political in surprising and unsettling ways.”

African Studies Review

“The writing is fresh, tight, clever. The argument is nuanced and layered. It’s analytical but also deeply personal. Intonations is a provocative and compelling book.”

Anne Pitcher — author of Transforming Mozambique: The Politics of Privatization, 1975–2000

“This engaging and provocative study places urban Angolans at the center of the freedom movement narrative by exploring the emergence of the semba music scene in the musseques or shantytowns of Luanda. . . . the CD alone is worth the cover price.”

Oral History Review

“Marissa Moorman convincingly demonstrates that culture not only reflected, but was also constitutive of national identity. She shows that ordinary folks and non-political elites played as big a part in the construction of independent Angola as those involved in the liberation struggle. . . . All in all, the book is clearly structured, conscientiously produced, and provides true reading pleasure.”

Africa: Journal of the IAI

“(Intonations) provides a precious glimpse of the golden age of Angolan music. That age, which was crucial for the formation of modern Angola, was characterized by a vigorous expansion of the urban fabric, a notable cultural dynamic, and the formation of a unique consciousness which manifested itself in the Angolan music of which Marissa Moorman gives such a rich and detailed account.”

H-Luso-Africa

“(Moorman) delves into the musical activities in the urban clubs during the 15 years preceding independence. It is on these activities that Moorman bases her case for a kind of movement towards nation building that was parallel but fundamentally distinct to the armed guerrilla struggle.”

African Affairs

“Moorman evokes the emergence and intense life of Luanda's late colonial music scene with welcome depth, passion, and precision.”

American Historical Review

“Moorman’s elegantly written history makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Angolan music, history, and nationalism. … The book will appeal especially to students in African studies, African history, colonial and postcolonial studies, and ethnomusicology, but the writing makes Intonations accessible to audiences outside these specialties.”

Kelly Askew — author of Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania