Songs of the South African AIDS Crisis is a powerful demonstration of the increasing need for social science in understanding global medical emergencies. Walker develops fresh modes of enquiry in medical ethnomusicology by bringing nuanced ethnographic accounts of creative performance into discussion with classic theoretical texts. The result is a highly original take on music and illness, which will undoubtedly challenge students, academics, and the wider public to reconsider the ways we think about songs, suffering, and surviving one of the most devastating pandemics in recent history.

Fraser G. McNeill, University of Pretoria

The functionality of music, and other expressive forms in public health contexts in Africa, continues to call for diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to illuminate subtle meanings and dimensions of human experience. Gavin Robert Walker does just that in this work by engaging multiple voices and moments in the history of the HIV/AIDS crisis in South Africa. He provides a uniquely discursive framework that adds an important layer to existing body of scholarship about music and HIV/AIDS, relevant even for understanding the broader issues of health, culture, and society.

Austin C. Okigbo, University of Colorado at Boulder