JACOB ZUMA, THE SOCIAL BODY AND THE UNRULY POWER OF SONG LIZ GUNNER Umshini wami, umshini wami My machine gun, my machine gun We Baba Oh Father Awuleth’ umshini wami Please bring me my machine gun IT IS NOT OFTEN THAT A POLITICIAN OR PUBLIC FIGURE is so closely associated with a song that it becomes almost a part of his/her skin. Yet that has been the case with the South African politician, Jacob Zuma, now president of the African National Congress, and the song, ‘Umshini Wami’ (‘My Machine Gun’). This unexpected symbiotic link and its wider implications are explored below. In this article I track the life of the song ‘Umshini Wami’ from its first public appearance at the trial of Shabir Shaik in 2005 to the Polokwane African National Congress (ANC) Congress in 1