History Compass 8/12 (2010): 1316–1327, 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00745.x

African and Politics of Change in an Era of Rapid Globalization Mwenda Ntarangwi* Department of Sociology, Calvin College

Abstract has emerged as a forum that allows youth to critically participate in the conti- nent’s development and ideological processes in this era of rapid globalization. Arguing that a large proportion of youth in are now involved in various forms of resistance and contestation of social and political practices and processes, I show that with the shrinking role of the state in pro- viding social services due to global economic changes African hip hop has become a platform for challenging current ways of living and the reimagining of a new world. Taking the advantage of spaces created by market-driven economic structures, African youth are consistently thrusting themselves in the public space commenting on politics, economics, and culture in ways that were unimaginable in the last two decades of the 20th century. With examples from multiple countries in Africa, this paper shows how youth in Africa are participating in the shaping of the political and economic futures.

1. Introduction Picture a young woman seated on a wooden bench in a storefront in an urban center. There are numerous people milling around the spaces adjacent to her as they go about their daily business: repairing shoes, selling vegetables, and playing board games. As you pay close attention you catch a glimpse of a man complaining to a group of five about being asked for money for injections, anesthesia, and other medical supplies when he vis- its his local health center. You momentarily shift your gaze only to see a young woman with a child in her arms addressing a small gathering of men and women; you hear her telling them ‘right now if we are not careful and regard our government critically and elect politicians simply based on their promises, we will forever be poor’. As she is saying this, your attention is drawn to a public transport vehicle navigating through a city street that was once paved but is now covered with potholes. Back at the wooden bench you notice something else; there are two young people, a female and male, respectively, read- ing Julius Nyerere’s Ujamaa: Essays on Socialism and Nkrumah’s Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism. As you ponder over the connections between these scenes you hear the young woman seated on the wooden bench say, ‘I have been crying too long’, and then starts singing to a synthesized beat that has been playing in the background all along. This is Arusha Tanzania and what you have just witnessed is a scene from a video of a hip hop song titled Mr. Politician. The singer is Nakaaya Sumari, the young woman you saw seated on the wooden bench. She is a hip hop artist whose musical stardom was pro- pelled by the release of this song, which later earned her a contract with Sony Music.1 This scene and the realities depicted are not unique to Tanzania; they can be witnessed in Cape Town, Dakar, Nairobi, Libreville, Lagos, and many other urban centers across Africa. This is African hip hop, a music genre that emanated from African-American

ª 2010 The Author History Compass ª 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd African Hip Hop and Politics of Change 1317 youth in New York but now localized into the different urban centers of the continent after being carried through electronic media intensified by globalization. Generally, hip hop comprises four elements: MCing ( or chanting rhyming lyrics that are accompanied by a strong rhythm), Beat-boxing (the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one’s mouth, lips, tongue, and voice) or DJing, Break- dancing, and Graffiti Art. In much of Africa, the most widespread form of hip hop involves rapping and DJing with some few manifestations of Graffiti Art and Break-danc- ing. Whenever the term hip hop is used here I will be referring primarily to the style of music that involves rapping or chanting of rhymed lyrics with an accompanying beat. All forms of hip hop found in Africa today owe much of their origin to the increased presence of visual and electronic media especially from urban America as they become available through global processes that shape the specific images, sounds, and demeanor now mobi- lized through hip hop. Without the right global processes that shaped economics, culture, and communication, hip hop would be a very different phenomenon in Africa today. Without a doubt hip hop is one of the fastest growing and most widespread youth cul- tural phenomena in Africa. Coming on the heels of neoliberal economic structures that were imposed on African governments and communities by Western financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, hip hop undeniably is everywhere in (urban) Africa. These economic structures, which generally promote ideas about the primacy of markets in shaping social, political, and economic policies and practices while also encouraging transactional thinking and individual autonomy, came into full force in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Africa. Some of the unintended outcomes of structural changes accompa- nying these models of socioeconomic and political practice were in part the availability of electronic devices and global communication channels especially among Africa’s urban youth who then quickly grabbed onto them and the opportunities for self-expression that they offered. Hip hop in Africa immediately came to represent an intersection of compet- ing ideas about globalization, nationalism, social protest, self-promotion, ethnic identity, and cultural authenticity. As nation-states lost some of their grip on the shaping and supporting of social life in many African countries following those stringent economic structures, African leaders grappled with the place of Africa as well as their own countries in the world that had gradually become globalized and interconnected. In May 1996, for instance, Thabo Mbeki, the Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, articulated what I consider the most important statement regarding the place of Africa in the global context. On the occasion of the adoption of ‘The Republic of South Africa’s Constitutional Bill’ by the Constitutional Assembly in Cape Town, Mbeki stated: All this I know and know to be true because I am an African! Because of that, I am also able to state this fundamental truth that I am born of a people who are heroes and heroines. I am born of a people who would not tolerate oppression. I am of a nation that would not allow that fear of death, torture, imprisonment, exile or persecution should result in the perpetuation of injustice. The great masses who are our mother and father will not permit that the behavior of the few results in the description of our country and people as barbaric. Patient because history is on their side, these masses do not despair because today the weather is bad. Nor do they turn triumphalist when, tomorrow, the sun shines. Whatever the circumstances they have lived through and because of that experience, they are determined to define for themselves who they are and who they should be.2 Those words in many ways reflect the thrust and shape that hip hop has taken in Africa today. The sentiments of marginalization and negative portrayal that Mbeki

ª 2010 The Author History Compass 8/12 (2010): 1316–1327, 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00745.x History Compass ª 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1318 African Hip Hop and Politics of Change asserts about Africa are widely shared by many African youth who often see themselves as victims of their own societies and cultures. These sentiments of marginalization have consequently made youth in Africa to latch onto hip hop with the kind of energy and commitment that we see today. Granted hip hop is a form of cultural expression that defies containment by the state or limitation by national boundaries, allowing African youth to ‘define for themselves who they are and who they should be’. Mbeki’s words came to mark the official public statement regarding the concept of what would become the African Renaissance, which while not new (given that others such as Senghor in had long introduced the idea of negritude) asserts an African pride that is not only timely due to the onslaught of global forces that have continually pounded many African communities, but also reflective of aspirations and expressions of many African youth as reflected in much of the hip hop coming out of Africa today.

2. Hip Hop and Africa’s Youth Africa is demographically a young continent with the majority of its population aged under 30 years. A quick sample of Africa’s population shows that individuals aged 25 years and under constitute up to 80% of the total population. In 2006, for instance, African youth (those between 10 and 24 years of age) constituted 33% of the total popu- lation of the continent.3 In urban areas, this number could double or even triple as it does in East Africa where youth living in Urban Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya constitute about 72% of the total population.4 As many youth troop to urban centers in Africa in search of a better life, they are confronted with the challenges of urbanity. These chal- lenges include unemployment, poor housing, lack of social services, and political strife or manipulation that accompany rapid urbanization. Between 1985 and 1990, for instance, Africa had a 5.0% urban population growth,5 marking one of the highest rates in the world at the time while projections for population growth between the years 2000 and 2050 show that Africa’s population will grow by 8.3% while that of North America and Asia will grow by )0.4% and )3.2%, respectively.6 Given these urban realities and influences that the outside world has on Africa, it is no wonder that youth in Africa use hip hop to express and represent their lived experiences, to reformulate the relationship between Africa and the West, to challenge the practices and policies of their own governments, and to paint a picture of the kind of society in which they desire to live. But this comes with many challenges given that African youth are quite often ignored or exploited when it comes to making decisions about their own countries and communities. Many African cultures place great importance on wisdom gained through chronological age that is often tied to lived experiences. In this regard, youth is often regarded as a stage that is at a state of potential whereas in other contexts youth may actually be imagined and constructed as ‘a problematic’.7 While this percep- tion of youth may have some traction in many African countries, there is no doubt that the youth have played a key role in African political change as well as in war, including as child soldiers in countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Uganda. As Debo- rah Durham has shown, therefore, paying ‘attention to youth is to pay close attention to the topology of the social landscape’, and in Africa this includes: power and agency; memory, history, and sense of change; globalization and governance; and gender and class.8 I argue that youth in Africa are already part of Africa’s global processes and changes that have shaped their daily lives and that these are best understood through an analysis of hip hop.

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It is in this context of socioeconomic challenges, political strife, youth agency, and growth of hip hop that we can understand how, for instance, the late American hip hop star Tupac Shakur became such an important symbol for rebels in Sierra Leone’s Revolu- tionary United Front (RUF) who terrorized the community members in Kukuna, northwest Sierra Leone, in 1998. The rebels, as Jeremy Prestholdt writes, ‘were wearing Tupac shirts that [prompted] some townspeople [to] assume that Kukuna was hosting a hip-hop concert’.9 These RUF rebels found something in Tupac’s music and image that spoke to their own position and experiences in Sierra Leone. Indeed, the lure of hip hop for some African youth is based on its initial grounding in the expression of social discon- tent and a challenge to the status quo through what Brad Weiss terms ‘thug realism’.10 This thug image can be used to partially explain the attraction RUF rebels found in Tupac Shakur. In both his life and music, Tupac violated social etiquette and normative behavior as clearly reflected in his album titled ‘Me Against the World’. This image of a rebel embodied by Tupac is the same that attracted hip-hop artists in Arusha who were drawn to Nigeria’s dictator Sani Abacha because of his ability to ‘emerge as invincible: challenged by seemingly all-powerful antagonists, he carries out actions that anyone can recognize as worthy of courage and contempt, yet nonetheless lives to fight another day’.11 This transgressive demeanor and behavior are particularly attractive to many youth who are constantly trying to situate themselves in a world in which they often find them- selves marginalized, disabused, ignored, or disempowered. In this way, hip hop has not only become a forum for youth to appropriate notions of modernity but also an avenue through which to reflect upon and represent their own lived experiences. While the cur- rent form of hip hop performed in much of Africa is tied to that of its close cousin among Black urban youth in the USA, it has been recast to embody local musical sensi- bilities and social realities. It has also avoided some of the misogynist, crude materialism, and lewd sexuality common in US hip hop.

3. The Emergence and Growth of Hip Hop in Africa The emergence of hip hop in Africa can be directly linked to the presence of Western popular culture through radio, television, and film that intensified in the 1980s through the 1990s following specific political and socioeconomic changes in the continent that, in turn, precipitated the culture of expression realized today as hip hop. The lure of the West has been a constant presence in the lives of many Africans as their nations were created through arbitrary colonial demarcations and the subsequent occupation that followed the 1883 Berlin conference often referred to as the ‘scramble for Africa’. With colonization came the systematic demeaning and erosion of local practices and worldviews where local (African) cultural practices were demonized and branded infe- rior in favor of Western cultural values presented by the colonizers and their ‘allies’ such as missionaries, educators, and travelers. Even though different colonial regimes brought their own brand of governance – the French favoring an assimilation model as opposed to the British who favored accentuating local differences – colonial Africa shared the burden of cultural denigration plus political and economic exploitation. As a result, it became necessary for Africans to negate their erstwhile identity in order to be accepted in the new colonial order. The more Western one became the more the social status one received. However, a ray of hope seemed to emerge in the 1950s when nationalism took root in many African nations especially following an expanded worldview brought back by some soldiers who had participated in the Second World War of the mid 1940s. There were also opportunities for some African leaders to travel

ª 2010 The Author History Compass 8/12 (2010): 1316–1327, 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00745.x History Compass ª 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1320 African Hip Hop and Politics of Change abroad and interact with Africans in the new world and started thinking broadly in Afro-centric ways. This Afro-centric thinking led to the formation of the Pan African movement that drew its support from independent Africa’s first national leaders such as Kenneth Kaunda, Jomo Kenyatta, Patrice Lumumba, Milton Obote, Robert Mugabe, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Thomas Sankara, and Jonas Savimbi, among others. However, despite these seemingly afro-centric intentions in the political leadership in many African coun- tries, structures aligned to a Western cultural hegemony remained intact and were often expressed through the presence of religion, education, legal system, as well as political and economic practices that were never completely African in the first place. The West continued to dictate the political and economic practices and destinies of many Africans especially as framed through the neoliberal market economy that paved way for hip hop in the continent. One-party political structures took root in Africa and cultural expression was largely shaped by the whims of the state and the ruling party. In Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Ghana, for instance, the ruling parties (KANU, ZANU PF, and CPP, respectively) had the rooster as their symbol, signaling a shared symbolic representation of their new nations. State-owned radio and television stations were flooded with cheap yet captivating Wes- tern cultural products in the form of music, soap operas, and movies or local comedies that did not threaten the authority of the state over its people. Any social or political dis- sidence that emerged was quickly quashed by the political leaders and quite often with the blessings of the West. Western desires to maintain political hegemony were expressed through the Cold War (mostly represented by ideological struggles between capitalism and communism) in which economic support was pegged to ideological agreements. Tyrannical single party states in Africa (for example, those of Mobutu in Zaire and Bongo in Gabon) were condoned in the name of ideological war and economic advantages for mostly former colonialists. Alternative cultural expressions were almost always seen as threatening to the status quo and thus discouraged all together. As a result, were either co-opted into the state machinery for political praise singing or forced to focus on nonthreatening themes in their music. Following the end of the Cold War and the emergence of the IMF and World Bank’s instituted Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), however, African countries were com- pelled to depend on the West even more, inadvertently opening up spaces for divergent political views to be expressed publicly. The one-party system begun to crumble as new opposition parties emerged and press freedom condoned. Foreign consumer products flooded local markets as foreign economic assistance, especially from IMF and the World Bank, was pegged to political and economic pluralism. Western cultural expressions became not only markers of modernity but also icons of change for a struggling economic and political nation-state. As youth in Africa struggled for a place in this new economic and political dispensation, socially conscious music became an automatic draw for many of them. Others were drawn to the economic opportunities availed by the neo- liberal economic model as they started small businesses or tried their hand in commercial music. In Tanzania and Senegal, for instance, budding musicians copied American popular musicians, taking their lyrics and tunes and translating them into local languages (Kiswahili and Wolof, respectively). Hip-hop artists Xuman of Pee Froiss and Aziz Ndiaye, for instance, confirm that hip hop in Dakar, Senegal, started within the frame of American hip hop following the styles of performance they saw of popular rappers. Xuman says ‘in the beginning I started by copying American rappers – big chains,

ª 2010 The Author History Compass 8/12 (2010): 1316–1327, 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00745.x History Compass ª 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd African Hip Hop and Politics of Change 1321 rhyming in English, [and] talking about stuff that I really did not understand. When you talk of hip hop culture [in Senegal] we did get a lot of influence from the US’.12 Azziz remembers when he together with Didier Awadi were copying Kurtis Blow, Grandmas- ter Flash, and Grandmaster Melle Mel.13 In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, budding musicians and other entrepreneurs also used the beats and styles of American hip-hop songs and inserted their own lyrics in Kiswahili. In 1991, for instance, Swaleh J compiled an album titled Swahili rap, which used Vanilla Ice’s song ‘Ice Ice Baby’ with Kiswahili lyrics.14 In South Africa, as Zine Magbane shows, an indigenous form of rap music called Kwaito15 played a key role ‘as a key site for the indigenization of American gangster images and their associated musical idioms’.16 Despite this direct correlation with American hip hop in the initial stages, African hip hop has undergone significant indigenization and today the majority of hip-hop artists articulate a kind of music that is very much reflective of local musical styles and sensibili- ties. In Senegal, where majority of hip-hop artists are Muslim, for instance, their lyrics and imagery are guided by the local style of music called as well as by normative social decorum dictated by their faith. Djiby Daddy and Bakhaw of the hip-hop group Da Brains say, ‘We were born in Senegal. We are Muslims and we are believers and practice our faith. Therefore there are certain things we cannot say to those young guys listening to our music’.17 Some of the things they cannot do, at least compared to a num- ber of mainstream American hip hop artists, are exemplified by P-Blow and Jah of the group Tigrim-Bi when they say we respect our elders, we respect Islam, we cannot use misogynistic lyrics. In our promotional images we never objectify women by making them wear revealing clothes because we believe in something. As musicians we believe in God and respect the rule of Islam.18 One of hip hop’s enduring identities across the continent, however, is its ability to ‘pro- vide a resource for articulating feelings of economic and social marginality, dislocation, and frustration’.19 Examples abound of how hip-hop music articulates the many socioeco- nomic and political challenges many African youth face daily. Hip hop has also been appropriated by politicians to win elections or to bolster their public presence in coun- tries such as Kenya, Gabon, and Senegal as I show here below. The role played by hip hop in the election of Ali Bongo to succeed his deceased father in August 2009 in Gabon cannot be underestimated. An accomplished himself, Ali Bongo is known to have brought American hip-hop artists such as Fat Joe and Jay-Z to perform in Gabon, some of whom were allegedly heavily sponsored by the government.20 In an effort to present himself as a youthful candidate (even though he was 50 years old at the time) to draw the youth vote, Ali Bongo performed a rap song live on stage at the sixth annual Gabao Hip Hop Festival in Libreville in August 2009.21 Ali Bongo was sworn in as presi- dent of Gabon on August 30, 2009, promising to fight corruption and other social ills. In Kenya, hip-hop duo Gidi Gidi Maji Maji’s song ‘Who can Bwogo (defeat) Me?’ from the album Unbwogable (not able to be defeated) was appropriated by the 2002 Ken- yan political bloc known as the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) that ousted Daniel Moi’s 24-year rule.22 The song almost became a national anthem for opposition politics in Kenya as it was sung and performed by politicians aligned with the NARC while mer- chandise (t-shirts, hats, and posters) bearing the title Unbwogable were sold in many parts of the country in 2002.23 The political mobilization of the Unbwogable craze is well docu- mented in a documentary on hip hop in Kenya titled Hip Hop Colony in which viewers can see Gidi Gidi Maji Maji performing the song live at a political rally and asking the NARC team to sing along.24 A similar scenario was reproduced in Senegal. After trying

ª 2010 The Author History Compass 8/12 (2010): 1316–1327, 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00745.x History Compass ª 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1322 African Hip Hop and Politics of Change for a number of years to win presidential elections while in opposition politics, Abdou- laye Wade’s break came in 2000 when he won Senegal’s presidential elections with great support from Senegalese youth, especially hip-hop artists. Thereafter, president Wade publicly thanked rappers and youth for their support of his candidacy.25 In 2007, when Wade ran for re-election, the enthusiasm the youth had in 2000 had totally waned as they realized that most of the promise Wade made in 2000 were yet to be fulfilled. Youth in Senegal and elsewhere in the continent continue to face the same political and socioeconomic challenges despite candidates they supported winning elections with promises of making life better for the youth. This has propelled hip-hop artists to be even more critical of current governments than they were in the past.

4. Challenging the Political and Economic Status Quo Hip hop has been used to articulate various perceptions, interpretations, and experiences of youth in Africa as they go through a life shaped by the effects of SAPs where their nations are forced to devalue their currencies, open their markets to foreign goods by cutting government subsidies and protective taxes, privatize state corporations, and reduce government expenditure through massive layoffs or downsizing. All these changes have not evaded the keen eye of hip-hop artists. In a song titled Tumeshtuka (we are shocked), Tanzania’s hip-hop artists, known as Wagosi wa Kaya, critique this neoliberal philosophy of economic policies pushed onto their nation, saying What do we gain through privatization, we’re in shock We got independence in 1961 yet till today all development is crawling Where are we headed dear Tanzanians? Some of our leaders have no leadership skills They just want to get what they are after, harvesting here and then invest abroad If you didn’t know then let Wagosi tell you the truth You will find a factory named Patel Industries And yet the citizens are quiet and have no problems This is the trend these days, and it’s beyond the comprehension of our leaders26 As neoliberalism promotes economic fundamentalism guided by a free market ideology, there occurs a dismantling of the historically guaranteed social provisions provided by the welfare state especially in Africa where there has not been enough private capital to sustain economic growth outside state intervention. After watching his country get exploited under the watch of his political leaders, Gabon’s most successful hip-hop artist Lord Ekomy Ndong composed and recorded a song in early 2009 titled Engongole (What a Shame) in which he bemoans the high levels of corruption and underdevelopment in his country. In the song, Ndong says We are a small country that cannot boast skyscrapers or atomic bombs But we can boast of having invented a vaccine against shame We have forests stretching over two hundred thousand miles But we are unable to produce even a matchstick All we have is a French flag, a French military base Talking, thinking, and eating French 30 years of generating billions of Francs in oil revenue But the country is in the same state of underdevelopment27 When Lord Ekomy Ndong was approached to sing songs in praise of presidential candi- dates in 2009, he refused saying instead that,

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we want this to change, and we will do what we have to do. We have been asked to take mil- lions and millions of CFA to walk along this or that candidate, but our answer has been, we are there for the people, not for a candidate.28 In South Africa, Ndabaningi Mabuye, a hip-hop artist from Zimbabwe caused a stir that led to complaints from South Africa’s Broadcasting Complaints Commission following his 2006 release of an album titled Headphone Music: In a Parallel World in which there is a song – ‘Get Out’ – that is regarded as an incitement to violence. In the song, Mabuye (commonly known as Zubz) sings Don’t take my kindness for weakness just like your forefathers Understand I am gonna get this panga [machete] to your neck Take what is mine today and I will rob you tomorrow Take my time it’s payback Tell my people, fight, tell my people, get out Cos I know my rights, you better watch out Zubz defended his song saying that he would not compose a racist song but that he was focusing on those who were keen on exploiting others.29

5. Conclusion The notion of African renaissance and Afrocentricity championed and embraced by lead- ers such as Kwame Nkrumah, Thabo Mbeki, and Leopold Sedar Senghor, to name only a few, seems to have died soon after many African leaders turned into presidents for life and refused to entertain any political discontent. The spirit was further eroded when neo- liberal economic structures engulfed the continent and promoted SAPs and a market- based economy. Ironically, this same breakdown might have ended up as a blessing in disguise for many African youth. In the 1990s following the climax of neo-liberal eco- nomic policies, for instance, new spaces for the expression of social discontent opened up and hip hop took advantage of them. Hip hop, as I have argued here, soon became, for some youth, a new avenue through which to reconfigure a new sense of belonging and critiquing the status quo. Many youth today feel that their leaders have failed them and they are ready for a new leadership, which they imagine and articulate through hip hop especially the kind that allows for the expression of discontent as exemplified by some of the song excerpts given in this paper. Despite this newfound role of youth in Africa through hip hop, however, there remains a disturbing reality in which hip hop like much of popular music in Africa has remained a domain dominated by males. There are a few examples of successful female hip-hop artists in Africa. Tanzania’s Nakaaya Sumari, whose song I mentioned at the beginning of this paper, is one such example. Being the first Tanzanian artist to sign a record contract with Sony music Nakaaya is arguably one of Tanzania’s successful female artists. Before that she enjoyed some wide coverage following the success of her song Mr. Politician in which she is joined by US hip-hop artist M1 of Dead Prez and thus expanding her realm of global links. As a result, her popularity extends beyond Tanzania as it became clear in 2009 when she was chosen by the Rwandan embassy as the ambas- sador for their ‘One Dollar Campaign’. The aim of the campaign is to raise money for a hostel project that would provide shelter for young Rwandan genocide survivors in primary school and universities who have no homes to go to during school holidays. Regarding her role, Nakaaya says, ‘I think people would listen to us because we are artists. A Rwandan problem is an African problem and needs an African solution’.30

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Raised in Arusha, Tanzania, Nakaaya has a close relationship with the United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC) in Arusha where she volunteers frequently, and which might explain her socially conscious music. The UAACC was founded by Pete and Charlotte O’Neal, former Black Panthers from the USA who moved to Tanzania more than 30 years ago. The Center provides food and services such as computer train- ing, English language training, health services, and meals for area residents at no charge. Pete O’Neal was the head of the Black Panther movement in Kansas City and was arrested and charged for carrying a weapon across state lines. He escaped and went to Algeria before settling in Arusha. Nakaaya says that the O’Neals have been like parents to her and she has learned much about social and political struggles from them. In South Africa, the role of females in hip hop is recorded in a documentary titled Counting Headz: South Afrika’s Sistaz in Hip Hop. Produced in 2007 by Vusi Magubane and Erin Offer, the documentary showcases the challenges and work of female hip-hop artists in South Africa.31 In Nigeria, Adesola Adesumbo Idowu, whose stage name is Weird MC, is a well-known hip-hop artists who has won numerous music awards in the country including being the first Nigerian artist to release a video for a single. Her androgynous appearance made many question on her gender. And Finally, in Senegal, the female hip-hop group Farafina Mousso seeks to share a positive image of women with their music. Gina, one of the members of the group says that, ‘with our lyrics our goal is to educate and raise awareness about issues facing women and children’.32 Hope- fully with these female artists enduring and bringing along many more of their compatri- ots, the hip-hop scene in Africa will be less-dominated by men. In so doing, the genre will truly reflect a different kind of Africa, an Africa poised for the 21st century.

Short Biography Mwenda Ntarangwi is a cultural anthropologist currently teaching at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He earned his BEd in language education and MA in Swahili Studies from Kenyatta University, Kenya, and MA and PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Mwenda’s research is on popular cultural expressions, the practice and history of anthropology, and inter-cultural engage- ment. He is the author of, among other works, Reversed Gaze: an African Ethnography of American Anthropology (Illinois, 2010), East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Globaliza- tion (Illinois, 2009), Gender Identity and Performance: Understanding Swahili Cultural Realities Through Song (Africa World Press, 2003), co-editor of African Anthropologies: History, Critique and Practice (CODESRIA and Zed Books, 2006), and numerous book chapters and refereed journal papers. Mwenda has carried out research in the USA, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Uganda, and has traveled to many African countries including: Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Southern Sudan.

Notes * Correspondence: Department of Sociology, Calvin College, 3201 Burton St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, USA. Email: [email protected].

1 This video is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2461HqUizAw&feature=related, where you can also see an interview with CNN’s Inside Africa about her music. While this scene fits very well into a theatrical piece that aligns well with hip hop theater that has developed in the USA, there is no evidence that the same thea- trical development has emerged in African hip hop yet.

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2 Statement of Deputy President Thabo M. Mbeki, on Behalf of the African National Congress, on the occasion of the adoption by the Constitutional Assembly of ‘The Republic of South Africa Constitutional Bill 1996’. 3 See, Rachel Nugent (2005), ‘Youth in a Global World’, Population Reference Bureau, pp. 1, available at: http:// www.prb.org/pdf06/YouthInAGlobalWorld.pdf 4 See UN-HABITAT’s new Global Report on Human Settlement 2003, available at: http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/ getElectronicVersion.aspx?nr=1156&alt=1 5 S. Ogbu and G. Ikiara, ‘The Crisis of Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Courier, 149 (January–February, 1995): 52–9. 6 http://www.prb.org/educators/teachersguides/humanpopulation/populationgrowth.aspx 7 See D. Durham, ‘Youth and the Social Imagination in Africa: Introduction to Parts 1 and 2’, Anthropological Quarterly,73⁄ 3 (2000): 113–20, for more discussion of perceptions of youth as a problem. 8 Ibid., p. 113. 9 J. Prestholdt, ‘The Afterlives of 2Pac: Imagery and Alienation in Sierra Leone and Beyond’, Journal of African Cultural Studies,21⁄ 2 (2009): 197. Readers are also welcome to read some excellent studies on hip hop in the USA that show not only the connections that can be drawn between the USA and African hip hop but also the unique path hip hop has taken in the USA. I can think here of some representative works such as those by Chang (2005), Forman and Anthony (2004), Kitwana (2002), Mitchell (2001), Perkins (1996), and Rose (1994). 10 B. Weiss, ‘Thug Realism: Inhabiting Fantasy in Urban Tanzania’, Cultural Anthropology,17⁄ 1 (2002): 93–124. 11 B. Weiss, Street Dreams and Hip Hop Barbershops: Global Fantasy in Urban Tanzania (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009), 51. 12 In ‘African Underground: Democracy in Dakar’, a film by Nomadic Wax and Sol Productions, 2008. You can watch three episodes of the documentary online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLYGQ_PbvUk, http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUVwZplG1MI, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvV3JMD87Vw. You may also learn more about the documentary at: http://nomadicwax.com/democracyindakar/. 13 You can watch at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaKcdF0F1WY, the episode of ‘African Underground: Democracy in Dakar’ where this American influence on Senegalese hip hop is well articulated. 14 For further discussion, see M. Ntarangwi, East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Globalization (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009). 15 You can watch an example of music at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euzWZp6kTdg the song is titled ‘Fokolo’ and it is performed by a group named Alaska from South Africa. 16 Z. Magubane, ‘Globalization and Gangster Rap: Hip Hop in the Post-Apartheid City’, in D. Basu and S. Lemelle (eds.), The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture (London: Pluto Press, 2006), 212. 17 In ‘African Underground: Democracy in Dakar’, a film by Nomadic Wax and Sol Productions, 2008. You can watch a video of Da Brains’s song titled link at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-7HCQQ2U_8 18 In ‘African Underground: Democracy in Dakar’, a film by Nomadic Wax and Sol Productions, 2008. 19 Z. Magubane. ‘Globalization and Gangster Rap’, 212. 20 Juma4, ‘The Hip Hop Generation and Elections in Gabon’, August 30, 2009, http://www.africanhiphop.com/ featurestories/the-hip-hop-generation-and-elections-in-gabon/accessed, accessed on June 12, 2010. 21 A video of this performance titled ‘Ali Bongo, un rappeur pas comme les autres (Ali Bongo, a rapper like none other)’ can be accessed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EkmGX7ULtQ&feature=player_embedded, accessed on June 12, 2010. 22 You can listen to the song Unbwogable under the title ‘Who can Bwogo Me?’ at: http://www.rhapsody.com/ gidi-gidi-maji-maji/unbwogable--music-copyright-society-of-kenya-ltd or watch the video of the song as it is per- formed at the Vancouver World Urban Forum in 2006 at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT5orKxAGwc 23 For further discussion of this phenomenon, see M. Ntarangwi, East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Global- ization (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009); I. Hofmeyr, J. Nyairo and J. Ogude, ‘ ‘‘Who can Bwogo Me’’ Popular Culture in Kenya’, Social Identities,9⁄ 3 (2003): 373–82; and J. Nyairo and J. Ogude, ‘Popular Music, popular Politics: Unbwogable and the Idioms of Freedom in Kenyan Popular Music’, African Affairs, 104 ⁄ 415 (2005): 225–49. 24 You can learn more about this documentary and watch a trailer at: http://www.hiphopcolony.com/ 25 As noted in ‘African Underground: Democracy in Dakar’, a film by Nomadic Wax and Sol Productions, 2008. 26 Original lyrics are in Kiswahili and are translated here by the author. 27 Original lyrics are in French and are translated here by author. 28 See note 20. 29 See Zubz video of ‘Get Out’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu_15_nnTaU 30 http://allafrica.com/stories/200905010252.html 31 A promotional video for the documentary can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=RpG792xepOw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrMUIMiC3dQ&feature=related 32 In ‘African Underground: Democracy in Dakar’, a film by Nomadic Wax and Sol Productions, 2008.

ª 2010 The Author History Compass 8/12 (2010): 1316–1327, 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00745.x History Compass ª 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1326 African Hip Hop and Politics of Change

Bibliography Badsha, F., ‘Old Skool Rules ⁄ New Skool Breaks: Negotiating Identities in the Cape Town Hip-hop Scene’, in H. Wasserman and S. Jacobs (eds.), Shifting Selves: Post-Apartheid Essays on Mass Media, Culture and Identity (Cape Town: Books, 2004), 120–45. Battersby, J., ‘ ‘‘Sometimes It Feels like I Am Not Black Enough’’: Recast(e)ing Coloured through South African Hip-hop as Post-colonial Text’, in H. Wasserman and S. Jacobs (eds.), Shifting Selves: Post-Apartheid Essays on Mass Media, Culture and Identity (Cape Town: Kwela Books, 2004), 80–119. Casco, J. S., ‘The Language of Young People: Rap, Urban Culture and Protest in Tanzania’, Journal of Asian and African Studies,41⁄ 3 (2006): 229–48. Chang, J., Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-hop Generation (New York: Picador Press, 2005). Fenn, J. B., ‘Rap and Musical Cultures, Lifestyles, and Performances in Malawi’, PhD dissertation (Indiana University, 2004). Fenn, J., and Perullo, A., ‘Language Choices and Hip Hop in Tanzania and Malawi’, Popular Music and Society, 24 ⁄ 3 (2000): 73–90. Ferrari, A., ‘Hip Hop in Nairobi: Recognition of an International Movement and the Main Means of Expression for the Urban Youth in Poor Residential Areas’, in K. wa Njogu and H. Mapeau (eds.), Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa (Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 2007), 107–28. Forman, M., ‘Keeping It Real? African Identities and Hip Hop’, in R. Young (ed.), Music, Popular Culture, Identities (Amsterdam: Rodopi BV Editions, 2002), 101–31. Forman, M. and Anthony Mark, N. (eds.), That’s the Joint! The Hip-hop Studies Reader (New York & London: Routledge, 2004). Gesthuizen, T., ‘: Hip Hop in Tanzania’, Waxpoetics, 2 (Spring, 2002): 8. Gilmer, M. C., ‘Rebel Song: Soweto’s Black Sunday Movement as Language Antipolitics’, Transforming Anthropol- ogy,15⁄ 2 (2007): 141–5. Haas, P. J., and Gesthuizen, T., ‘Ndani ya Bongo. Kiswahili Rap Keeping It Real,’ in F. Gunderson and G. Barz (eds.), Mashindano! Competitive Music Performance in East Africa (Dar Es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Press, 2000), 279–94. Haupt, A., ‘Black Thing: Hip-hop Nationalism, ‘‘Race’’ and ‘‘Gender,’’ in Prophets of da City and Brasse vannie Kaap’, in Z. Erasmus (ed.), Coloured by History Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Coloured Identities in Cape Town (Cape Town: Kwela Books, 2001), 74–97. Hofmeyr, I., Nyairo, J., and Ogude, J., ‘ ‘‘Who can Bwogo Me’’ Popular Culture in Kenya’, Social Identities,9⁄ 3 (2003): 373–82. Kitwana, B., The Hip Hop Generation:Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2002). Kunzler, D., ‘Hip Hop Movements in Mali and Burkina Faso: The Local Adaptation of a Global Culture’, paper presented at the XVI International Sociological Association World Congress of Sociology, Duban South Africa, 2006. Lemelle, S., ‘ ‘‘Ni Wapi Tunakwenda’’: Hip Hop Culture and the Children of Arusha’, in D. Basu and S. Lemelle (eds.), The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and Globalization of Black Popular Culture (London: Pluto Press, 2006), 230–54. Magubane, Z., ‘Globalization and Gangster Rap: Hip Hop in the Post-Apartheid City’, in D. Basu and S. Sidney Lemelle (eds.), The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture (Ann Arbor: Pluto Press, 2006), 208–29. Mitchell, T., Global Noise: Rap and Hip-hop Outside the USA (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2001). Mwangi, E., ‘Masculinity and nationalism in East African ’, Tydskrif vir Letterkunde,4⁄ 2 (2004): 5–20. Ntarangwi, M., East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Globalization (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009a). Ntarangwi, M., ‘Hip-hop, Westernization, and Gender in East Africa’, in K. wa Njogu and H. Mapeau (eds.), Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa (Nairobi: Institute of French Research in Africa, 2006), 37–62. Ntarangwi, M., ‘Sexuality and the Culture of Silence in the Face of HIV ⁄ AIDS in East Africa: A Popular Culture Approach’, in E. Kalipeni, K. Flynn and C. Pope (eds.), Strong Women, Dangerous Times: Gender and HIV ⁄ AIDS in Africa (New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2009b), 203–18. Nyairo, J., and Ogude, J., ‘Popular Music, popular Politics: Unbwogable and the Idioms of Freedom in Kenyan Popular Music’, African Affairs, 104 ⁄ 415 (2005): 225–49. Perkins, W. E., Droppin’ Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1996). Perullo, A., ‘ ‘‘Here’s a Little Something Local’’: An Early History of Hip Hop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1984–1997’, in J. Brennan, A. Burton and Y. Lawi (eds.), Dar es Salaam: The History of an Emerging East African Metropolis (East Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 2007), 250–72.

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Perullo, A., ‘Hooligans and Heroes: Youth Identity and Hip-hop in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’, Africa Today,51⁄ 4 (2005): 75–101. Prestholdt, J., ‘The Afterlives of 2Pac: Imagery and Alienation in Sierra Leone and Beyond’, Journal of African Cultural Studies,21⁄ 2 (2009): 197–218. Remes, W. P., ‘Global Popular Musics and Changing Awareness of Urban Tanzanian Youth’, Yearbook for Traditional Music, 31 (1999): 1–26. Remes, W. P., ‘ ‘‘Karibu Geto Langu ⁄ Welcome in My Ghetto’’: Urban Youth, Popular Culture and Language in 1990s Tanzania’, PhD dissertation (Northwestern University, 1998). Rose, T., Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1994). Samper, D., ‘ ‘‘Africa is Still Our Mama’’: Kenyan Rappers, Youth Identity, and the Revitalization of Traditional Values’, African Identities,2⁄ 1 (2004): 37–51. Suriano, M., ‘‘Mimi ni Msanii, Kioo Cha Jamii’ Urban Youth Culture in Tanzania as Seen Through Bongo Fleva and Hip Hop’, Swahili Forum, 14 (2007): 207–23. Swartz, S., Is Kwaito South African Hip Hop? Why the Answer Matters and Who It Matters to (The Youth Institute, 2003), http://theyouthinstitute.org/pubs/Is%20Kwaito%20South%20African%20Hip%20Hop.pdf, accessed on 26 Oct, 2010. Weiss, B., Street Dreams and Hip Hop Barbershops: Global Fantasy in Urban Tanzania (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2009). Weiss, B., ‘Thug Realism: Inhabiting Fantasy in Urban Tanzania,’ Cultural Anthropology,17⁄ 1 (2002): 93–124.

ª 2010 The Author History Compass 8/12 (2010): 1316–1327, 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00745.x History Compass ª 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd