RECLAIMING OUR SUBJUGATED TRUTHS: USING HIP-HOP AS A FORM OF DECOLONIZING PUBLIC PEDAGOGY THE CASE OF DIDIER AWADI by Joanna Daguirane Da Sylva B.A., Manhattan College, 2007 M.A., The New School University, 2010 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FUFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Educational Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2016 © Joanna Daguirane Da Sylva, 2016 Abstract When walking through the streets of Dakar, hip-hop makes its way through the radios of the city. Hip-hop has been a prominent and influential music genre and culture in Senegal since the 1980s. Hip-hop music has been used by Senegalese to cover the social, economic and political life of the country, and to promote political activism among the youth. Rapping was not born in a vacuum in Senegal but subtly continues the long-standing tradition of storytelling through spoken words and music, griotism. Moving away from hip-hop stereotypes, defined by critics as violent, racist, homophobic, sexist, materialistic, misogynistic and vulgar, my case study focuses on critical and conscious Senegalese hip-hop, which embraces hip-hop social and educational movements utilized to voice societal injustice and challenge the status quo. Senegalese hip-hop is a platform for political activists to denounce institutional racism, Western domination, poverty, and national corruption, with the hope of contributing to a better and just society that recognizes and legitimizes knowledges and voices of formerly colonized Africans. Didier Awadi is one of the most talented, conscientious, influential and revolutionary hip-hop artists and political activists of the continent. His motivation stands in the Burkinabé revolutionary Thomas Sankara, who became an icon for his statement: “dare to invent the future,” the motto for Didier Awadi’s record company Studio Sankara. In 2010, after five years of research, Didier Awadi released his ambitious multidisciplinary project Présidents d’Afrique to recount Africa’s political history and honor the founding fathers of Pan-Africanism, influential thinkers and scholars from Africa and the Diaspora. His timeless album Présidents d’Afrique uses hip-hop as a form of decolonization and public pedagogy that renders the contributions of Pan-African leaders visible to Africa and the world, contributions that have been continuously omitted, ignored, and vilified by mainstream History. ii Preface Guided by African knoweldges and histories, this thesis is an original intellectual product of the author, Joanna Daguirane Da Sylva. This thesis is not producing new knowledge per se, but is recovering and reclaiming the histories, knoweldges, words, and messages of African leaders, influential thinkers and scholars, which have been erased from dominant history. The creation of this thesis was made possible by the careful and caring supervision of Dr. Michelle Stack, Dr. André Mazawi and Dr. Hartej Gill. In addition, the participation of political hip-hop artist Didier Awadi was invaluable to this thesis. The interview conducted in chapter 5 was approved by the UBC Behavioural Research Ethics Board Certificate number H15-01714 on July 24, 2015. iii Table of Contents Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ....................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... iv Glossary ..................................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................. vii Dedication ................................................................................................................................. ix 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Significance of the Study ......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Structure of Thesis .................................................................................................................... 5 2. Theoretical Framework .................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Context ........................................................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Understanding Pan-Africanism ......................................................................................... 11 2.3 Women’s contributions to Pan-Africanism .................................................................. 16 2.4 Pan-Africanism in Africa ..................................................................................................... 20 2.5 Pan-Africanism and Hip-Hop .............................................................................................. 29 3. Literature Review: Hip-hop and political activism ............................................... 36 3.1 Music as rebellion and education ..................................................................................... 36 3.2 Black resistance and liberation: Beyond music ........................................................... 43 3.3 The beginning: Hip-hop music, youth and the political message .......................... 47 3.4 Women in hip-hop ................................................................................................................. 55 3.5 Black voices: Hip-hop as a reflection of lived experiences ...................................... 56 3.6 African traditions of musical resistance ......................................................................... 60 3.7 Hip-hop in Senegal ................................................................................................................. 62 3.8 Didier Awadi: A hip-hop artist with a political message ........................................... 64 4. Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 69 4.1 Challenging Eurocentric knowledge: Afrocentric decolonizing methodology .. 69 4.2 Situating myself and my role as a decolonizing and Pan-African researcher ... 72 4.3 Storytelling as methodology ............................................................................................... 79 4.4 Didier Awadi as a storyteller .............................................................................................. 83 4.5 The data ..................................................................................................................................... 84 4.6 The politics of translation ................................................................................................... 86 4.7 The one-on-one interview ................................................................................................... 88 4.8 The analysis .............................................................................................................................. 90 5. Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 97 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 97 5.2 One-on-one interview ........................................................................................................... 97 5.2.1 Situating Didier Awadi ................................................................................................................... 97 5.2.2 Présidents d’Afrique explained by Didier Awadi .............................................................. 103 5.2.3 Embracing Ukweli, Ujamaa, Kujitoa, Uhaki and Utulivu through music ............... 111 5.3 A focus on Présidents d’Afrique: Locating the Afrocentric values ........................ 116 iv 5.3.1 Track 12: Une seule origine, honoring Cheikh Anta Diop ............................................. 116 5.3.2 Track 11: Oser Inventer l’Avenir, honoring Thomas Sankara ................................... 125 6. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 135 Works Cited .......................................................................................................................... 143 Appendices ........................................................................................................................... 163 Appendix A: Interview guiding questions ............................................................................ 163 Appendix B: Tracks of the album Présidents d’Afrique and their dedication .......... 165 Appendix C: Une seule Origine by Didier Awadi honoring Cheikh Anta Diop .......... 167 Appendix D: Oser Inventer l’Avenir by Didier Awadi honoring Thomas Sankara ... 171 v Glossary Afrocentricity Molefi Kete Asante (2003) defines Afrocentricity as “a mode of thought and action in which the centrality of African interests,