History Compass 8/12 (2010): 1316–1327, 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00745.x African Hip Hop and Politics of Change in an Era of Rapid Globalization Mwenda Ntarangwi* Department of Sociology, Calvin College Abstract African hip hop 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 Africa 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 (rapping 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 Senegal 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.