Hip-Hop in Africa. Msia Kibona Clark
been there along this journey, allowing me to lean on the shield by providing advice and support when needed.
Thank you to all the mentors who have encouraged and advised me. In the Department of African Studies at Howard University: Dr. Sulayman Nyang, Dr. Robert Edgar, Dr. Mbye Cham, and Dr. Mohamed Camara. My coaches in the 2016 Junior Faculty Writing and Creative Works Summer Academy at Howard University, especially Associate Provost Okianer Christian Dark, Dr. Den’ee Mwendwa, Dr. Marie-Claude Jipguep-Akhtar, and Dr. Kehbuma Langmia. Thank you to Prof. Imani Sanga and Prof. Abdullah Hamza at the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Dar es Salaam for graciously hosting me during my Fulbright.
Thank you to my students at California State University, Los Angeles, and Howard University, who scoured the internet to assist in compiling lists of artists, music, and articles. Thank you to the research assistants who helped on the project: Magee Bwire, Lulu Garcia, Semein Abbay, and Darbrielle Thomas.
Thank you to Gillian Berchowitz, who has believed in this project from the beginning and stuck with me through its various iterations.
Thank you to my family: Seko Kibona, Nisa Kibona, and Eluka Kibona. Seko, you have been one of my biggest supporters. Thank you! Atsu Numadzi, my husband and best friend, you have been unquestionably supportive and always willing to help with my work in Ghana. You have also been married to this project and encouraged me so much along the way. My mother, Dr. Sanza Clark, professor emerita at Cleveland State University: you moved between being a mother and an adviser. You helped me crunch the numbers, and watched my son while I was off doing my research. I could never repay you for all you have done, though I am also sure you have all the receipts. To my son, Kaselema, you always seemed to know when I needed to take a break, and insisted that I do so. You also knew when I needed to work, and allowed me more quiet afternoons than I could ever ask for. You have also traveled with me to four countries in search of data, adjusting to the new climate, cuisine, and culture with ease. I love you more than you could imagine.
Funding for this project has been provided by the Fulbright Scholar Program, California State University, Los Angeles, and the Office of Research Development at Howard University.
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“Boomerang”
Hip-Hop and Pan-African Dialogues
HIP-HOP CULTURE IN Africa has increasingly been a subject of research that recognizes the importance of the culture’s popularity and its potential for influencing change. It is a culture that has had a tremendous impact on youth in Africa. Like hip-hop in the United States, hip-hop in Africa has had transformative impacts on youth. It has become more than just a style or genre of music. It is a culture that is simultaneously connected to global hip-hop cultures and local cultural systems. Hip-hop in Africa has brought African voices to a global hip-hop community. Hip-hop in Africa is a representation of African realities and of African youth cultures. In essence, hip-hop in Africa provides its own record of historical and contemporary Africa, a record no less significant than a written text, a documentary film, or oral histories. The subtitle of the book, Prophets of the City and Dustyfoot Philosophers, refers to the role of emcees in local cityscapes, their roles as prophets and philosophers narrating their local urban spaces. Prophets of the City is also an homage to the pioneering South African hip-hop group Prophets of da City, while Dustyfoot Philosophers is an homage to the landmark album The Dusty Foot Philosopher by Somali rapper K’naan.
In understanding both historical and contemporary Africa, one can look to its music. The concept of cultural representations in cultural studies asserts that to understand any society or culture one “must understand the practices that surround the production and consumption of its music” (Ingram 2010, 106). While the focus of this research is primarily the music, music is not the only form of cultural representation. Written text, song, poetry, film, television, fine art—all are cultural representations. The concept of cultural representation is found within cultural studies and was advanced by scholars such as Stuart Hall. According to Hall (2013), there are the “reflective, the intentional and the constructionist approaches to (cultural) representation.” Cultural representations may reflect what is going on in society, they may be an expression of the creator’s intentions, or they may construct meaning for the audience consuming the representations. This research takes a more constructionist approach, looking at how hip-hop, as a cultural representation, constructs certain narratives for its audiences.
This research focuses on the importance of cultural representations (hip-hop) in constructing understandings of political institutions, social change, gender, migration, and identity in Africa. Most of what we know about the world is through “mediation,” or representations, whether it be a newscast, a textbook, or a film. These representations can come in the form of a blog, a website, Twitter, a Facebook post, or a YouTube video. When we take in these representations by watching, listening, reading, and experiencing; reality is being shaped (Ingram 2010; Barker 2012). Cultural representations, in this case hiphop, shape how the consumers of those representations view society and what realities they adopt.
When news directors at the BBC, CNN, or Al Jazeera reduce the day’s events to thirty- or sixty-minute segments, they shape how viewers interpret the world (Barker 2012). Truth and reality are not neutral but constructed. As a form of cultural representation, hip-hop is no different. The artists themselves decide what is relevant and what realities they want to construct. Whatever is produced—be it music, a graffiti tag, a graphic design on a T-shirt, or a film—the cultural production encompasses the ideologies and backgrounds of the artist(s). Participants and observers of African hip-hop facilitate the process of creating reality by defining what information is important and interpreting it based on their own social, cultural, and ideological perspectives. The street language used in hip-hop, for example, may cause some to dismiss the music as troublesome, and disrespectful, while others may be drawn to the music because they feel connected to the words being spoken.
For the purpose of this research, African hip-hop will include hiphop music performed by individuals born in Africa, and who identify as African, regardless of where they live. The definition will also include those who are recent African migrants as a result of migrations of African communities outside Africa, especially in the West, in the past fifty years. While there are African hip-hop artists all over the world, this research will focus primarily on hip-hop in Africa, as well as hip-hop produced by those who migrated from Africa to the United States, the birthplace of hip-hop culture.
While the concept of representation is often discussed by hiphop artists, it is also a core concept within cultural studies. According to Hall, “To say that two people belong to the same culture is to say that they interpret the world in roughly the same ways and can express themselves . . . in ways which will be understood by each other” (2013). Hip-hop music speaks, through the use of shared languages, to individuals within certain cultures. Hip-hop is a vehicle by which artists represent locations, experiences, and identities. It is also a vehicle through which African realities are shaped and told. Representation in hip-hop serves to validate, depict, and define a place, a people, and experiences.
This research contributes to defining African hip-hop and recognizes hip-hop culture in Africa as a form of cultural representation by urban youth on the continent and in the diaspora. African hip-hop culture is tied to both African cultures and global hip-hop cultures. Hip-hop uses the power of words and wordplay while simultaneously understanding and harnessing the power of representation.
The research is based on the premise that hip-hop is a musical form with African roots, roots that predate hip-hop’s contemporary origins in the South Bronx between 1970 and 1973 (Chang and DJ Kool Herc 2005; Kitwana 2002). Hip-hop is part of years of back-and-forth music flows between Africa and the African diaspora. African hiphop has also been influenced by the continent’s own musical history. Hip-hop artists all over Africa have used local, continental, and diasporic elements in their music.
The research will examine representations within this varied and complex culture, on a continent with multiple hip-hop communities. Some hip-hop communities are larger than others. Most began in the capital cities but have spread to smaller towns and villages. There are also a growing