The "Lost Generation": African Hip Hop movements and the protest of the young (male) urban

In: Civil society. Local and regional responses to global challenges., S. 89-127

Abstract

"Hip Hop movements based on Rap music are spread all over the globe and are also very popular in Africa south of the Sahara. Their contribution to the political change of power in Senegal (2000) as well as in Kenya (2002) is uncontested and well documented. This contribution is going to discuss Hip Hop movements in Africa based on the analysis of Hip Hop lyrics and written documents. It views the Hip Hop movements as parts of African civil societies. While at the beginning the Hip Hop movements were dominated by the children of the urban petty bourgeois in the environment of universities and secondary schools, the social base has extended to the urban lower classes, thus conserving the urban bias (as well as its gender bias). The Hip Hop movements are protest movements of young urban (male) Africans. Although Hip Hop movements are less instrumentalized by the neopatrimonial state than many NGOs, they are threatened as well, as they also depend on economic resources and as one can hardly survive on music in Africa. Especially in French speaking countries, the French Cultural Centers representing the dominant culture, offer foreign assistance. Likewise sometimes other development agencies involve Rap music to raise awareness for their topics. African Rap music is also under pressure to fit into the folkloristic 'world music' scene if the artists want to sell their music abroad; the local market is not sustainable due to low income and piracy. Critical content is restricted in many mass media run by the state, although there is a growing number of private media offering more open platforms. At the moment, the Hip Hop movements are powerful in raising protest, but generally limit themselves to this critical corrective function. Although the stand for different values and norms, they do not present a counter-concept to the neopatrimonial state and are unlikely to become the bases of an alternative society." (author's abstract).