the Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival. My brother, Becaye Dial, for hooking me up with folks in Dakar. Mamadou Sambe and the Sambe family for welcoming me into your home. Dr. Seth Markle from Trinity College for providing a space for me to meet with artists coming to the Trinity Festival. Prof. Shani Omari from the University of Dar es Salaam for our many discussions about hip-hop in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar. Kwame Opoku (aka Quame Jr), for introducing me to most of the artists I linked with in Ghana. Sarah Hager from Amnesty International USA for helping with me with Angola links. Burni Aman and Shaheen Ariefdien for all the links in South Africa. Mejah Mbuya for being my historian on graffiti in Tanzania. Tacitus Nana Yabani for introducing me to the Pidgin Music crew and taking me around Accra. Buddha Blaze for helping put the pieces together on hip-hop in Kenya. The comrades in the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party for helping me with accommodations in Ghana. Babaluku and the Bavubuka Foundation for inviting me to Kampala and allowing me to build with Ugandan and Congolese artists. The many artists that were gracious enough to not only allow an interview but responded to my requests for clarification or translation.
To the crew, who supported this project from day one: Dr. Adryan Wallace of the University of Hartford, one of the smartest and funniest people I know, thank you for allowing me to bounce my crazy theories off you. Dr. Mjiba Frehiwot at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon, and the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party: Mjiba, you are the ultimate activist-academic and you have helped me understand Kwame Nkrumah better than any book. Mamertha Kente, my sister for life, your support allowed me to do my research and not break my bank.
The JCSU family: you guys always held me down. Tamitha Lewis and Hafid McIntyre, your questions about the status of the book kept me on track more than you realized. Nicole Holmes, there’s no one else I’d rather go into battle with.
The illustrious women of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.: so many of my sorors in academia have 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.
1
“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
