AEGIS ECAS 2007 - View abstract

Panel	20. Popular culture and politics - alternative channels of expression
Paper ID	526
Author(s)	Moulard-Kouka, Sophie
Paper	No paper submitted
Abstract	Over the last decades Senegal has been marked by deep changes in political behaviours. Between 1960 and 2000, the strong presidential regime of PS (L.S.Senghor and then Abdou Diouf) prevented protesters from freely expressing their dissent. In this context, young people were not granted much space for expression ; besides, public speech is traditionaly reserved for the older generations while younger ones are confined in the position of ‘social juniors’ (Bayart). But since the late eighties, in Dakar, we have witnessed the emergence and the spread of a new cultural and social urban movement: “hip hop”. This affects young people first and foremost, but also a broader audience in which all generations and social classes are represented. In a context of electoral claims and social protest (1988), the young massively ventured into a new kind of artistic expression, imported from the United States. At the beginning of the nineties, this music started being broadcast on the radio, the audience expanded and this affected the lower-class youth in the disadvantaged suburbs of Dakar. At that time, rap stopped being a simple fashion and became an actual way for these young, neglected people to express their feelings, frustrations and claims. They rap in “Wolof”, and compose committed lyrics against state authorities, French neo-colonialism. Offering an alternative to students, trade unions and the opposition parties, it allows the young to express themselves, according to a pattern different from politics, in which they have lost all confidence. During the last presidential elections, rappers played an important role in mobilizing young people to register on electoral rolls and to vote in March 2000. They encouraged them to vote against the PS (Socialist Party), in favour of the opposition candidate, the leader of the “Sopi coalition”, Abdoulaye Wade, who became the President of Senegal. They insisted on saying it was only a vote of protest, free of any political involvement. Their role is not only political, it is also social and cultural: they try to set minds from the white and western domination. They call this effort “conscientisation”; it encourages the education, without discrimination on the basis of sex or social classes. They also want to rehabilitate work values and therefore to increase self initiative. Rappers have occupied an original place in the framing of collective action since they are at the same time “within the society”, but thanks to a rather good education and a wide media coverage, they are able to proclaim themselves as spokespeople for Senegalese young people. They can also address messages to the State, which is compelled to take them into account because of their audience in greater Dakar and surrounding regions. And for the moment, most of the State’s repeated attempts to coax rappers have ended up in failure. (For this study, I have stayed for 14 months in Dakar, living within hip hop community").

The emergence of a new expression in Dakar : Rap between a social movement and a popular culture.