Hip Hop Africa: New African Music in a Globalizing World

Preface

prEfacE ERiC CHARRy This book has its origins in a roundtable entitled “New Music, New Research: Youth, Western Africa, and the Outside World,” which was part of the 2003 African Studies Association annual meeting in Boston, whose theme was “Youthful Africa in the 21st Century.” The enthusiastic reception suggested that we expand our scope into the resulting book. Here thirteen authors carefully look at and listen to what young Africans are doing in the realm of music. They are an international group of scholars from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Germany, and the United States. Nine countries are examined: Senegal and Mali in the Muslim western sahel and savanna; Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria along the southern coast of West Africa; Kenya and Tanzania on the Swahili coast in the east; Malawi in the heart of central Africa; and South Africa, with the most significant multiracial and white minority communities and racially polarized past. The Mediterranean Arabtinged Muslim north is unfortunately missing here. The approaches herein are diverse, including focusing on single artists or pieces (Tang, Reed), broad overviews (Charry, Watkins, Collins, Seebode), a balance between the two approaches (Shipley, Fenn, Schulz, Shonekan, Kidula, Perullo), and intensive participatory ethnography (Polak). While the bulk of the contributions here cover hip hop and are responsible for the title of the book, the inclusion of reggae and ragga (Reed, Fenn, Seebode), gospel music (Kidula, Collins), and especially drumming (Polak) adds a unique comparative dimension. The variety of approaches and musics make for a rich story of how recent generations of Africans are making sense of the world around them. The countries covered in this book are in many ways representative of Africa, although , to be sure, they each have their own identities. The most populous country (Nigeria) and the country with the biggest economy (South Africa) in Africa are covered here. The countries with strong international reputations for hip hop are here (Senegal, Tanzania) as is Malawi, which has a minimal presence. Kenya, where politics and rap have been closely intertwined; Côte d’Ivoire, where a reggae song sent an artist into exile; Ghana, with its close ties to the United States and the UK; and Mali, where drumming traditions thrive in an urban environment, are all present. The following table shows some statistics that may be helpful in grasping the economic and demographic standing of these countries, both within Africa and x PREFACE also compared to the United States and France (I have added Algeria to represent North Africa). African nations have some of the youngest populations in the world, in part because of the short life expectancy. The third youngest median population in the world is represented here: Mali (the first two are Uganda and Niger). Four of the twelve countries with the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world are represented here (South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania); the other eight are neighboring countries. Access to the internet is extremely low in Africa, especially compared with the most prosperous nations of the world. As our sources come from a variety of media, readers may need to search through the bibliography, discography (including separate sections for Tanzania and Malawi ), and videography to find a particular citation. Online articles and radio interviews and documentaries are placed in the bibliography. Indiana University Press’s website for the book contains links to supplemental sources. We would like to thank Indiana University Press editor Dee Mortensen for helping to bring this book to fruition, Magee McIlvaine for his photos on the front cover, and the artists for their permission to print their lyrics in this volume. All authors’ royalties earned from the sales of this book will be donated to a nongovernmental organization working to improve the lives of young Africans through music or dance (see the book website at www.iupress.indiana.edu/a/hiphop for details ). Population and other statistics of countries discussed in this volume Country Population in millions (2011) Median age (2011) GDP per capita (2010) % Christian % Muslim % Adult HIv/ AIDS rate (2009) Internet users in millions* (2009) Algeria 34.9 27.6 $7,400 99 0.1 4.7 Côte d’Ivoire 21.5 19.6 $1,800 32.8 38.6 3.4 .97 Ghana 24.7 21.4 $1,600 68.8 15.9 1.8 1.3 Kenya 41.0 18.9 $1,600 78 10 6.3 4.0 Malawi...