Boko Haram or Y'en a Marre: Hip-Hop, West African Youth, and Social Justice

• In Event: Youth Identity Making and Transgressing Spaces

Abstract

This paper discusses the methodological considerations for examining the role of Hip-Hop, schooling, and civic engagement in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. I’m basing this research on the transnegritude implications of Hip-Hop culture (Touré, 2019; Appert, 2015 & 2016; Takayam, 2007; and Fielder, 1999) to consider what we mean by authenticity, realness, and transformation. Just as Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1986) pleads for us to decolonize our minds, so too did Afrika Bambaata (1977) and KRS ONE (1988) urge us to consider achieving consciousness through knowledge of self.

Author

• Noella Binda Niati, Humboldt University - Berlin