TransHipHop and Epistemic Disobedience in Senegal

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: The Globalization of Hip-Hop Praxis (Table 8)

Abstract

This study situates transnégritude (Touré, forthcoming; Niati, 2020) within discussions that consider the ways in which young people in Senegal, with a shared transcolonial narrative, bound through an “imagined community,” (Anderson, 1983) negotiate their space, their identities, and their ways of knowing through a Hip-Hop pedagogy. My analysis is informed by Mignolo’s (2003; 2009) epistemic disobedience and the geo- and body-politics that challenge neo-colonial epistemologies. The global scope of Hip-Hop culture and its manifestation in West Africa nuances the ways in which young people view education and its impact on their social identity. This paper intends to contribute to qualitative inquiries on the connections between Hip-Hop, identity formation, and the “fluidity and location of engagement” in Hip-Hop culture (Hill, 2009).

Author

• Noella Binda Niati, Humboldt University - Berlin