Notes on: Niati, NB & Shah PP (2022)
Transhiphop pedagogy and epistemic disobedience in
Senegal. International Journal of Research and
Method in Education. 45 (3): 271 – 283 DOI:
10.1080/1743727X.2022.2052722
Dave Harris
This is a study of 'transnégritude' among Senegal
youth which shows apparently a trans-colonial
narrative 'bound through an imagined community'
negotiated through a hip-hop pedagogy'. Mignolo's
epistemic disobedience [see separate file] informs
the study. Hip-hop is a global culture
Transnégritude apparently bridges black identity,
agency and deconstructionism and allows fluid
navigation. Informal education helps work towards
social transformation as a response to
imperialism. The idea is to challenge formal
schooling and interrogate youth identity.
There is a civic movement organisation in Senegal
[or at least in Dakar] formed by 'rappers
journalists and students called 'Y'en a Marre (fed
Up)'' [YEM]. They do critical consciousness,
culturally relevant pedagogy and cultural
modelling and develop projects and slogans to
challenge hegemonic practices and develop a new
identity that is 'authentically Senegalese'. They
are the ones who utilise a hip-hop pedagogy to
keep it real. The researchers use transnégritude
to consider this understanding.
Hip-hop can create epistemic assessments of lived
realities and promote new ownership of geo and
body politics of knowledge production as a
challenge to traditional schooling, helping people
to transform education outside the traditional
course YEM has lent a sense of urgency.
The imagined community occupied by young people
share an aesthetic, language and identity and
sound and a philosophy guided by black nationalism
and street consciousness. They see hip-hop as a
kind of music that promotes social justice and
provides an outlet for marginal youth to share
their stories. Blackness and negritude involve the
recognition that one is black and one has a
history and culture that can challenge Euro
traditions and develop authentically African
epistemologies. The negritude movement developed
in France in the 20s and 30s, involving émigrés
from Senegal, Martinique and Guiana. They were
responding to colonial tendencies to offer the
power of erasure and consequent psychic
disorientation, the arrested development of the
African world, and racial othering. Negritude was
then a literary and philosophical movement to
reimagine African alternatives [much of this in
the form of quotes]
The original French arguments have been
generalised to include notions of visibility
ownership and shared struggle and links to more
general notions of trans-colonial reality, an
apparent shared experience of colonial oppression
in all European colonies, although there are
variations, producing 'a dialectical understanding
of transformation, communally and individually'
(272). Transnegritude apparently applies to the
diaspora as well, discussing how it might be
possible to be both black and French. Here, the
notion of the imagined community seems to be
important – 'a mental and emotional affinity among
blacks that transcends nationality, language and
economic circumstances'.
YEM promotes this transcultural pan- Africanism
focusing on transformation and ownership,
developing fitness and training, education through
urban culture involving young people, urging
members to heal themselves, advocating a form of
schooling as personal transformation including
'verbal artistry and commentary on life
circumstances' (273). Hip-hop 'speaks to' similar
de-linking and expressive actions, including a
black nationalist identity, a healing power, and
ability to give voice to the disregarded and
ignored sources of pain that black people
negotiate. It also personifies an imagined
community, where young urban blacks use mass
culture 'to facilitate communal discourse'
[subverted by commerce as an audience].
It can be developed as a pedagogy by developing
its creative elements: '"rapping, DJing, MCing,
breaking, graffiti and the philosophies of
consciousness and social justice, and...
Connecting with students on their cultural
turf...their realities and experiences"'
[Old hat, done by trendy vicars since the 1950s in
youth clubs]. Hip-hop pedagogy is culturally
responsive, based on prairie and others critical
pedagogy and uses cultural modelling methods.
Together this puts culture a social context
learning styles and experiences of students in the
centre of the curriculum. Schools are learning
have to be reconsidered to include any learning
community and anyone who is engaged purposefully
in learning. Thus hip-hop engages in
transformative education and liberatory knowledge
production [no one wants to do vocational
education]. The usual classroom is structured and
mechanised and must become creative. Young people
must be considered as an asset. If we do this in
Africa we are decolonising. Dominant narratives
must be resisted. Epistemic disobedience has to be
encouraged. YEM has these gripping new slogans
like calling for a new type of Senegalese person.
Young people just are 'pushing for
self-determination and transformation' and
figuring out a new role on the global stage. They
are taking full advantage of new social media and
new democratic forms and are choosing to speak up
and becoming more vocal; they are determined to
claim their rights they are demonstrating
epistemic disobedience as in Mignolo. This is seen
by talking to members of YEM, who can be
understood in terms of Mignolo,, and who were
specifically engaging in transformational
education which 'echoes what young people are
doing all over the African continent, resisting
hegemonic practices and promoting local cultural
expressions while making sense of their world'
(275). This is seen by another study on Kenyan
hip-hop rappers which shows how they engage in
trilingualism and transculturalsim, or a study in
South Africa are informed by Freire, again drawing
on hip-hop, showing similar delinking of local
identities.
[A personal story follows]. Niati was a refugee
from the Congo to the US and met hip-hop as a
teenager and was impressed. It helped her gain
independence from her religious parents. She saw
it as expressing the reality of her life. It is
not just a passing fad but a critical cultural
movement and thus a pedagogical tool.
Data was gathered over 23 months using a
comparative case study approach (CCS), based in
Senegal. Data collection went through 'rich
connections' through UNESCO and other official
research centres [not sure why -- YEM have a
Facebook page] (276) [no further details of
sampling?]. CCS apparently allows comparison
across spaces, across scales and across time, and
particularly focuses on the interconnections
across dispersed locations. [see separate notes on
Bartlett and Vavrus]
[ I can't see much connection at all]
Six members of YEM were interviewed, five men and
one woman, 30 – 40 years old [not youth then --
but age is an artificial construct they say].
Semistructured interviews. Three times. Questions
focused on the transversal [B&V categories] —
'the macro and micro structures influencing the
organisations, the comparative policies that
inform their activism, and the historical ties
that marry hip-hop, engagement, and schooling'
(276). They also focused on counter stories
designed to challenge majoritarian narratives,
drawing on established traditions of storytelling.
Members stories were used to develop theoretical
sensitivity and give meaning to the data.
The findings insist that 'young people play a
crucial role in the politics of history and of
hegemonic struggles' especially directed at
subjectification and social power dynamics. They
are not defining young people particularly
rigidly, but again in terms of an imagined and
gendered category much like an imagined community,
a social category. Hip-hop seems to provide 'a
discursive space' to cultivate and reinforce
identity, especially for 'those who feel "lost" or
marginalised'(277) and a way to participate.
[There is a link to being able to take action
against oppression just as with Freirian education
— limited, later in that hip-hop just creates the
initial pedagogical space and challenge]. Hip-hop
concerts apparently encouraged 'discourses of
awareness citizenship and political engagement',
not just by doing hip-hop but by being hip-hop.
Two extracts follow: one person says he has always
been keen on hip-hop and sees it as a generational
matter, closely connected to his desire to raise
awareness. The researchers add that hip-hop
obviously relates to the lived experiences of his
surroundings, and led him somehow naturally to
help found YEM. They emphasise delinking again and
see hip-hop as the 'antidote' to politics [rather
naïve] (278). Hip-hop 'encourages action towards
self-determination'– speech about self-awareness
and pan- African unity [again mostly through
delinking, challenges to corruption, creating
spaces for authentic expression, developing urban
culture and ethnic identity, creating new types of
Senegalese]. The researchers talk about
organic intellectuals, developing new levels of
imagination and agency, social consciousness,
challenging Euro centrism, achieving critical
consciousness as with Freire [although there is
also a lot of should about this]
YEM also used street knowledge to be authentic via
community projects designed to improve local
environments. Hip-hop was used to disseminate
these messages as were social media. 'Hip-hop can
provide counter narratives that promote
authenticity and self-determination' (279).
Another extract apparently indicates this: this
one talks about developing a new type of
Senegalese, more self-reliant and honest, not
relying on God to change things, more interested
in ownership pride and leadership. YEM sees this
as an African development [it's the old black
pride shtick]. The new type of African is
spreading among the young, the most powerful
demographic. A critical hip-hop pedagogy may be
the answer building on transnégritude and
epistemic disobedience.
The conclusion seems to refer to the way in which
YEM has used hip-hop as 'an ideology that centres
social transformation and ownership' (280) via an
imagined community and concepts like
transnégritude. At least this shows that African
youth are not easily duped, that they can develop
a sense of shared struggle to resist and unify,
that they can reconsider their lived experiences
and develop a more authentic expression and
promote social transformation. This social
determination must be encouraged together with
'optimism, leadership and entrepreneurship' (281)
[Old hat, the latest in many studies about how
popular music empowers sections of youth
especially black youths, going back to gospel,
soul, jazz, maracatu. Naïve about the way in which
these tendencies tend to be reincorporated and
commercialised. Methodologically highly dubious
--youth themselves not interviewed. Policies
also not investigated – leadership and
entrepreneurship to be encouraged. Imagined
communities. I have a longer critical commentary
on my Researchgate piece]
ADDITIONAL NOTES
How promising are hip-hop lyrics for emancipatory
youth movements. I looked at a very small sample,
based on Rolling Stone's Top 100 most popular):
The Message (#1)
You'll grow in the
ghetto, livin' second rate
And your eyes will sing a
song of deep hate
The place, that you play and
where you stay
Looks like one great big
alley way
You'll admire all the number
book takers
Thugs, pimps and pushers and
the big money makers
Driving big cars, spendin'
twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be
just like them
Smugglers, scramblers,
burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers and
even pan-handlers
You say I'm cool, I'm no
fool
But then you wind up
dropping out of high school
Rapper's Delight (#2)
I said-a hip, hop,
the hippie, the hippie
To the hip hip hop-a you
don't stop the rock
It to the bang-bang boogie,
say up jump the boogie
To the rhythm of the boogie,
the beat
Now what you hear is not a
test: I'm rappin' to the beat
And me, the groove, and my
friends are gonna try to move your feet
...
He may be able to
fly all through the night
But can he rock a party 'til
the early light?
He can't satisfy you with
his little worm
But I can bust you out with
my super sperm!"
A recent (May 2022) hip hop hit DN5
Take
off the Chanel
Take off the Dolce
Take off the Birkin bag (take it off)
Take all that designer bullshit off
And what do you have? (bitch)
Huh, huh, uh, you ugly as fuck
[ie an ironic comment on
consumerism as irrelevant to
beauty, but little
more than a platitute?]
Notes on: Tinson, C. & Carlos REC McBride
(2013) Radical Teacher Special Issue.
97. DOI: 10.5195/rt.2013.43
The review points out controversies for any
intending teacher – hip-hop offers a closed
universe, it is commercialised, it has
contradictions [like all youth cubcultures and
styles]. It has radical potential because it is
grounded in lifestyles, but is still limited. It
has been successfully linked to black protest
movements over recent murders and demands for
justice [in the USA?]. That is centred on a
central figure, Assata Shakur, the Black
Liberation Army and also connections via Tupac
Shakur, wanted by FBI. Whole movement of activism
vocalises dissent but it ‘may be at odds with a
music and asethetic climate that is indifferent if
not hostile’ (3). Many who use hip hop are
conventionally political – so there is a struggle
about its role. A social protest dimenston is
undoubtedly galvanised by globalisation and
urbanization, police brutality etc, but there are
contradictions – espepcially links with mainstream
profit-driven entertaintainment (3). Mostly,
it is mediated via mas media although some local
media involvement exists – but this is ‘far from
achieving a critical mass’. There are some small
offerings by HEIs, but little community
participation [still all in the USA?].
There are problems over who should and can teach
hip hop – practioners or philosophers? (4). Should
it be combined with teaching of
inequalities? Especially racial ones? If so,
maybe it should be taught by blacks? Whiteness to
be criticised? Or does hip hop transcend
race as is often claimed –many enthusiasts not
black. Studios etc are usually white. There is an
‘easy inclusivity’, but blacks have most at stake
especially the African diasporic [in US then].
Anyone teaching it must also show expertise with
the form and cullture, historical influences
including religious and political.
Transdiciplinary approaches seem best, focussing
on articulations rather than methodology (5).
It is a growing topic on university curricula and
this has helped expansion into mainstream – but
may be a safe alternative to attract black
students rather than black or ethnic
studies, which are declining in
popularity. One of the biggest courses is at
NY Met – it supports and professionalises
practitioners [NB] practioners , and attempts to
influence pedagogy and social policy. Another at
Cornell is focused on ‘historical artefacts’ and
accessibility, art and culture. Arizona
offers shared African and music options. All these
could be a 'form of legitimiation', however, and
‘should not go unquestioned’ (5)
Scholars still feel vulnerable though [!], with
only a marginal presence, still, dependent on
individual interests. Will the subject ever be as
transformative as say ethnic studies? How does hip
hop studies relate? -- it is likely to be less
widely challenging than black studies.However,
black studies is now less engaging for ‘many stus’
(6). Hip hop might even help uproot the critical
legacy of black and ethnic studies.
Some local projects have done well eg a literacy
project in Washington run by a local MC working
with school failures, analysing hip hop songs for
their grammar and syntax, and aligning the results
with national reading standards [good luck with
the examples above!], and helping to develop voice
and critique. Another by critical feminist writers
is described (6–7). One inspiring high school
teacher (7) uses hip hop in teaching about prison,
gang violence, and in gaining personal testimony.
Overall, lots of challenges remain and must be
responded to flexibly. Efforts must resist
institutionalization. Hip hop admittedly downplays
sexuality and gender including queerness, but hip
hop studies offer promise to be the new lens.
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