Africa Is a Country

Y’En A Marre’s political hip-hop anthems

Y’En A Marre’s political hip-hop anthems

By
Tom Devriendt

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCuKAn-T0pk&w=600&h=347]

8 of 13 Senegalese opposition candidates trying to unseat Abdoulaye Wade in the upcoming presidential elections (including three former prime ministers under Wade, and no-longer-candidate Youssou N’Dour) gathered on Obelisk Square in Dakar last Sunday. The rally went peaceful, “crowds of color-coordinated supporters awaited while listening to political hip-hop anthems in Wolof.” On Tuesday, Wade “tried to divert attention from growing street protests calling for his resignation and prove that he still had grassroots support by leading an impromptu rally through the capital,” some hours after he summoned “the U.S. ambassador to Dakar” over the ambassador’s telling local journalists that “President Wade has compromised the elections and threatened the security of the country by insisting on running for a third term in the February 26 presidential election” — a move in which “a lobbying group in Atlanta” had a hand. The anthems on Obelisk Square included the sound of Y’En A Marre.

Further Reading

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The documentary film, ‘Rolé—Histórias dos Rolezinhos’ by Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Vladimir Seixas uses sharp commentary to expose social, political, and cultural inequalities within Brazilian society.

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A fundamental contest between two orders is taking place in Kenya. Will its progressives seize the moment to catalyze a vision for social, economic, and political change?

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