Popular Culture and Decolonisation: Themes, Tropes and Trajectories in Nigerian Hip Hop

ABSTRACT

Contemporarily, the drive for decolonisation following the virulence of the colonial experience on postcolonial societies has gained currency. This has been in the face of pervasive, hegemonic Global North structures that have de-centred non-Western epistemologies. This article engages Nigerian hip hop as a cultural product that has consciously or unconsciously been wielded as a tool for the contestation of (post)colonial subjugation and authorities. I ask if Nigerian hip hop artistes can be remarked as decolonisation activists. To what extent do their creative energies contribute to the discourses on decolonisation? To provide answers, the study interrogates the diverse ways through which Nigerian hip hop has successfully navigated its dispersal and resultant commercialisation, subliminally aiding the decolonisation advocacies. The study employs an eclectic mix of representative data, ranging from music lyrics, videos, existing interviews of hip hop artists and aficionados and news reports. More specifically, lyrics from twelve tracks and four music videos are discussed, while observations are asserted or rebutted with statements from interviews and news reports. Decolonisation through lyrics and visuality, and ramifications of spatial decolonisation were identified. The study further asserts that despite the manifestations of decolonisation in Nigerian hip hop, relics of colonial tropes manifest for instance in the need for validation and external acceptance through international awards. Critical takeaways are that cultural productions are not immune to the suffusing influences of politics. In addition, decolonisation should not imply the erasure of hitherto existing hegemonies; rather, cultural ecologies become enriched when previously suppressed products and epistemologies are enabled to thrive.

KEYWORDS:

• decolonisation
• Nigerian hip hop
• cultural epistemology
• globalisation
• authenticity

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest was declared by the author.

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented at the Africa-Europe: Reciprocal Perspectives Conference held at the Albert Ludwig University Freiburg im Breisgau, June 2022. I appreciate the comments and feedback of the conference participants at the panel and those of the anonymous reviewers to this journal.

Notes

1 A Ghana-must-go is a bag used for carrying heavy loads and speaks to the historic 1983 event when undocumented migrants, mostly Ghanaians, had to leave Nigeria.

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Notes on contributors

Paul Ayodele Onanuga

Dr Paul Ayodele Onanuga is a senior lecturer in the English and literary studies department at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. His research interests are linguistic practices in new media studies, queerness on digital media, Nigerian hip hop studies, and computer mediated communication/discourse analysis. His work has been widely published.