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Can Hip-co spark a youth-led revolution in Liberia? | september, 2011
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t's 6:30 in the morning on a Saturday in Gbarnga, Bong County Liberia, and I awake to someone frantically calling my name. I jump up and scramble out of my room to see James, my Liberian bunk-mate, sitting next to a radio with a huge smile on his face. Crunk hip-hop beat rattles the speakers, and over it a voice raps in a language I can't decipher. In disbelief he turns and says, 'Boima! This is Kpelle Rap… and it's good!'
Crowd at the Youth Crime Watch Anti-Gun Rally in the Red Light Market in Paynesville, Monrovia.
In Liberia, music has tremendous social and political power. In a country with high rates of illiteracy, it is a central mode of communication and the main component of countless communal activities. It has potential as a powerful tool in its ability to connect with the numerous disaffected and marginalised youth in the country. On the other hand, it has also been used as a rallying tool for the campaigns of corrupt politicians and warring factions. Even now, as Liberians enjoy a relative peace and some form of elective government, the music industry is deeply involved in the politics of the nation. For the disgruntled youth of Liberia, Hip-co - Hip-Hop in Liberian 'Colloquial English'- has served as a voice for their dissatisfaction with the nation's leaders and wealthy elite, and has arguably inaugurated the beginnings of a cultural revolution..
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