"We are the voices of the voiceless," says the rapper known as Ngoom Doom, half of Rawu Street, "For us that is hip-hop."
The
rappers — and their fans — have their roots in Futa Toora, a
once-fertile stretch of land along the Senegal River, some 150 miles
from Dakar and not far from the Sahara Desert. Since the 1980s, rainfall
has been steadily decreasing in this region. Many of the farmers along
the river moved to the capital in search of a better life. They settled
in sandy lots just outside the city, crowding into cement houses in
walled compounds with their extended families and their goats.
In
the neighborhood of Guediawaye, people cope with blackouts and flooding
from the poor drainage. The children of the migrants grew up seeing
their parents struggle and soon were struggling themselves. There aren't
enough jobs for the new generation.
Hip-hop gives the men a
way to express their frustrations. They spit their anger into
microphones and shout their lyrics into the sea of the audience.
"Same
cats, same dogs / same electoral promises / it's only two years and
we're already fed up." That's the lyrics to "Diogoufi," which means
"nothing has changed" in the local Wolof language. It's written by the
group Keur Gui — Wolof for "home."
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