When he raps, "Went from the bushveld to the harsh pavement," he is speaking to how civilization brought with it a lot of suffering, as many Africans find themselves in the fringes of the system, both physically and systemically. The continent is in huge debt, and so are most individual middle and working class Africans.
RIP 🙏🏿 - 21st century Blacks century Blacks)īut what hits home is how he dispels the concept of freedom in a system where we have to depend on money to even have a place we call home. How to write about Africa ~ How to rap about Africa. "Tender" is cleverly placed just before the MC mentions "meat" and "lamb." In the last quoted lines, the MC talks about how our leaders are our new oppressors-the word "hippo" is a play on the safari concept, but it also refers to the wars that are still ongoing in some parts of the continent. He raps: "This is Africa, and here the currencies favour/ The hippos that it made, tell me what you have to trade/ You wanna build a pipeline, you have to wash some hands/ Hyenas manage tenders, eat meat by the gram/ Eat meat like the lamb/ NGOs don't stand a chance"Īnd then later, "Ain't shit changed, we got this independence of ours/ Cuz the zookeeper simply extended the bars/ We're still caged, debt unpaid, more aid/ Home sweet home mortgage/ Got two more days till the last payment." On "How To Rap About Africa," Mark talks about the ills faced by modern Africans, from corrupt politicians, who he refers to as "hyenas," to the taxing effects of capitalism. The imagery deployed by Mark and Ali paints a grim picture, the point is that Africa is a seriously complex continent, and shit can get real for you if you don't watch yourself.
The most obvious is on the hook, performed by Okin he chants most of the stereotypes Binyavanga brought up in his essay: "Black, genocide, famine, apartheid, kaffir, safari, Buddha, slavery, Namibia, civil war, Congo, primordial, poverty, gorillas, malaria, AIDS," as a group of protesters join in between every word. It's the MCs' choice of words that references How To Write About Africa.
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