AFRC122 - Popular Culture and Youth in Africa

All across the continent, Africa is alive with the energies of young people, expressed in music, art, fashion, drama, video, poetry, protest, and urban legends. In this course, we take a close look at the wide variety of popular forms produced and consumed by young people in a diversity of contexts, urban and rural, elite and marginal, mainstream and transgressive. We will examine how popular culture draws from African tradition to craft innovative versions of modernity and futurity. We will explore themes of democracy, inequality, and social justice threaded through popular genres as well as experiences of joy, anger, fear, and hilarity. We will see how popular culture provides escape and entertainment for young people while also working to transform African societies.