Performing Political Memory as Hip Hop Knowledge in Mozambican Rap

The Performing Political Memory project will examine public memory in Mozambique, focusing on hip hop's performance of historical knowledge in three cities.

The project will build on my previous research on the ""counter- remembering"" of Maputo rappers by widening my regional scope and paying attention to non-textual aspects of memory as intertextualities audible in sampling.

Hip hop’s performed histories challenge the dominant narrations of the liberation memory, which political elites reproduce to justify their political and economic power.

In my analysis, I use the theoretical tools of postcolonial theory, community-engaged ethnographic research as well as musical analysis.

My research cuts across the rarely associated fields of global hip hop studies and political memory studies in southern Africa.

The original concept, which bridges these two fields, is the ‘political ancestor’, which I developed in my PhD to understand Maputo rappers’ counter-narratives.

Political ancestors are historical figures with a new political significance after their death who are often mobilised in contemporary struggles, including struggles about historical truth that inform present realities that shape how people envision alternative futures.

In Maputo, I was able to follow performances by rappers from other provinces that differed in perceptions of the past both from the official and popular memory in Maputo (especially vis-à-vis heroism and dissidence).

This observation sparked my interest in undertaking this research project wherein I examine different ways how rappers and producers shape public memory through performed histories in Maputo, Beira and Chimoio. My research takes place in collaboration with ERC-funded CIPHER global Hip Hop research center led by prof.

Griffith Rollefson and comprised of world-leading academic, artistic, and community networks.

Fellowship will greatly expand my career prospects while CIPHER will be enhanced with my expertise on Mozambican hip hop in its relation to southern African political histories.