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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 226

Part of Session 116: God in the City (Other abstracts in this session)

Islam, Hip-Hop, and Resistance: Tunisian Flows of Dissent in the Post ‘Arab Spring’

Authors: Ben Said, Selim
Submitted by: Ben Said, Selim (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

The recent urban uprisings, witnessed in several cities in North Africa and the Middle East, have brought to an international platform the plight of repressed and silenced voices and showed with vigor mostly through social media and international news broadcasts some examples of popular rebellion against oppressive regimes. As the country where sparks of the ‘Arab Spring’ first flared and extended in a crescendo throughout most of the rest of the Arab world, Tunisia has shown early signs of urban ‘underground’ resistance some of which was expressed through artistic and musical genres such as Hip-Hop. While Tunisian Hip-Hop is rife with subversive themes (i.e. sedition, defiance of the social/political status-quo, protests over the lack of free speech), recent hip-hop artists have started to use this musical genre as a pulpit for defending the country’s religious identity as well. In this sense, the negotiation of a religious identity within a background of sociopolitical instability is mediated and channeled through language and is a prime example of what Alim calls a ‘language ideological combat’ (2009). While the construction of a religious identity may seem to be a redundant enterprise in a country were Islam is the majority religion, this identity struggle expressed through language and music epitomizes broader ideological tensions which the country is experiencing being at the merger of two seemingly disparate cultures (Barber, 1995; Ritzer, 2011). The presentation will examine Hip-Hop lyrics from selected Tunisian artists in addition to perceptions/attitudes collected from local respondents in reaction to the artists’ songs. Hip-Hop has become a global movement and transgresses national and racial boundaries (Mitchell, 2001; Pennycook, 2007). Tunisian hip-hop therefore offers a tangible example of how ‘transcultural flows’ (Pennycook, 2007) move beyond particularistic cultural settings, are translocated/transported, re-appropriated, and ‘reused to fashion new identities’ (p. 8).This presentation therefore will explores how the language of Hip-Hop expresses a form of localized ‘militant’ religious resistance to hegemonic ideologies and official top-down discourses and will showcase how rap music is as a site of construction, mediation, and negotiation of local identity.