In November 2014, the Afrikan Hiphop Caravan – an annual project organized by various African Hiphop collectives – will take place for the second time. This year, the Caravan will explore, celebrate and discuss Hiphop, street art and urban youth culture in Cape Town, Harare, Arusha and Nairobi.
Next to a Hiphop Concert, a Hiphop Conference will be organized in each city. These Conferences offer a unique platform to scholars, artists and community activists to come together and debate the current state of African Hiphop, its impact on youth culture, as well as its relevance to socio-political processes and community development. Thus, we welcome submissions by academics, cultural and/or community activists, as well as Spoken Word and Hiphop artists.
The main focus of the Hiphop Conferences is to debate the relevance and/or contribution of Hiphop to community struggles and the politics of building alternatives. However, we also welcome submissions that deal with other topic areas, including:
- Hiphop as a tool for political and/or economic emancipation
- The relation and interaction between Hiphop and other social movements
- The interaction between African Hiphop and the state
- Transcultural flows, or the interplay between the local and global in African Hiphop
- Feminist perspectives on African Hiphop
- The linguistic, literary and poetic contributions of Hiphop to African arts and culture
- The dichotomy between ‘Mainstream’ and ‘Underground’ Hiphop in Africa
- The influence of ideologies and religion, such as Rastafarianism, Christianity, PanAfricanism and Black Power, on African Hiphop Culture and/or lyrics
- The impact of Hiphop on urban youth culture and identity formation
Selected papers that are submitted and are presented at one (or more) of the Conferences will be collated into a book that will be published with the aim of instigating discussions and debates on the diverse manifestations of Hiphop in Africa.
Submission Guidelines
Submissions to present at one of the Conference and/or to be included in the selection process for publication in the Afrikan Hiphop Caravan anthology should include an abstract of the proposed paper (approx. 300-500 words), the author’s contact details, as well as a short biography (approx. 200 words).
Abstracts (including submission queries) should be sent as Word Document via email to, hiphopcaravan@riseup.net by 15 October 2014.
