Neva Again

Reviewed by: Neva Again: Hip Hop Art, Activism, and Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa ed. by Adam Haupt et al. Mueni wa Muiu Haupt, Adam, Quentin Williams, H. Samy Amin, and Emile Jansen, eds. Neva Again: Hip Hop Art, Activism, and Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council, 2019. The editors of this book, the first to be published on hip hop in post-apartheid South Africa, have brought together diverse personalities in the hip hop world to make sense of its impact on education, politics, social justice, and gender. They tackle issues from #feesmustfall to opening up Stellenbosch University for all South Africans. Hip hop aesthetics are political because it "privileges black cultural priorities where whiteness insists on hearing only 'black noise" (11). With this in mind, the editors have brought together activists, scholars, and artists to debate what it means to decolonize the academy and the arts. The authors challenge Eurocentric approaches to knowledge production, distribution, and learning. A critical question raised in this volume is why research journals based in the Global North are held in higher esteem than those based in the Global South (Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Latin America). The volume seeks to answer the following questions: What is the origin of hip hop in South Africa? What methods does hip hop use to convey its message? How do hip hop artists rethink the use of language and education as well as the relationships among art, class, gender, and sexuality? How do these artists address the intersection between art and politics? Hip hop art challenges communities to critically examine the conditions facing them through break-dance, dance, graffiti, music, poetry, lyricism, and turntablism. Artists must represent their experiences as well as the communities they come from authentically by composing art based on these experiences. In the context of hip hop art, members of the community are not spectators to their own lived experiences. No one speaks for these communities, because they alone know the conditions and solutions to the issues that they face. These communities are politically and socially engaged. They also have agency in how they are represented as they empower themselves through reading critical texts. Hip hop challenges oppression in all its forms as it uses the motto "reach one, teach one." In the introduction, the editors trace the development of hip hop from the mid-1980s, with its strong influences from the United States, to the 1990s, when South African hip hop developed its own identity. It focuses on artists from the suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. These artists enrich the volume by sharing their lived experience, which directly influences their activism and art. [End Page 408] The volume is divided into four parts. In part 1, "Bring That Beat Back: Sampling Early Narratives," which is mostly based on the editors' interviews with artists such as DJ Ready D, DJ Eazy, DJ Azuhi, Burni Aman, Shameema William, Emile Yx, Nali Abrahams, and Shaheen Arifdien, the reader is introduced to the early narratives and history of hip hop in South Africa. Hip hop artists adapted to local culture while teaching about such influential ideologies as Black Consciousness, Black Nationalism, the Nation of Islam, and Zulu nationalism. Hip hop art brought together all the groups marginalized as a result of colonialism under the common umbrella of "Black." Some of these groups had developed their art in spite of the restrictions of censorship even in post-apartheid South Africa. The reader is introduced to groups like Prophets of da city, Black Noise, and Godessa, who used "knowledge of self" to create powerful art that challenged oppression as well as the economic conditions and violence facing these communities. Bush Radio helped spread hip hop art when no other channels were available. These groups had to break down the stereotypes that framed hip hop art as "gangster" art. In part 2, "Awêh(ness): Hip Hop Language Activism and Pedagogy," the reader learns about the relationship between language and activism in the context of hip hop. Children who are taught in the language that they speak at home are more confident and aware of their place

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