Modern Media and Culture in Senegal
Speaking Truth to Power
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2729287 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marame Gueye (0009-0001-7523-3330, East Carolina University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 27-43 |
| Publication date | 2011-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Studies Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-0206 • E-ISSN: 1555-2462 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1353/arw.2011.0052 |
| OpenAlex | W2048751327 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 2 |
In a You Tube video, a young man performs a satirical poem about Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade. The author brilliantly sums up Wade's tenure in one minute. He compares the president to "a rat's hole" and makes fun of his physical features while emphasizing many ways in which Wade has failed the nation. Some viewers thought the performance was disrespectful of the president, and others feared for the author's safety. This article argues that although the World Wide Web gives voice to African youth, it can be a dangerous space, especially for artists. The viewers' negative comments and their concern for the author's life is a modern response to his art and a consequence of its presentation on the Internet. If viewed through the lenses of traditional Wolof oral forms, however, the poem's harsh rhetoric takes on less controversial meanings that the viewers did not seem to understand
Aesthetics · Art · Linguistics · Literature · Media studies · Poetry · Political science · Power (physics · Presentation (obstetrics · Rhetoric · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · The Internet · African history and culture studies · Computer Science · History · Law · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.23 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2023 (11) |
| Highly cited | No |