New book on Malawian hip-hop

Prof. Ken Lipenga, from the Department of English, recently published a book entitled Rap Music and the Youth in Malawi: Reppin’ the Flames. The book studies the language and content of contemporary Malawian hip hop as a window onto the country’s youth culture as Malawian young people negotiate the condition, common among the youth, of lacking opportunities to advance from a situation of dependence and being stuck in a state of relative childhood. The book argues that rap music made by Malawian youth music speaks of – and represents, through its very agency – their need to break out of this stagnant state.

After situating Malawian hip hop with respect to both other musical genres in the country and to the nation’s language in culture, Lipenga shows how Malawian youth use rap music to create a sense of community, which then becomes a foothold from which they can engage and activities that transfer them out of waithood and into the adult world, such as getting involved in the music industry, realizing electoral power, or participating in activism about issues such as violence against people with albinism and the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Lipenga, the bulk of the book was written during his sabbatical, during which he was resident as a visiting scholar at Wesleyan University. Among other aims, the book is intended to encourage further research in to Malawian rap music, which does not receive much academic attention. “I have read a lot about rap music from other African countries, but very little about Malawi. My writing therefore emanated from my love of the genre, as well as the desire to add visibility to the music, beyond the country’s borders”.

The book has been published by Palgrave Macmillan. Apart from the publisher’s website, the book can also be ordered from major online bookstores such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It is available in hardcover and e-book formats.