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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:A generation of orphans: the socio-economic crisis in Côte d'Ivoire as seen through popular music
Author:Schumann, Anne
Year:2012
Periodical:Africa: Journal of the International African Institute (ISSN 0001-9720)
Volume:82
Issue:4
Pages:535-555
Language:English
Geographic term:Ivory Coast - Côte d'Ivoire
Subjects:popular music
urban youth
economic recession
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/23356104
Abstract:Côte d'Ivoire has travelled full circle from economic success (from 1960 to about 1979) to failure (from the 1980s onwards) in little more than a generation. In the early 1990s, zouglou, today Côte d'Ivoire's internationally best-known music, emerged at the student residences of the University of Abidjan in the Yopougon quarter. The young people who were to become the 'zouglou generation' were precisely the generation that bore the brunt of this economic deterioration. Zouglou was born at a time when, as a result of an unprecedented economic crisis and the attendant structural adjustment measures, university students experienced a general downgrading not only as students but also as future graduates hoping to find employment. In addition, the number of students and school pupils who were unable to complete their education grew considerably during this time. As this article demonstrates, these phenomena had a profound influence on the development of the philosophy associated with zouglou music. Accordingly, zouglou singers have called themselves the 'sacrificed generation'. Indeed, the many songs about orphans in zouglou music can be read as a symbolic statement about this experience: the sense that Ivoirian youth have been abandoned by their elders, their families and the political authorities is unmistakable in the words of zouglou songs consoling such (metaphorical) orphans. Zouglou music has become an important platform through which this generation has been able to express itself, as well as a site for oral street poetry and collective catharsis. The article discusses the content of these songs, as well as interviews with zouglou singers on this matter, to investigate how zouglou, as a cultural phenomenon, grew out of the experience of a generation. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]
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