Abstract
This paper presents a broad-reaching effort to interrogate enduring colonial legacies as experienced by Native American youth in the United States of America and Black Portuguese youth of Cape Verdean origin in Portugal. As part of its methodological approach, it uses hip-hop – a cultural movement composed of four elements including rap music – to examine how youth from specific communities access knowledge which is denied to them in schools, give revolutionary voice to their realities, and broadcast perspectives on race, place and belonging. When knowledge is negated in learning institutions, non-formal education created by youth is a powerful force in re-affirming tradition and transformation. Hip-hop becomes a medium to create alternative educational projects addressing the needs of youth in San Francisco, USA, and Lisbon, Portugal, where this research was conducted.
Résumé
Contester l’histoire et acquérir un « autre » savoir: étude sur le hip-hop et l’éducation non formelle pour jeunes Amérindiens de San Francisco et jeunes Portugais noirs de Lisbonne – Cet article décrit un vaste effort déployé pour remettre en question l’héritage colonial persistant que subissent les jeunes Amérindiens des États-Unis et les jeunes Portugais noirs originaires du Cap-Vert. Dans le cadre de l’approche méthodologique, l’étude exploite le hip-hop – mouvement culturel composé de quatre éléments dont la musique rap – pour examiner comment les jeunes issus de communautés spécifiques accèdent aux connaissances dont ils sont privés dans les écoles, pour donner un accent révolutionnaire à leurs réalités, et pour diffuser diverses perspectives sur la race, la place et l’appartenance. Quand un savoir est occulté dans les institutions éducatives, l’éducation non formelle générée par les jeunes est un moyen puissant de réaffirmer la tradition et la transformation. Le hip-hop devient un support permettant de créer des projets éducatifs alternatifs qui répondent aux besoins de la jeunesse de San Francisco aux États-Unis et de Lisbonne au Portugal où a été réalisée cette recherche.
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Notes
- 1.
In this paper, I use the terms “Indigenous,” “Native American,” “Native,” and “American Indian” in reference to First Peoples, singular communities in themselves. I also make reference to specific tribes/nations when applicable.
- 2.
For an overview of the issues commonly addressed in Comparative International Education, see Phillips and Schweisfurth (2014).
- 3.
Hip-hop is a culture and arts movement that was originally composed of four elements: graffiti, break-dancing, DJing (deeyajing) and rapping (emceeing/MCing). See Rose (1994). Many have debated the precise origins of hip-hop culture as it emerged from the African diaspora’s historical continuum, experiences and cultural expressions in North America and the Caribbean which collided in the Bronx, New York around the early 1970s (Hoch 2006).
- 4.
Postcolonial approaches involve various theoretical and conceptual tools developed by proponents of Literary and Cultural Studies starting in the 1960s and, more recently, came to inform the Social Sciences and Humanities. Whether or not we regard “post-colonial” as speaking of a time sequence embedded in Western history versus “postcolonial” which speaks of enduring colonial legacies (McClintock 1994), these discussions explored how colonial legacies circumscribed the world in which we live, influencing the way we think and the way we conduct our daily lives.
- 5.
I use “subalternised” as a derivative of ideas set forth by Subaltern Studies, a school of thought which leveraged an interrogation into the silences of the subaltern – the races/ethnicities, castes, genders and classes most oppressed by colonialism. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s (1993) essay “Can the subaltern speak?” was a provocative challenge to structures of knowledge and political, cultural and economic hierarchies which marginalised peoples and rendered their perspectives unintelligible. Spivak concluded that it is impossible to represent or speak for the subaltern from within modern structures of knowledge and power.
- 6.
Colonel Richard Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1879 and was its superintendent until 1904. During this era, the Federal government established boarding schools (and, later, day schools) to separate Native American children from their families and communities, and, essentially “kill off” Indigenous cultures.
- 7.
The Red Power Movement, also known as the American Indian Movement (AIM), campaigned to get the Federal Government of the United States to return land which was originally owned by Native American tribes and nations.
- 8.
Mestiçagem recreated the notion of Portuguese nationhood through the ideological discourses of Lusotropicalism, which was appropriated from the Brazilian context by the Estado Novo (New State or Second Republic) of António de Oliveira Salazar who governed Portugal from 1932 to 1968. It combined the “imagination of discoveries”, “colonisation and ethnogenesis of Brazil” and “colonialism in Africa” to promote the unique Portuguese ability to mix cultures. See Almeida (2004).
- 9.
Initiated by the armed forces as a military coup, the “Carnation Revolution” developed into popular civil resistance against dictatorship, and carnations were stuck into the muzzles of the rifles and the pockets of the soldiers’ uniforms – hence the name.
- 10.
Focusing on post-colonial migrations from Africa alone, these historical influxes can be generally summarised accordingly: Early 1960s migrations from Cape Verde were the result of a shortage of labour due to the colonial wars and consequent mass emigration from Portugal, as well as a period of draught. Additionally, the 1970s were marked by repatriation and an influx of “retornados” (“returnees”) from former colonies, the majority of whom were low-ranking administrators who had some connection to Portugal and Portuguese nationality. See Castelo (2005). The 1980s and 1990s saw increased immigration from former colonies due to Portugal’s entrance into the European Economic Community (which later became the European Union) and the consequent demand for civil construction, as Portugal sought to develop and catch up with other EU member states. See Góis (2008).
- 11.
Arenas of fighting for core civil rights included (and continue to include) political, legal and socio-economic statuses and nuances of education, social advancement, desegregation, repression and demands for reparations – all of which should speak to access and inclusion. Moreover, matters of the post-civil rights era navigated the ambiguous binaries of inclusion/exclusion from European or White settler American society.
- 12.
Pomo is a Native American tribe from Northern California which Ras is a member of. All Native American tribal affiliations of individuals included in this work are indicated.
- 13.
Tricia Rose’s discussion of hip-hop “wars” focuses on what is publicly downtrodden, to clarify the contradictions and complexities which hip-hop has come to represent since the mainstreaming or commercialisation of rap music. These “wars” intensified with the emergence of hardcore gangster (gangsta) rap in the late 1980s and continued to build throughout the 1990s, amidst corporate profiteering from stereotypical representations and narratives of “black ghetto life” perpetuated by “myths of black cultural dysfunctions […]” (Rose 2008, pp. 69–70).
- 14.
Indigenous identity is subject to many definitions: from blood quantum (“race”) to not only being tied to a people and a place, but also to acquiring cultural/traditional knowledge derived from these circumstantial correlations. The blood quantum standard – or the administration of Indian identity – has created enduring divisions between “pure” or full-bloods and “mixed-bloods”. The criterion of the blood quantum was based on the assumption that Native peoples would eventually become both culturally and etho-genetically “diluted” and merge into mainstream American society. For a discussion on how the combination of land dispossession, citizenship and exclusive tribal-blood policy (or the blood quantum standard) guaranteed a gradual tribal disappearance, please refer to Forbes (2000).
- 15.
Algarve, Minho and Alentejo are regions of Portugal.
- 16.
In many ways this is not dissimilar to colonist-Indigenous relationships found in American history; overseas territories in Africa were considered civilizational voids inhabited only by black, savage and primitive tribal peoples. The myth of traditional society, for instance, was ideologically constructed to justify Portugal’s colonial policies in Africa, where education upheld the distinction between exploitable “Indigenous” non-citizens and “assimilated” African and Portuguese citizens. See Mazula (1995).
- 17.
In addition to schooling (discussed above), the Relocation and Termination policy of the 1950s and 1960s represents yet another state-sanctioned measure to “detribalise”, “de-Indianise”, and assimilate First Peoples. See Fixico (1986).
- 18.
Powwows originated from the peoples of the plains. In contemporary times, they have become a form of intertribal social gathering (if not pan-Indian popular culture) which includes dancing, drum music, and the selling of goods. While powwows are not traditional to many of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area tribal youths’ origins, learning to dance and putting a dance outfit together developed into a relatively free space of interaction.
- 19.
The Portuguese Colonial War, which was part of the process of decolonising Africa and the Cold War, lasted from February 1961 to April 1974. Portuguese military forces tried to quell emerging nationalist movements in Angola, Portuguese Guinea and Mozambique. The Carnation Revolution in Portugal (see footnote 9) brought about a change in Portuguese government as well as putting an end to the Colonial War. Among the outcomes of the war were independence of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé e Principe in 1975.
- 20.
I am referring to Plataforma Gueto (Ghetto Platform), an organisation and a Social Black Movement based in the Greater Lisbon Metropolitan Area. For more information in English, see https://urbanrise.net/2013/01/08/plataforma-gueto/ [accessed 15 September 2016]. For information in Portuguese and access to their own publications, see http://plataformagueto.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/plataforma-gueto/ [accessed 9 June 2012].
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Tom, M.N. Contesting history and pursuing “other” knowledge: A study of hip-hop and non-formal education among Native American youth in San Francisco and black Portuguese youth in Lisbon. Int Rev Educ 62, 711–731 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-016-9598-x
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Keywords
- postcolonialism
- non-formal education
- hip-hop studies
- youth studies
- race/ethnicity, diversity