{"id":26812,"date":"2018-12-24T23:22:20","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T23:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=26812"},"modified":"2018-12-24T23:22:20","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T23:22:20","slug":"on-the-streets-of-dr-congos-goma-rap-gives-youth-a-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=26812","title":{"rendered":"On the streets of DR Congo’s Goma, rap gives youth a voice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Goma, DRC –\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>A young voice sings, “What’s up in Congo Kabila? Why so much crime, violence, corruption and killings?”<\/p>\n

The lyrics are from the latest album<\/a> by Shusha Ma Flow, a hip-hop collective made up of teenagers living on the streets of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).<\/p>\n

“Here in Goma life is dangerous. We live in a war zone,” says 16-year-old Asili Power (nicknamed “Black Magic Power”).<\/p>\n

Hundreds of children live on the streets here. Most have fled the armed conflict between the government and more than 120 armed groups in the area. Despite the presence<\/a> of more than 16,000 UN peacekeepers in the region, the conflicts rage on.<\/p>\n

Elections were scheduled for December 23 but were postponed by a week. Officials cited a fire that destroyed voting machines, but opposition groups accused authorities of trying to keep President Joseph Kabila<\/a>, who is due to step down after ruling the country for nearly 18 years, in power.<\/p>\n

Goma’s street children find shelter in the city’s many slums, which have been dubbed “al-Qaeda” or “FBI”. Here they face many dangers, including drug abuse, forced recruitment into armed groups and rape.<\/p>\n

The young rappers of Shusha Ma Flow want to change the status quo.<\/p>\n

“People in Congo are suffering, but Africa is able,” says 19-year-old Ivoire Papati Dance.<\/p>\n

Music activist Wanny S-King<\/a> works with PASO<\/a>, a social change association based in Marseille, to teach Goma’s street teenagers to channel their anger and fear into art.<\/p>\n

“The state puts them in prison, instead of caring for these kids,” Wanny says.<\/p>\n

Wanny knows the streets. After his political protest song Wale Wale began to hit the bars of the city, Kabila’s administration began to actively hunt him.<\/p>\n

Wanny is sceptical about the presidential elections: “You might replace the president, but the corrupt system does not change.”<\/p>\n

Yet, the rappers of Shusha Ma Flow believe in the power of their beats: “Hip-hop transports me into paradise, rap slams the sound of all my troubles.”<\/p>\n

SONGS:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/association-paso\/sets\/shusha-ma-flow-maisha-mu-barabara\/s-nUpaS<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?reload=9&v=pyRfeHkcZBA<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Goma, DRC –\u00a0A young voice sings, “What’s up in Congo Kabila? Why so much crime, violence, corruption and killings?” The lyrics are from the latest album by Shusha Ma Flow, a hip-hop collective made up of teenagers living on the streets of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu in the east of the Democratic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}