Sociolinguistics and Language Education.pdf

Nationalism, Identity and Popular Culture 71
local and global resources. As she points out, for example, the development
of new ‘street Swahili’ terms such as “bomba” (‘awesome’; originally
from Portuguese bomba, ‘pump’) is likely affected by the African–American
term common in hip-hop circles da bomb (the best). Similarly in the Nigerian
context, Omoniyi (2009) discusses the various discursive strategies that
Nigerian hip-hop artists use to construct local identities within the global
hip-hop movement. Codeswitching (which, Omoniyi argues, needs to
include not just language but modes of dressing, walking and other patterns
of social behavior), in particular, marks forms of local Nigerian identity,
with artists using mixes of Yoruba, English, Pidgin and Igbo. In Weird
MC’s ‘Ijoya’ (Yoruba: Time to dance), for example, we fi nd in one stanza
English juxtaposed with Yoruba: ‘We own the dance/Awa la ni ijo [Yoruba:
we own the dance]/Ah trust us, we OWN dis dance/-Awa la ni ijo [Yoruba:
we own the dance]’; and Pidgin with both Yoruba and Igbo: ‘Na we getam
[Pidgin: We own it]/Awa la ni gini [Yoruba/Igbo: We own what?]/Awa la
ni ijo ijo [Yoruba: we own the dance]’ (Omoniyi, 2009: 130; Omoniyi’s
language identifi cations and translations in brackets).
Linguistic and cultural fl ows can also intersect with domains such as
religion. Looking at rap by British and French musicians of Islamic background,
for example, Swedenburg (2001: 76) argues for ‘the importance of
paying close attention to popular cultural manifestations of “Islam” in
Europe’. British band Fun-Da-Mental’s engagement with Islam is ‘central
to its multipronged intervention: Islam instills religioethnic pride among
Asian youth, serves as an image of antiracist mobilization, creates links
between Asians and Afro-Caribbeans, and shocks and educates white leftists
and alternative youth’ (Swedenburg, 2001: 62). Similarly, Swedenburg
argues that the French group IAM’s Islamic engagement is part of their
‘effort to widen the space of tolerance for Arabo-Islamic culture in France,
through its lyrical subject matter, its deployment of Arabic words and
expressions, and its musical mixes, splattered with Middle Eastern
rhythms and samples of Arabic songs’ (2001: 71).
In a rather different context, Malay rappers Too Phat saw both a spiritual
and commercial opportunity in developing rap with lyrics from the
Koran in Arabic. ‘Alhamdulillah’ (from the CD 360°), as producer Pietro
Felix (interview 12/12/03) explains, was originally conceived as ‘an R&B
“thankyou, praise Allah” kind of thing’, which, they felt, ‘sounded very
Arabic, it sounded very Malay, more prayer, religious kind of sound’ so
they got Yasin, an Arabic singer, to do the lyrics. The song is largely a critique
of materialist values with thanks to Allah for the gifts they have
received – ‘I thank Allah for blessing me to be creative/So here’s a diss for
me for bein’ unappreciative/Wanted a perfect life, yeah smile then die
old/Fame, money, women, phat cribos and white gold/’ – and a warning
for not saying ‘alhamdulillah’. As Felix Pietro goes on, ‘suddenly we
thought “this is great marketing”. A lot of Malay kids will love this, plus