2023-09-05 11:04:44
by Samuele Finetti
After the July coup on television and on social media there was a peak in ratings for music videos praising the military. A phenomenon that concerns new hits and old hits
Once upon a time it was the griots, the guardian singers of the tradition of the ancestors, who praised authority. Today it is the boys who record songs with their mobile phones, with the same instrument they shoot the images for video clips and then share them on YouTube or on TikTok. Their idols are the military, highly respected in a country like Niger which has experienced five coups d’état in fifty years.
The last one, on July 26th. While a group of generals announced the deposition of President Mohamed Bazoum, state television Tl Sahel broadcast music videos praising the coup plotters. Since then, tells the New York Times
, old and new songs in support of the army are very listened to, especially on the Chinese social network. To demonstrate how the admiration for uniforms is quite widespread in civil society, writes the US newspaper.
For example, while the streets of the capital Niamey were invaded by supporters of the generals, two barely thirty-year-old brothers, Souleymane and Zabeirou Bark, took the opportunity to film the demonstrations and edit the images as a video of their new song. The title: Niger Guide, or rather Niger, my homeland. The eloquent text: Anyone who tries to attack us will pay the consequences, demonstrating how a feeling of hostility towards the Ecowas countries is widespread among the youngest, the block that has threatened armed intervention to restore order.
And again: We are not afraid of death, come and kill us, sing the two, who are part of the rap group MDM. Words that Tl Sahel aired more than once along with old hits. Among these, says the Times, the video of Sodja (Soldati, ed), filmed in 2009 by Hamsou Garba. On the screen scroll men and women in camouflage praising the soldiers: It is the soldiers who rule the nation. It is the soldiers who guarantee the security of the homeland.
Music and lyrics that enjoy great success among the ranks of the army, one of the target audiences of these artists. So much so that military bases are a fixed stop for their concerts.
Yet, this revival of music that in fact propaganda in favor of the uniform is not surprising. Of this, at least, Abdourahmane Oumarou is convinced. A former parliamentarian, Oumarou is now the owner of the most popular music TV channel in Niger and explains to the Times that after every coup it is normal for pro-army songs to gain popularity. Now, continues the publisher, we are witnessing a generational change: hip-hop groups, such as MDM, are increasingly popular, launching musical appeals to their compatriots to defend the country’s independence. Maybe they can’t eat, but these young people watch TikTok, read the news (those filtered by the junta, ed). And with their mobile phone cameras they shoot music videos which they then share on YouTube.
Notes and words that also form the background for the night patrols self-organized by the boys, who roam the streets checking the license plates of cars in search of foreign infiltrators.
The old glories, however, endure. The most famous of the singers of the armed forces, former sergeant Mamane Maigochi, boasted to the Times that he had published more than 60 military songs in the last decade: Soldiers are powerful, they defeat those who attack us and fix the nation. A few days ago, Maigochi performed in front of thousands of people in the largest stadium in the country, in Niamey. But he did not want to reveal how much it was paid, nor if the military junta ever financed it.
In short, the paradox is that artists celebrate a group of putschists who are imposing strict censorship and limiting freedom of expression. But censorship was also with President Bazoum – says Aichatou Ali Soumaila, another singer who returned to the limelight with a song from 2016 – as soon as democracy stops working, people’s thoughts turn to the military.
But a turnaround is always around the corner. Souleymane Bark did not mince words to say that if the generals do not respect the will of the people, the MDMs will start targeting them in their video clips. After all, this too is an old story, as Soumaila warns in a few words to the Times: griots could bring down kings. We can do the same.
September 5, 2023 (change September 5, 2023 | 11:12 am)
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