Music at war: reggae musicians as political actors in the Ivoirian crisis

Abstract

Reggae music has come to be regarded as a quintessential protest music, both within Africa and globally. In Côte d'Ivoire, leading political figures have, since Houphouët-Boigny, tried to co-opt reggae music for political support. However, reggae musicians have, both in their songs and public statements, been fiercely critical of the Ivoirian political elite which they have depicted as driving the country to economic ruin, ethnic polarization and to civil war. This paper argues that categories such as protest music may be ill suited to fully capture the dynamics of reggae music and the musicians’ engagement with the Ivoirian political sphere. Reggae artists have found themselves on opposite ends of the political spectrum, each framing their discourse in an idiom of protest, but each also seen as lending support to one of the warring factions that have driven the increasing brutalization of the Ivoirian political sphere. However, artists’ agency was severely constrained through a lack of freedom of expression and through threats from both the party in power and the opposition. In this context, reggae artists have acted not just as public opinion leaders, but have themselves become political actors. Their direct political engagement impacted on their local and international careers, as they became ever more caught up in a web of power struggles that was ultimately beyond their control.