#GAReads | 'Rap does not shut up': hip-hop women of Senegal

Mina La Voilée is a female rapper from Parcelles, Dakar, who is breaking taboos by rapping about women's rights. As a woman who chooses to wear a veil, she explains how criticism from industry professionals who told her "the veil and hip hop don't flow together" drove her to succeed, and inspired her to tackle other controversial societal issues in her lyrics such as child marriage, rape and infanticide.

“'Rap does not shut up': hip-hop women of Senegal“:

It is almost dusk outside, but in this windowless room there is no indication of time as Gaye gets dressed for a concert starting at 9pm. Her veil in position, the 27-year-old old is transformed into Mina la voilée (Mina the veiled one), her stage name as a rapper in Dakar, Senegal.

“When I sing, I am someone else,” she says. “I don’t feel anything anymore. I’m unwound. It’s like I’m another person when I’m on stage.”

When she first began rapping as a veiled Muslim woman, Mina endured a backlash on social media. Knowing that she was not alone was what helped her endure it.

Mina is a member of Genji Hip Hop – a collective of about 70 female Senegalese rappers, singers, DJs and graffiti artists. Starting life as a WhatsApp group in 2017, it has since blossomed into a civil society organisation that puts on concerts, holds workshops for women and speaks up about women’s issues in the west African country.

Read Ricci Shryock’s full article at The Guardian here…