Democracy in Dakar

<span style="font-style: normal"><img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/democracyindakar.jpg" alt=" " />The musicians in <i>Democracy in Dakar</i> do tell a lot of good stories, but the fight for democracy isn't really one of them.<span> ...
6.1 Nomadic Wax
2010 

Democracy in Dakar

Democracy in Dakar claims to deliver "the story of Senegal’s fight for free and fair democracy as told by the country’s young Hip Hop musicians."  The musicians do tell a lot of good stories, but the fight for democracy isn’t really one of them. 

The documentary tends to alternate between excerpts of MCs rapping, either to the camera or to a studio mic, interviews with MCs and producers, and shoddy screens of text over a green background image that describe historical events.  So the facts of the story, Senegal’s suspect 2007 election, are told less by interesting MCs than by written titles that are not always proofread.  Despite this shaky skeleton, the surrounding meat has depth and character.

For example, several MCs explain early on that they learned hip-hop from famous American artists, and the line they walk between imitation and creativity is an interesting one.  Their enthusiasm and sincerity mitigates their mimicking of Western icons, although many songs sound like tributes.  They break away, however, when it comes to objectifying women and so forth; many of them are Muslims, and they object to such lyrics on religious grounds.

Democracy in Dakar trailer:

The rhymes are usually delivered in Wolof, so subtitles appear.  One could say that something is lost in the translation, especially when you read that an MC said, "My kids will be well educated, my marriage will be exemplary."

Better yet, "The International Tribunal Court, it makes me laugh."

Best of all, "And not only that, transportation is becoming impossible."

The music is easily the best part of the film.  There’s some good footage of a radio show and the streets right after the election, but it’s really about the music.  A good newspaper article, perhaps one of the many that the on-screen text quotes, would give you a better account of the political story than the film does in 69 minutes

The attempt to tell a musical and a political story may be responsible for some of the film’s rough edges, too: there’s an over-reliance on fades, and the handheld camera that shoots all the music doesn’t square well with the superimposed lecture notes.

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