Description
Over the last year politically concious HipHop star Smockey has become the spokesman of the massive protest movement in Burkino Faso.
Together with his comrade, Reggae artist Sams K Le Jah, he started "Le Balai Citoyen", a movement comparable to "Y'en a marre - enough is enough" in Senegal.
The aim is to bring together artists, students and intellectuals to widely rise awareness and encourage political participation. "Le Balai Citoyen" translates into "the broom of the people". The useful tool signalized to the people of Burkina Faso that an ordinary person can participate in wiping away corruption, cronyism and the political clique of Blaise Compaoré. Their slogan was "Notre nombre est notre force" and the broom became their symbol. Every time Smockey spoke in public, he held up a broom in his hands. This is also a reference to the revolutionary Thomas Sankara, who organized weekly street-cleaning sessions in the 80s. He was murdered during the coup d'etat 1987 staged by Blaise Compaoré.
These days Sankara's wife has made the state exhumate his body to find out more about the murder in search of more evidence as to who killed him.
"Pre'volution - The president, ma moto et moi" brings together songs written by Smockey during and before the uprising in Burkina Faso. "On Passe À L'aLaque" tells you how to wake up and kickstart a revolution. "Dossier Zongo" talks about political crimes during the regime of Blaise Compaoré. The freedom of press and the murdering of journalist Norbert Zongo. During the riots the song became an anthem accompanying the protests. "On se développe" is dedicated to the revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara. He was a great supporter of the local textile industry and build factories and plants. Most of them were closed when Blaise Compoaré took over. Smockey wants to encourage young people to reactivate a healthy local industry, instead of staying dependent on foreign products from the US and China." "Operation Mana Mana" is an anthem of the movement "Le Balai Citoyen". It features many artists that are supporting the movement, as well as Smockey's companion Sams K le Jah.
The album also features artists like Zouglou singer Soum Bill from Côte d'Ivoire, Rapper Smarty. The last song 'combattants oublies' features the Amadou Balaké a