Women’s Empowerment, Agency and Self-Determination in Afrobeats Music Videos: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Stemming from a broader PhD project, this article argues that neoliberal post-feminist cultural sensibilities–entrenched in contemporary popular culture–about empowered, agentic and self-determining women, are regressive for the feminist advancement of gender-relational equality in the African context. To arrive at this conclusion, the central aim was to elucidate whether the gender-performative representations prioritised in the multimodal discourses of Afrobeats music videos are implicated in post-feminist sensibilities and if so, in what ways and to what effect? Given the continent’s richly diverse, yet largely heteropatriarchal, sociocultural formations, I argue that ideas about empowered, agentic and self-determining (black) African women are–based on the limited purview offered through the multimodal discourses of a small corpus of Afrobeats music videos–no more than sociocultural façades as opposed to gender-relational realities in our context. The article relied on a multimodal critical discourse analysis of a total of nine music videos drawn from the PhD project’s larger corpus of 25 Afrobeats music videos, their accompanying song lyrics, as well as a selection of YouTube viewer comments extracted from the analysed music videos. In critically exploring the gender-relational depictions prioritised in the analysed music videos, I argue for the consideration of what I am coining “misogyrom”; a gender-relational cultural sensibility which, in tandem with a post-feminist sensibility partly undergirding the multimodal discourses of these music videos, effectively veil this popular musical genre’s evidently sexist and misogynistic undertones that subvert potentialities of empowered, agentic and self-determining black African women.

Portrayal of Female Agency in the Mary Karooro Okurut Novel, The Official Wife

“…I, therefore, agree with (Rens SE, 2021) who argues that in present culture, our society is overwhelmed with a number of readings and orations which actively place women as empowered, agents, and decisive. Indeed, Liz's action serves as the best example.…”

“…That it means a woman's belief in herself and awareness of her rights and her ability to affect her life by having power to make choices and to control acquired resources. Rens SE (2021) argues that women should be free to celebrate and more so choose whatever they want without question according to (Gill, 2007, Gill, 2008Dosekun, 2015).…”

The Dignity of Women in Marriage: Comparative Study of Indonesian and Malaysian Folk Tales

“…Princess Peri rejected Sultan Mansor Shah's proposal indirectly. So, women facing marital problems have shown their courage to make decisions and can control themselves (Rens, 2021).…”

Women in Rap Songs: A Difference between Male and Female Voices

“…are also growing challenges concerning power, identity, and agency (Bretthauer et al, 2008;Rens, 2021;Hmouri, 2021). With the significant role of music in human development and growth (Welch et al, 2020), it is equally significant that investigations on feminism be continuously conducted to address women's continuing encounters and position in the contemporary period.…”