Protest music in Liberia: Battle hymns

GIRLS in tight skirts and bright tops hold bottles of beer as they weave their way down the sandy lane towards Bernard's Beach in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. A throng of young Liberians have gathered at one of the year's biggest parties and most revellers are celebrating the growing popularity of Hip Co, a musical movement in the long-troubled West African country.

The beach stage is propped up against a skeletal building, a memory of more than a decade of civil war. The performers face out to thousands of young Liberians swaying in front of crashing waves. The smooth Hip Co beats keep the crowd dancing wildly in the sticky heat left by the orange sun as it sets.

Hip Co evolved in the 1980s and became a megaphone for voicing social and political concerns. A brutal 14-year civil war left around a quarter of a million people dead and an entire generation deprived of education and the ability to perpetuate their own culture (...)

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