Smack Jay: ‘The best way to effect change is through music’

Zambian rapper and human rights activist Samuel Muyuba, known by his stage name Smack Jay, believes that a country’s music reveals a lot about its character and culture.

He is visiting Northern Ireland in partnership with the peacebuilding charity Beyond Skin and its Zambian partner organization OpenNet 40.

Smack Jay uses music to promote hope and advocate for social change, and has been collaborating with local artists in Belfast.

“If you want to change something, music is one of the best tools for advocacy,” he said.

On Fridays, he held workshops at Rathcoole Primary School in north Belfast, performing songs with powerful messages.

His lyrics highlight the fight by young people in Zambia for basic rights such as education and access to food and water.

However, the wider messages are not so far removed from some of the debates taking place in Northern Ireland society today.

Smack Jay asked a class of kids: “What’s your race?”

Pupils respond with different answers: British; Northern Irish; white

He challenges the latter.

“Am I black?” he asks.

“No, I’m the brown type.”

“Are you blond?”

“You’re more of a peach color,” he said, and the kids started checking their hands.

He tells them that identity is often “more personal” than the collective ideas that are known and understood.

The rapper also read from the Children’s Code – a landmark law passed by the Zambian Parliament in 2022. The government said that education has changed in the country.

This was the first time that children’s rights were formally codified in Zambia.

“You have the right to an education, the right to freedom of expression. You have the right to a name and a national identity,” the rapper read to the class.

The chorus of one of Smack Jay’s songs reads: “I know my rights.”

During a workshop at Rathcoole Primary, he got the children involved, encouraging them to stand up and join in rapping into the microphone.

He told BBC News NI: “We can only move forward if young people come up with even better ideas.

“If they come in with bad thoughts, they’re going to cut off the good people around them, so it’s really important that drug use and other things are dealt with seriously.”

In June, Smack Jay was the special guest. Refugee Picnic, an event hosted by Belfast City of Sanctuary.an outreach group for migrants and asylum seekers in Northern Ireland.

“I met fellow Africans from Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, Sudan and many other countries,” he said.

“The way these people have been welcomed in Northern Ireland shows how important it is to look after each other.

“I’ve developed relationships with rap artists in Northern Ireland and I find them very welcoming.

“If we try to advocate more on peaceful issues through music, we’re really going to get it right.”