The soundtrack to Burkina Faso's revolution

A burly man with a graying goatee and a mellow voice that turns staccato when he raps, Smockey, 44, has long operated at the intersection of art and politics. He filled his studio with posters of Malcolm X and Thomas Sankara, the beloved revolutionary leader who served as Burkina Faso’s president for four years before he was toppled in a bloody coup that brought Compaoré to power. Over the next 27 years, as Compaoré slowly refashioned himself as a reliable Western ally and regional peacemaker, Smockey emerged as a vocal critic. When he was honored at the 2010 Kora Awards for African musicians, in Ouagadougou, Smockey pointedly dedicated his award for best hip-hop artist to Sankara’s memory. Compaoré was in the audience.

Smockey founded Balai Citoyen alongside Sams’K Le Jah, a reggae artist who, like Smockey, had already established himself as a Compaoré opponent. In the song “Ce président là,” released in 2011, Sams’K Le Jah declared, “This president, he must go and he will go.” Young people, in particular, responded to the message, flocking to the artists’ concerts all over the country. “They both began this work a long time ago, singing and raising people’s consciousness,” said Clement Biouma, a martial arts instructor and music fan in Ouagadougou.

At first, Balai Citoyen adopted the ambitious, but rather vague, mission of “sweeping” away problems — namely corruption, impunity and a disregard for human rights. (The group’s logo was a clenched fist emerging from a forearm made of strands of a broom.) But by 2014, when Compaoré made clear his intention to stay in office despite a constitutional term limit, the group began to mobilize. It started a campaign called Hands Off My Constitution and, when the president scheduled a parliamentary vote to alter the constitution, called for mass demonstrations.

In the days before the vote, hundreds of thousands of people braved tear gas and live rounds to flood Ouagadougou’s streets. As the protests began, Smockey held a concert at which he rapped: “We shut down schools and take out signs and banners/Everywhere in the city there is excitement in the air.” A few days later, masses of people overwhelmed the security forces, ransacked the parliament building and prevented the vote from taking place. After Compaoré resigned, Smockey and Sams’K Le Jah appeared before adoring crowds alongside Lt. Col. Yacouba Isaac Zida, who would serve as prime minister during the political transition.

Five months later, in March 2015, Smockey released a three-disc album recounting his country’s revolution. On “Nécessaire Conscience,” written before the revolution, he scolds a population he views, at times, as complacent: “You are not a sheep.” On the final disc, he looks to the future, calling on regular people — “sentinels” — to ensure that the new government follows through on its plans to help everyone, not just the country’s elite.

Smockey and Sams’K Le Jah (real name: Karim Sama) won plaudits from their fellow pro-democracy activists as well as the international press. In an April 2015 profile that was typical of the coverage, Le Monde Diplomatique described their role in the uprising as “essential” and “decisive.” For some observers, that attention was justified. “They came with a different approach from the older generation,” said political analyst Siaka Coulibaly. “The older generation accepted more violations; they made more compromises. The youth were radical.”

But others say that assessment gives Balai Citoyen too much credit. “It’s because Burkinabé had resolved not to let Blaise Compaoré run that a movement like Balai Citoyen was effective, not because Balai Citoyen succeeded in awakening the masses, as we have heard many times,” said Lila Chouli, a scholar of social movements in Burkina Faso. She and other experts also point out that Burkina Faso has a rich history of civil protest, dating to 1966 demonstrations over state budget cuts that prompted the resignation of the country’s first president. And opposition leaders and human rights groups had been denouncing the Compaoré regime for years; protests grew increasingly fierce after the 1998 killing of journalist Norbert Zongo, allegedly by members of the presidential guard.

Smockey’s specific proposals have also stirred controversy. He advocated a large role for the military in the transitional government, saying it was necessary to stabilize the country. But Chrysogone Zougmoré, president of the Burkinabé Movement for Human and People’s Rights, says that call betrayed the spirit of the uprising and aided those who had helped Compaoré cling to power. (Smockey noted to Al Jazeera America that not long into the transition, Balai Citoyen recognized that some military leaders were not committed to “a real democracy,” and the group then called for the presidential guard’s dissolution.)